Electronic "Noah's Ark"

Seriously alarmed by the prospect of the disappearance of most of the objects of their research, biologists are organizing a campaign to speed up the cataloging of plants and animals whose existence is threatened by the destruction of forests and other consequences of the development of human economic activity. A quantitative study of the frightening dynamics of this process is also beginning; computers will need to be widely used to process data when implementing such an action program.


The alarming signals of biologists have been heard. In October 1988, the U.S. Congress adopted a joint resolution calling on the President to intensify discussions on issues related to the conclusion of an international agreement on the protection of biological diversity. At the same time, the National Council for Science (the body that determines the strategy for using the funds of the National Science Foundation) established a special working group on this issue.


The Smithsonian Institution is considering the organization of a National Center for Biological Diversity. According to S. Shelter from the National Museum of Natural History, this scientific institution will have to study environmental processes and develop strategies for collecting samples of living objects in areas under threat. Although the center was originally conceived as a national organization, Shelter believes that it will later become international, and its tasks will include training local specialists for developing countries.


The reason for all this activity is the growing concern about the disappearance of tropical forests, which are the habitat for the majority of the species inhabiting our planet. Most of them have not yet been described, and meanwhile the estimates of the rate of forest destruction are becoming more and more gloomy. T. Lovejoy from the Smithsonian Institution reports that from 20 to 40 hectares of rainforest are being destroyed every minute. The figures obtained by Lovejoy based on the results of remote surveys are significantly higher than the estimates made several years ago.


Undescribed species are gradually dying out, and biologists are unable to process even existing museum collections. Shelter emphasizes that there are many systematic groups on the territory of the United States alone, for which there are no simplest definitions. The first projects to compile inventories of species diversity focused on mapping territories with varying degrees of threat and their dynamics, but these attempts, according to Shelter, failed mainly due to a lack of necessary information.


According to W. Harris of the National Science Foundation, there may not be enough taxonomists to accomplish this task. The number of such specialists graduating from universities is constantly decreasing, partly because students studying taxonomy are often lured away by molecular biology. There is a hope to somehow compensate for the lack of people by creating computer databases that can speed up the compilation and exchange of information. "Computerization is the only way to deal with all this," says P. Raven is from the Botanical Garden. Missouri.


Recently, a meeting of the Association of Systematic Collections was held in Washington to discuss computer support needs. According to J. Davis— one of the organizers of the meeting, currently computer cataloging covers less than 10% of the copies from the collections available in the United States, while the total number of copies increases annually by about 11 million, which is 5%. In addition, the number of requests for information is expected to increase. "We're just in a critical situation," Davis said. The Association expects that within the next 10 years it will be possible to obtain data on the main part of American collections through computers, but the cost of the necessary computer power has yet to be estimated. L’offre de bienvenue accessible via le code de promo 1xbet est disponible dans de très nombreux pays. Le site couvre l’Europe, l’Afrique, l’Asie et l’Amérique latine. Le montant du bonus est adapté à la devise locale. Peu importe votre origine, entrez le code promotionnel lors de l’inscription. Le système reconnaît automatiquement votre localisation et applique le bonus correspondant dans votre monnaie. C’est une offre réellement internationale qui s’adapte aux joueurs du monde entier sans discrimination.