Integration of Biodiversity Database in Taiwan and Linkage to Global Databases

Kwang-Tsao Shao, Research Center for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Kwang-Tsao Shao 1, Ching-I Peng 1, Eric Yen 2, Kun-Chi Lai 1, Ming-Chih Wang 1, Jack Lin 1, Han Lee 1, Yang Alan 3, Shin-Yu Chen 3

1. Research Center for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
2. Computing Centre, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
3. Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan


The biodiversity databases in Taiwan were dispersed to various institutions and colleges with limited amount of data by 2001. Natural Resources and Ecology Database sponsored by Council of Agriculture was the only large biodiversity database in Taiwan but can not be freely accessed on the web. This database was mainly collecting the distribution data of terrestrial wildlife and plant. In 2001, Taiwan joined the GBIF as one of the Associate Participants and started the establishment and integration of animal and plant species databases. Catalog of Life in Taiwan and biodiversity experts' database were established in TaiBNET (http://taibnet.sinica.edu.tw) successfully in 2005. The information of Taiwanese native species, specimens, distribution and literatures were integrated by Darwin core. The metadata standards allowed the biodiversity information of Taiwan to connect with global databases.

Presently, more than 10 institutes and museums that collect the specimen data (animal and plant) and distribution information of Taiwan are integrated and can be queried via Union Catalog of National Digital Archives Program, TaiBIF (http://taibif.gov.tw), and other international nodes of GBIF. In the future, we will use the species name and GIS distribution as the primary key to integrate all databases in Taiwan as well as many global databases. 


Keywords: Biodiversity, Information Integrated, TaiBIF, TaiBNET