GBIF 3rd Ecological Niche Modeling Workshop

13th to 17th November, 2006

For a country like India, which is among the twelve biologically most diverse countries of the world, web-based technology applied to biodiversity is indispensable for rational decision-making. Beyond the use of biological species as source of food and medicines, society is interested in the conservation of nature.

GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) has been putting unprecedented effort to make available worldwide the primary biodiversity data held in collections in the developed world. Recently GBIF crossed the landmark of the hundred million records of species presences that can be accessed through its web site (www.gbif.org ). To make full use of such databases, GBIF is training users from all over the world, but mainly from developing countries.

The 3rd GIBI workshop on Ecological Niche modeling was conducted in Bangalore , during November 13-17, 2006 in collaboration with the Ecoinformatics group at Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (www.atree.org). 22 participants from various countries such as Africa, South East Asia, Europe, Asia, Australia and other parts of the world attended this workshop and share their experiences on this topic. 8 Faculties mostly from University of Kansas, American Museum of Natural History, CIMAT and ATREE were invited for delivering the lectures.

Starting from the concept of 'niche' and elaborating the concept of 'geographical niche' and 'ecological niche', later the participants were explicitly trained on using the tools for niche modeling and predicting distributions. Advanced software tools based on statistical algorithms were applied for prediction of the distributions of various plants and animal species, endemic species, invasive species, vectors of diseases, and species of conservation importance. Faculties also used online demonstration and presented the case-studies for selected topics. The aim of the workshop was to provide the tools, techniques and the knowledge on ecological niche modeling using various algorithms as well as demonstrating the ability of each of them.

The overall workshop was a good success as revealed from the participants' feedback as well as GBIF authorities.

For any further information, please refer to http://www.atree.org/gbif_enmw_2006.html

Landscape Ecology Module for the MSc Wildlife Biology Course

April 2005

The Eco-Informatics Centre is currently offering a course in landscape ecology to be taught as part of the new MSc programme in Wildlife Biology that was started by Wildlife Conservation Society -India Programme and partners (http://www.wcsindia.org/wnew.htm). This module is taught in two parts; introductory and advanced, each extending over a month. The introduction to Landscape Ecology also covers some basic Remote Sensing and GIS concepts as well as mapping and analytic tools that are relevant to landscape ecology and natural resource management. The advanced module in landscape ecology focuses on modeling and geostatistical tools that can be applied to landscape ecological research and requires the development and implementation of individual research projects.