AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE:
Developing a Common Schema for Managing Plant-Pollinator Interaction Data

You are invited to participate in a global initiative to develop a common schema for managing plant-pollinator interaction data. The global community, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, has recognized the importance of pollinators to ecosystem health and sustainable agriculture. In order to better understand pollination and how to conserve and manage it, we need to capture more information about plant-pollinator interactions. People have been observing the process of pollination for centuries, but only now do we have new data management tools that may help to share and compile information on plant and pollinator interactions, so that overall trends can be better documented. However, we need a common schema for pollinator interaction data that allows us to share and compile data and use them to identify trends. The definition of that schema is the main objective of this global initiative in which we invite you to participate. If you have expertise in pollinators/pollination, your contribution is most important. We already have colleagues from many countries and continents that have joined and submitted their suggestions and comments, but you are an important player in this community and that is why we would like to have you involved in this initiative, which is supported by FAO, IABIN, and FAPESP.

If you would like to contribute/participate in this activity,
please download these documents and follow the instructions >>

Best regards,

Antonio Saraiva (e-mail: saraiva@usp.br), on behalf of:
Antonio Saraiva / University of Sao Paulo
Barbara Gemmill-Herren / FAO
Mike Ruggiero / Smithsonian Institution

Dr. Antonio Mauro Saraiva
Professor
University of São Paulo - School of Engineering
Computing and Digital Systems Engineering Dept.
Agricultural Automation Laboratory
Ph: +55-11-3091-5366 (Brazil)
Fax: +55-11-3091-5294 (Brazil)
Email: amsaraiv(at)usp.br
URL: http://www.laa.pcs.poli.usp.br
Personal URL: http://www.pcs.usp.br/~amsaraiv/

Fourth IABIN Pollinators Thematic Network (PTN) Request for Proposals (RfP) to digitize data on Pollinators and the Plants they Pollinate / Red Temática de Polinizadores de IABIN (PTN) SOLICITUD DE PROPUESTAS (RFP) para digitalizar los datos sobre los Polinizadores y las Plantas que Polinizan.

Proposal Submission IS CLOSED
Presentación de Propuestas está CERRADO
Download RFP / Descargar la Solicitud de Ofertas (MSWord)
English | Español

For questions, please contact Michael Ruggiero (ruggierm@si.edu).
Para cualquier pregunta, favor de contactar a Michael Ruggiero (ruggierm@si.edu).

The IABIN Catalog of Web Resources is ON-LINE!
The IABIN Catalog Search provides access to several thousand web resources in the areas of specimens, species, pollinators, ecosystems, protected areas, and invasive species in the Americas.

Basic features of the system include:

• Multi-lingual Search Interface (English, Spanish, Portugese)
• User customizable display and sorting options
• Categorization of search results by document type, geography, and IABIN Thematic Networks
• Multi-lingual on-line Help

DarwinCore Extensions for Pollinator Data Exchange
The IABIN Pollinators Thematic Network, (CoE, ITIS, NBII, USP and other partners) is working with CRIA, GBIF and FAO on development of three schemas for pollinator data exchange. Each schema is an extension to the DarwinCore schema. The schema projects are described on the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) wiki site. If you would like to participate in the development of these schemas or find out more about them, please visit their respective wiki sites.

The Interaction Extension Schema is being designed for data that describes interactions between organisms in a broad sense (it is not restricted to pollinators) ; the Pollination Extension Schema is an extension of the previous, but with a more specific focus on data that describes pollinator interactions; and the Environment Measurements Schema focuses on other data, such as field measurements, that can be important for describing pollinators in some cases.

Reference: Pablo Salvanha, Pedro Luiz Pizzigati Correa, Antonio Mauro Saraiva & Etienne Americo Cartolano Junior. An architecture to approach distributed biodiversity pollinators relational information into centralized portals based on biodiversity protocols.(PDF) Presented at BNCOD 2008 Workshop - Biodiversity Informatics: challenges in modelling and managing biodiversity knowledge, Cardiff University, UK, 10th July 2008.

2007 IABIN PTN Questionnaire - UPDATE
A summary of the results of the IABIN PTN questionnaire was included in the Final Report (PDF) from the Brazil Workshop released in May, 2007.

Questions? iabinptn@coevolution.org or Elizabeth Sellers (esellers@usgs.gov).

NBII Lends Support to the Birds and the Bees (and Other Pollinators)
(NBII Access Newsletter, Summer 2006). Excerpt: "At the international level, the NBII has joined a consortium of international organizations to coordinate development of the Pollinators Thematic Network (PTN) of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN). The Co-Principal Investigators on the IABIN PTN project are Ms. Laurie Adams (Executive Director of the Coevolution Institute), Dr. Antonio Mauro Saraiva (Coordinator of the Agricultural Automation Lab at the University of Sao Paulo Polytechnic School), and Dr. Michael Ruggiero (USGS-BIO)."