The museum and
research center is at the frontier of biodiversity
research and education, from surveying the
planet's plants and animals to studying
their history, anatomy, behavior, genes,
and geography, to predicting environmental
events, such as the spread of pests and
emerging diseases across the U.S. We lead
the nation’s university natural history
institutions in biodiversity research grants
and in educating graduate students —
the next generation of biodiversity scientists.
The Life of the Planet
An interactive video presentation showcasing current research by Biodiversity Institute scientists.
Supporting this research and education
is a research inventory of the world's animals
and plants, one of the most comprehensive
in the nation — over eight million specimens
of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians,
fish, insects, invertebrates, plants, and
fossils, plus the biological data associated
with those specimens.
Our scientists are
heading an international initiative that
uses information technology to harness biodiversity
information from three billion specimens
of plants and animals in museums worldwide.
This vast storehouse of knowledge, the result
of 300 years of the biological exploration
of the planet, previously lay largely untapped.
Today, the information stored with each
specimen — when and where it was collected,
the habitat in which it lived and other
information — combined with geographic
and climate data, is a powerful tool for
simulating and predicting environmental
phenomena that affect life and increasing
knowledge to inform conservation and natural
resource management.
