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2nd LifeWatch e-Infrastructure Construction Operational Meeting ICT CORE and distributed construction operations, Granada, Spain

The 2nd  LifeWatch e-Infrastructure meeting will take part on 3 - 4 February 2014 in Granada, Spain.

During the two days of the meeting " e-Infrastructure Construction Operational Meeting ICT CORE and distributed construction operations"  Eu BON will be presented by Christoph Häuser who will talk on "The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and The Group on Earth Observations / Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON): Synergies with LifeWatch". Hannu Saarenmaa will also chair the first Working Session: LifeWatch ICT requirements.

 





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FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Course 2014

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium) is part of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase programme, the RMCA has five grants available for a 3-month training programme in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes.

The training includes three subsets:

  1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
  2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes; and
  3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

The main focus of the training is on fish biodiversity data and their integration into FishBase, and on how to use and contribute data to FishBase. The context of these contributions may vary and can also include the knowledge on common names, fish ecology, fisheries statistics, aquaculture and many other areas of fish biology.

After the training, the participants should be able to make their own contribution to fish biology and continue to work on FishBase. They are encouraged to teach their newly apprehended skills to new/local users, to help in completing the database and keeping it up to date, and to spread the use of FishBase as a source of information and a fisheries tool.

This course has been offered annually since 2005 and is held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium).

To apply for traineeship and for more information, go to:
http://www.africamuseum.be/research/collaborations/training/group?set_language=en&cl=en

Please note that for 2014, this course will be given in French only.

 





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8th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group for Macroecology

Integrating mechanisms into macroecology 

8th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group for Macroecology of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (GfÖ)

Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Biology, Department Geobotany & Botanical Garden, Am Kirchtor 1, 06108 Halle (Saale), Germany

Linking processes and mechanistic approaches (e.g., from physiology, experimental ecology, demography, and evolution) with macroecological approaches, scales, and methods has long been discussed among macroecologists. Still, only few steps toward implementing such links have been taken, yet. With the 8th Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group for Macroecology of the GfÖ, we want to offer a forum for presenting and discussing both tested approaches and new ideas to make these links. Additionally, in order to move beyond discussion, we invite all participants to join the conference workshop on the 2nd day. Here, we plan to intensively discuss gaps in existing approaches and possible ways for bridging these gaps in several discussion groups and to take first steps towards publishing the summarized workshop results. 

http://www.macroecology.org/





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pro-iBiosphere Final Event in Meise (Brussels) - June 10-12, 2014

Agentschap Plententuin Meise (Botanic Garden Meise), Bouchout Castle – Meise (Brussels), Belgium

 

The pro-iBiosphere project supported by the European Commission (DG CONNECT) through its FP7 research funding programme has the pleasure to invite you to join its Final Event.

The project has the vision of implementing an Open Knowledge Biodiversity Management System (OBKMS), i.e. an integration platform that will allow to produce Biotas (i.e. Floras, Faunas, Mycotas and other revisionary taxonomic literature) of the future in a flexible semantically-driven online environment.

During its two year duration, pro-iBiosphere contributed to making fundamental biodiversity data digital, open and re-usable. The achievements of the project will be presented in a series of activities (Event Flyer) detailed below that will take place from Tuesday the 10th to Thursday the 12th of June 2014 at the Bouchout Castle (Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium).

 

Tuesday June 10 (PM)

Workshop on Model Evaluation

Wednesday June 11 (all day)

  • Poster session

Thursday June 12 (all day)

  • Networking Cocktail

 

For more information on the Final Event (agenda, logistics,…), visit the dedicated wiki page.

Registration is free of charge but compulsory due to room capacity constraints. You can register by filling out the online registration form at http://tiny.cc/pib-final-event.

In case you are interested in giving a presentation during the Final Event activities or in submitting a poster in the poster session, please contact us at final-event@pro-ibiosphere.eu

 





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Open Science Conference - Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER)

The Integrated Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) Project will convene an Open Science Conference from 23-27 June 2014 in Bergen, Norway, with the goals of:

  • highlighting research results from the IMBER project and activities,
  • promoting integrated syntheses of IMBER-relevant research, and
  • developing a new global research agenda for marine biogeochemistry and ecosystems in the Anthropocene.

The list of contributed sessions and workshops is available here.

The Call for Abstracts is open!  Deadline for abstract submission: 31 January 2014. Contributions are welcome from all marine research communities.





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Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) Course: Philosophy of Biological Systematics

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a course in Philosophy of Biological Systematics targeted at MSc students, PhD students, early career researchers,  professional systematists/taxonomists and anyone who is interested in the philosophy of Biological Systematics. The course has a duration of one week and will take place between 8-12 September 2014.

Deadline for registration: 16 June 2014, extended until Friday 20 June 2014. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/philosophy-biological-systematics

Approaching the subject from the perspective of the philosophical foundations of scientific inquiry, this course offers critical examinations of the principles required to judge the scientific merits of systematic/taxonomic procedures by way of the following topics:

• The goal of science
• The goal of biological systematics
• Causal relationships in systematics
• The nature of why-questions
• Three forms of reasoning: deduction, induction, abduction
• The uses of deduction, induction, and abduction in science
• Evidence and reasoning
• Fact, theory & hypothesis
• Theory & hypothesis testing
• Systematics involves abductive reasoning
• Inferences of systematics hypotheses, i.e. taxa
• Implications for ‘phylogenetic’ methods
• Causal explanations, not ‘trees’ or cladograms
• Parsimony, likelihood, Bayesianism: are they relevant to abductive reasoning, thus phylogenetic inference?
• The requirement of total evidence
• The errors of cladogram comparisons & character mapping
• Homology, homogeny & homoplasy
• Character coding
• Mechanics of hypothesis testing: implications for cladograms
• Character data cannot test phylogenetic hypotheses
• The nature evidential support
• The proper testing of phylogenetic hypotheses
• The myths of bootstrap, jack-knife & Bremer ‘support’
• Implications for nomenclature
• Defining biodiversity and conservation

Participants will be provided reprints covering the topics in the course, as well as a PDF file with all course slides (>800) and associated notes.

 





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Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST): Zoological Nomenclature training course

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a Zoological Nomenclature training course targeted at MSc students, PhD students, early career researchers,  professional systematists/taxonomists and anyone who is interested in the philosophy of Biological Systematics. The course has a duration of one 5 days and will take place between 22-26 September 2014 at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris, France.

Deadline for registration: 16 June 2014, extended until Friday 20 June 2014. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/zoological-nomenclature-3

Course description:
Taxonomists need a common language worldwide. This is provided by the international codes of nomenclature. Although several codes exist, according to the organisms at stake, they all follow a similar mode of allocation of names to taxa (through "types") and of establishment of the valid name for a taxon (priority, first-reviser, usage). As biological nomenclature is rarely taught in academic formations, many taxonomists have difficulties mastering it. This training will provide an overview of the history and epistemology of biological nomenclature, and a discussion of the relationships between phylogeny, taxonomy and nomenclature. The zoological code will be presented in detail, the other codes (including the botanical one) more briefly. The recent problems and projects of nomenclature, including alternative systems, will be discussed.

Lecture topics:

• What is taxonomy? What is nomenclature? Name, taxon, nomenclatural rank, taxonomic category. Species and supraspecific taxa. The relationships between phylogeny, taxonomy and nomenclature
• History and epistemology of the international codes of nomenclature
• The international code of zoological nomenclature
• The other international codes (plants and fungi, bacteria, viruses, cultivated plants)
• The alternative nomenclatural systems

Seminar topics:

• Nomenclature of higher taxa in zoology
• The Phylocode and other phylogenetic nomenclatural systems
• Zoobank and electronic publications

Practical experiences will include: exercises in zoological nomenclature and transforming phylogenetic data into a taxonomy and a nomenclature.





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British Ecological Society and French Ecological Society (BEsFE) joint 2014 annual meeting 9 – 12 December, France

The British Ecological Society and the French Ecology Society are pleased to invite you to Lille for a joint conference which will bring together for the first time ecologists of our two countries. The aim of the conference will promote exchanges and debates on major advances in scientific ecology, and strengthen cooperation between the French and British researchers of tomorrow. The meeting will be held on 9 – 12 December at the Grand Palais, Lille, France.

The British Ecological Society and French Ecological Society invite proposals for symposia sessions at their 2014 Annual Meeting. Symposia sessions at the Annual Meeting highlight some of the most important and timely science in ecology.  They provide the overarching structure and scientific focal point to the meeting.

The topics provide a showcase and forum for the discussion of key ecological questions, vision for the future and encourage integration among disciplines. As ever, timely and well organised submissions from across the breadth of ecology are welcome; however, building on the bi-national meeting and the introduction of the EU Horizon 2020 programme of research funding, we particularly encourage submissions that highlight international and EU focused topics:

•    Agro-ecology and the CAP
•    Biodiversity and ecosystem services
•    Evolutionary ecology and disease
•    Marine ecology and the EU Marine Directive
•    Freshwater ecology and the EU Water Directive
•    Horizon 2020 Tackling Societal Challenges: http://bit.ly/193Fbo3

The deadline for submissions is 31 January 2014.

The three full days of science can accommodate 18 half day symposia sessions.  Symposia proposals should include one keynote speaker allocated a 30 minute presentation and then five invited speakers, each allocated 15 minute slots.  Time devoted to synthesis and discussion is possible, but at the discretion of the organisers.  In exceptional circumstances, we will consider a full day session.

Proposers are responsible for the speakers submitting their abstracts and registrations on time.

- See more at: http://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/events/current_future_meetings/2014-annual-meeting/





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Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST): Botanical Nomenclature training course

Distributed European School of Taxonomy (DEST) is organizing a Botanical Nomenclature training course targeted at MSc students, PhD students, early career researchers,  professional systematists/taxonomists and anyone who is interested in the philosophy of Biological Systematics. The course has a duration of one week and will take place between 26-30 January 2015 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK.

Deadline for registrationis 10 October 2014. Participants will receive notification by 24 October 2014 whether accepted to the course. To register and to learn more about the course visit the official webpage: http://www.taxonomytraining.eu/content/botanical-nomenclature-3

Course description
This in-depth course will teach the principles of plant nomenclature according to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants (ICN) so that participants can apply good nomenclatural practice when undertaking taxonomic revisions, compiling checklists etc. This will be achieved by lectures illustrated with examples from the ICN, workshop sessions applying what has been learned to "real life" cases, and by encouraging participants to discuss nomenclatural problems they have encountered.

Participants will have time to pursue their own research interests using the collections at Kew, with the emphasis on identifying and solving nomenclatural problems.
Short seminars will give participants the opportunity to present nomenclatural problems relevant to their own research.

 





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Africa Rising: Mobilising Biodiversity Data for Sustainable Development conference

From 22 to 24 March 2015, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) will host an international conference at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, entitled, Africa Rising: Mobilising Biodiversity Data for Sustainable Development. The event is being organised in partnership with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). It aims to:

  1. Accelerate regional understanding of the biodiversity data-science-policy value chain and draw attention to the opportunities and solutions that biodiversity data presents for sustainable development in Africa;
  2. Strengthen regional engagement, learning networks, and collaborative synergies with a view to streamlining the data-science-policy value chain; and
  3. Galvanise political commitment to mobilising Africa’s biodiversity data.

The event emanates from the project, Mobilising Africa’s Biodiversity Data, which is generously supported by the JRS Biodiversity Foundation and entails developing a strategy for capturing, digitising and publishing Africa’s policy-relevant biodiversity data whilst strengthening regional capacity and collaboration in biodiversity information management.

More information is available at: http://www.sanbi.org/news/sanbi-host-africa-rising-mobilising-biodiversity-data-sustainable-development-conference

 





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FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Session 2015 (Continues until 26 June)

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium) is part of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase program, the RMCA has five grants available for a 3-month training program in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes.

The training includes three subsets:

  1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
  2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes;
  3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

This course has been offered annually since 2005 and is held at the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium). To apply for traineeship and for more information, please click here or here. Please note that for 2015, this course will be given in English only.

Questions? Contact Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be).

 





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The 36th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE)

36th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE) will take place on May 11-15, 2015 in Berlin, Germany.

This 36th Symposium will represent a major event in the long series of internationally recognized ISRSE meetings. The overall theme of the symposium is the use of Earth Observation systems and related Remote Sensing techniques for understanding and managing the Earth environment and resources.

The event will also feature sessions "Biodiversity and Conservation" aiming to show the developments and potential of remote sensing within biodiversity and conservation science.

Find out more about this session in the brochure attached below or n the event website: www.isrse36.org

All 12 themes for abstract submission are listed in the Technical programme: http://www.isrse36.org/technical-programme/ and under Abstract submission: http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/ISRSE36/sessionprogramme and Deadline for Abstracts is latest 9 November 2014.

Registration: http://www.isrse36.org/registration/

 





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Globis-B kick-off meeting

The Globis-B kick-off meeting will take place in Amsterdam from on 8-10 June (Monday till Wednesday). The kick-off meetingwill  bring the consortium together to talk through the different parts of the project. A mini-symposium is also planned for Wednesday morning with three talks from international speakers about research topics that are relevant for the project.

Globis-B  stands for GLOBal Infrastructures for Supporting Biodiversity research and is a H2020 project within the coordination & support action funding scheme of the H2020-INFRASUPP-2014-2 call. The main aim of the project is to bring together scientists with global research infrastructure operators and legal interoperability experts to address the research needs and infrastructure services required to calculate Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV). Currently we are finalizing the grant agreement with the EU and the project will probably starting on 1st June 2015. 





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GEO XII and Ministerial Summit Mexico City November 2015

 

The GEO-XII Plenary and the Ministerial Summit, as well as all the associated meetings and events will be hosted by the Mexican Government and will take place at the Hotel Hilton Reforma and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico City from 9 to 13 November 2015.

The Twelfth Plenary Session of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO-XII), hosted by Mexico, will take place in Mexico City, from 11 to 12 November 2015. The GEO 2015 Mexico City Ministerial Summit will take place on 13 November 2015.

The GEO-XII Plenary will take place at the Hilton Reforma, Mexico City, on its first meeting day, Nov 11th 2015.

On November 12th 2015, the second day of GEO-XII Plenary, the meeting will be held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores - SRE), Plaza Juárez #20, located a few steps away from the Hilton Reforma.

Caucus Meetings and the Executive Committee Meeting, will take place from 9th-12th November, 2015, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

GEO Side Events will take place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Hotel Hilton.

The GEO exhibit will be held at the Hilton Reforma Mexico City, from November, 10th–12th, in conjunction with the LAGF 2015 exhibits, and will be open exclusively for Ministers on Thursday afternoon  12th November, 2015.

Call for side events is also open now, all submissions should be sent by 12 June 2015.

More information is available on the offical event website: http://www.earthobservations.org/geo12.php

 

 





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3rd EU BON Stakeholder Round Table "Biodiversity data workflow - from data mobilisation to practice"

The 3rd EU BON Stakeholder Round Table "Biodiversity data workflow - from data mobilisation to practice" will take place on 10&11 December 2015 Granada, Spain.

One main objective of the round table is to understand how the workflow from data mobilisation to decision making functions in practice, including within the context of EU BON.

Firstly, we want to evaluate what kind of (biodiversity) data are available and what workflows and best practices already exist. Secondly, we want to assess which gaps still exist and what will be needed to improve the current situation to overcome existing barriers.

Please register here: http://societas.biodiv.naturkundemuseum-berlin.de/?q=node/64

 





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International Workshop Decision Models and Population Management

The "International Workshop Decision Models and Population Management" will take place from 2 to 4 February, 2014 in Paris, France. The three days international and interdisciplinary workshop is devoted to the decision making, in particular in presence of multiple actors with or without interaction. These problems occur in a natural way in management of populations, where the dynamics are strongly related to the decisions. The workshop aims to bring together Mathematicians, Computer Scientists and Ecologists around the problem of populations management. The population dynamics, viability theory and game theory form an umbrella of helpful mathematical tools in this context. On the other hand, the computer sciences bring the online and algorithmic mechanism design.

The workshop is motivated by concrete problems proposed by ecologists and aims to create a synergy between scientists from different backgrounds to address the challenging modelling of decision making in the context of ecological paradigms.

Invited Speakers
- Michel BENAIM (Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Swtizerland)
- Renato CASAGRANDI (Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
- Denis COUVET (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France)
- Sylvain DUCTOR (LIP6, UPMC, Paris, France)
- Marino GATTO (Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria-Politecnico di Milano, Italy) 
- Ihab HAIDAR (Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France)
- Sophie MARTIN (UR LISC - IRSTEA)
- Nicolas MAUDET (LIP6, UPMC, Paris, France) 
- Paco MELIÀ (Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
- Jean-Baptiste MIHOUB (UPMC-Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France)
- Vianney PERCHET (Université Denis Diderot, Paris, France)
 - Karl SIGMUND (University of Vienna, Wien, Austria)
- Sylvain SORIN (IMJ-PRG, UPMC, Paris, France)
- Jean-Philippe TERREAUX (IRSTEA-ADBX, Bordeaux, France)
- Tristan TOMALA (École des hautes études commerciales de Paris, Paris, France)
- Vladimir VELIOV (Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria)
- Yannick VIOSSAT (Université Paris-Dauphine, Paris, France)





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GLOBIS-B workshop 1

Workshop 1 and 2 have the aim to identify the options and problems associated with the general challenges of provisioning the research infrastructures to deliver capabilities for supporting the generation and calculation of EBVs. The two workshops (Figure 1) will focus on the EBV class ‘Species populations’ (EBVs ‘Species distribution’ and ‘Population abundance’) for which the data, models and understanding are presently much better developed than for other EBV classes.

Workshop 1 will have integrated as well as parallel sessions with ecologists and biodiversity scientists (with special expertise in species distributions and abundance and its monitoring), biodiversity informaticians and infrastructure operators, and legal interoperability experts.

http://www.globis-b.eu/33/workshop_1.html





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FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Session 2016

The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) in Tervuren (Belgium), member of the FishBase Consortium and responsible for the information on the fresh- and brackish water fishes of Africa in the FishBase database, is organizing  the 'FishBase and Fish Taxonomy Training Session 2016'. This course has been offered annually since 2005 and held regularly in the RMCA located at Leuvensesteenweg 13, B-3080 Tervuren, Belgium. Through an agreement with the Belgian Development Cooperation and as part of the FishBase program, the RMCA has five (5) grants available for this year's 3-month training program (from 07 March up to 27 May 2016) in the use of FishBase and the taxonomy of African fishes. To apply for traineeship and for more information, see: http://fishbase.africamuseum.be or  www.fishbaseforafrica.org.

The training course will have three (3) subsets:

  1. A detailed explanation of FishBase in all its aspects;
  2. A training in the taxonomy of African fishes;
  3. A case study based on data from FishBase or on taxa for which taxonomic problems have been encountered.

*For 2016, this course will be given in French only.

Questions? Contact Dimitri Geelhand de Merxem (dimitri.geelhand@africamuseum.be).





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EU BON biodiversity data sharing and data publishing workshop

EU BON is organising a "Biodiversity data sharing and data publishing workshop" to take place in Sofia, Bulgaria on 22-23 March 2016. The event is directed to biologists and other life scientists from Eastern Europe who are actively involved in monitoring  and managing biodiversity data. A core topic of this training will be the  publishing of biodiversity data, in particular species occurrences, sample-based and citizen science data. The training will include a practical session during which participants will be assisted by experienced trainers from the EU BON project.

Addressing global problems, such as biodiversity loss and impacts of climate change requires open access to data. This was concluded by world leaders at Johannesburg Summit in 2002 when they established the Group for Earth Observations (GEO).  EU BON (Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network) seeks to enhance biodiversity data availability and integration, and is the European contribution to the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network.

All biodiversity databases need to be integrated in GEO. Therefore, EU BON undertakes capacity building of biodiversity communities (e.g. researchers, citizen scientists, non-governmental organisations) that are involved in collecting and disseminating biodiversity information, including monitoring initiatives.

The sessions on data sharing will cover introductory overview of key concepts,  demonstration and  practical  exercise using the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit  (IPT). The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is the world's largest initiative for enabling free access to biodiversity data via internet.

Special attention will be paid to data paper publishing led by specialists from Pensoft Publishers - a company well known among biodiversity scientists worldwide for technologically cutting-edge open access journals, such as: Research Ideas and Outcomes, ZooKeys, Biodiversity Data Journal, Nature Conservation, and a strong advocate of data publishing. Registration of data in GEO registry system will be also addressed during the workshop.

The following topics will be covered (detailed program will follow):

  • The data publishing landscape, gaps and mobilization efforts
  • Demonstration and practical session on data publishing using the GBIF IPT: step-by-step demo will show in detail (and in practice) how to publish a dataset using IPT.
  • Data papers: types, structure, opportunities
  • Citizen Science gateway and demo of PlutoF Citizen Science module
  • GoldenGate Imagine tool and copyright issues
  • Registration of data in the GEO Registry System

To register and for more information, click here.






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ScenNet Biodiversity and Ecosystem Scenarios Network Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Support of Decision-Making

The conference covers scenarios and modelling applications in marine, freshwater and terrestrial systems, across all relevant disciplines of natural and social sciences. It is open to scientists and experts working in the field, policy makers and practioners. The conference focuses on: (i) Exploring recent advances in modelling human impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services, (ii) Addressing the use of scenarios and models for decision support, (iii) Mobilising observations of biodiversity and ecosystem services for model development and testing, (iv) Capacity building for developing scenarios and models and for their use in decision making, (v) Horizon scanning and addressing gaps in knowledge.

More information available on the conference website.

 





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14th FishBase Annual Symposium, "FishBase and SeaLifeBase: a diversity of uses for biodiversity studies"

Theme:  FishBase and SeaLifeBase: a diversity of uses for biodiversity studies  

Date:      September 9, 2016

Venue:   Amphitheatre Rouelle, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN), Paris

See tentative program/agenda below..

Open to all interested. If you wish to attend this event, contact:

Patrice Pruvost
Chargé de conservation d'ichtyologie
UMR Borea-7208
Département milieux et peuplements aquatiques
Museum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN)
CP26 - 43 rue cuvier
tel : 33 1 40 79 37 60
fax : 33 1 40 79 37 71
75005 Paris
E-mail: pruvost@mnhn.fr





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ConnectinGEO Workshop on Gap Analysis and Prioritization

 

The ConnectinGEO Workshop on Gap Analysis and Prioritization will will take place on 10 & 11 October 2106 in Asutia to address key issues associated with the societal benefits of Earth observations and the exploitation of Earth observation for societal policy and decision making.

The Gap Analysis workshop will discuss the outcomes of the gap analysis and prioritization performed in the ConnectinGEO project. This gap analysis was guided by the information and knowledge needs resulting from humanity's "Road to Dignity" detailed in the Agenda 2030 and specified in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed upon by the United Nations. Both the monitoring and implementation of actions to achieve these goals require extensive support from Earth observation and science communities. Several directives and crosscuting issues in Europe provided further guidance for the gap analysis.

The workshop will provide a forum to review the methodology for gap analysis and prioritization, discuss the relevant gaps and priorities in the European Earth observation networks and develop a strategy to address those gaps that have a high priority assigned.

The objectives of the gap analysis and prioritization workshop are to:

  • Assess the ConnectinGEO methodology for gap analysis and prioritization;
  • Review the list of gaps identified and the prioritization achieved;
  • Produce a final list of gaps with high priority;
  • Discuss a strategy to address these gaps and provide recommendations for the European Network of Earth Observation Networks (ENEON) and the European Commission concerning high-priority gaps.

More on the event's website.





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2017 GEO Work Programme Symposium & 37th International Symposium of Remote Sensing (ISRSE)

The 2017 GEO Work Programme Symposium will be held back-to-back with the 37th International Symposium of Remote Sensing (ISRSE), in Tshwane, South Africa, the week of 8-13 May 2017.

The ISRSE thematic areas are aligned with GEO's areas of focus and Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs). Abstracts for the conference themes may be submitted by 22 November 2016 here:

Please inform Douglas Cripe (dcripe@geosec.org) at the GEO Secretariat if you do submit an abstract.

In support of the Work Programme Symposium, there are eight GEO special sessions in which you are encouraged to submit an abstract:

  • 04-1 GEOGLAM - Beyond crop monitoring, form data to actionable knowledge;
  • 04-4 Towards a new philosophy for generating land cover;
  • 10-2 The GFOI as a R&D promoter toward operational tropical forest monitoring systems;
  • 11-2 Innovative infrastructure for delivering Earth Observations solutions; 
  • 11-4 Implementing GEOSS Data Sharing and Management Principles at the national level in Africa;
  • 12-2 GEO in-situ observation networks;
  • 13-2 GEOSS Common Infrastructure for Africa; and
  • 13-5 Implementing the GEO user needs and gaps process: expectations, opportunities and challenges.

To contribute to these special sessions, please submit your abstract by 24 November 2016 using this link:

 





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A recording of David’s memorial service is now online

KT here: A memorial service for David was held on May 18, 2024. Although many friends and family members traveled to be present, the service was also streamed live for those who could not. For those who were unable to do either, a recording of the service has been posted on Vimeo. The link is […]











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Abortion rights advocates win in 7 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in 3

Until Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.

The post Abortion rights advocates win in 7 states and clear way to overturn Missouri ban but lose in 3 appeared first on Boston.com.





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Voters rejected Question 4. Here’s why readers are ‘disappointed.’

“It's a real shame for sufferers of PTSD and CPTSD, who can greatly benefit from therapy with these substances,” one respondent said.

The post Voters rejected Question 4. Here’s why readers are ‘disappointed.’ appeared first on Boston.com.











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How did ‘Nantucket red’ become an island tradition?

The more romantically inclined might describe Nantucket’s signature hue as a “dusty rose” or a “sunset pink.” Candid folks may note the passing resemblance to a bad sunburn.

The post How did ‘Nantucket red’ become an island tradition? appeared first on Boston.com.







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David Ortiz still loves watching the Red Sox’ historic comeback vs. the Yankees 20 years later, especially alongside Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter

"Theeeee Yankees lose!"

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