Table of Contents
Resources: Biology and Ecology
Resources on topics having to do with organic nature and ecosystems.
Global Species Databases
ARKive - The ultimate multimedia guide to the world's endangered species. Includes endangered species videos, photos, facts & education resources.“
FishBase - A large and extensively accessed biological database about fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. Over time it has “evolved into a dynamic and versatile ecological tool”, widely cited in scholarly publications. Comprehensive species data, including taxonomy, biometrics, behaviour, distribution, habitats and photos.
The-Birds.net - English language version of the French site Oiseaux.net, offering an overview of bird species worldwide. Very useful especially for listing the taxonomic names of the species in a multitude of languages. Also comes with audio recordings of the species.
Avibase - The World Bird Database - A long-running, multi-language bird species database.
Xeno-Canto.org - “Sharing bird sounds from around the world. xeno-canto is a website dedicated to sharing bird sounds from all over the world. Whether you are a research scientist, a birder, or simply curious about a sound that you heard out your kitchen window, we invite you to listen, download, and explore the bird sound recordings in the collection. But xeno-canto is more than just a collection of recordings. It is also a collaborative project. We invite you to share your own bird recordings, help identify mystery recordings, or share your expertise in the forums.”
Araneae.nmbe.ch - “Araneae, Spiders of Europe”. Database of European spiders.
Butterflies and Moths of North America - Database of North American butterflies.
JSTOR Plant Science - “Global Plants is the world’s largest database of digitized plant specimens and a locus for international scientific research and collaboration.”
Tropicos.org - “Tropicos® was originally created for internal research but has since been made available to the world’s scientific community. All of the nomenclatural, bibliographic, and specimen data accumulated in MBG’s electronic databases during the past 25 years are publicly available here. This system has over 1.2 million scientific names and 4.0 million specimen records.”
C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium - “The C. V. Starr Virtual Herbarium is the gateway to the digitized specimens of the William and Lynda Steere Herbarium. Currently, 2.5 million specimen records and 1.5 million images are available. Every month, about 20,000 new records and images are added.”
Botanic Garden Meise Virtual Herbarium
Virtual Herbarium of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin
University of Connecticut Virtual Herbarium
Botanary - The Botanical Dictionary.
The Meaning of Latin Plant Names
Biodiversity and conservation
Why is biodiversity in crisis ?
Redfern Natural History Productions - Official YouTube channel of the British nature documentary association, with many highly informative short documentaries on ecosystems around the world.