SCIENTIFIC-DATA VISUALIZATION AND BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY - NEW TOOLS FOR SPATIALIZING MULTIMEDIA OBSERVATIONS OF SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEMS

Current knowledge of the biodiversity of protected ecosystems is often limited to museum collection specimen data, outdated or cursory inventories and anecdotal accounts. Beyond the inventory of biological diversity comes the need to monitor changes of many parameters and at many scales, and the need to incorporate this knowledge into an accessible information system for biodiversity management planning and conservation education. This paper briefly describes our continuing research efforts to develop new ways to collect, analyze, organize and distribute biodiversity data.