Content Partners

Encyclopedia of Life content partners serve authenticated species information through the EOL portal. After developing a joint commitment, the content partners work closely with the EOL component groups to make their data visible within EOL. Current content partners can log in to manage their information, and new content partners can register or learn more about becoming involved.

Note that all of these partners maintain their own Web sites where you will find additional information not available through EOL. We urge you to click through to their sites to examine the richness of information each of them contains.

Partner	Description
AmphibiaWeb	AmphibiaWeb is an online system enabling anyone with a Web browser to search and retrieve information relating to amphibian biology and conservation. This site was inspired by the global declines of amphibians, the study of which has been hindered by the lack of multidisplinary studies and a lack of coordination in monitoring, in field studies, and in lab studies. One of its major goals is to encourage a shared vision for the study of global amphibian declines and the conservation of remaining amphibians. See AmphibiaWeb agreement.
Animal Diversity Web	Animal Diversity Web (ADW) is a project of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. It is a large searchable encyclopedia of the natural history of animals. ADW facilitates inquiry-driven learning with a database rich enough that students can discover for themselves basic concepts in ecology and conservation biology. ADW has partnered with the EOL to share its text, much of which has been created by undergraduates across North America. It will also share its multimedia as licensing allows. See Animal Diversity Web agreement.
AntWeb	AntWeb is generally recognized as the most advanced biodiversity information system at species level dedicated to ants. Altogether, its acceptance by the ant research community, the number of participating remote curators that maintain the site, number of pictures, simplicity of web interface, and completeness of species, make AntWeb the premier reference for dissemination of data, information, and knowledge on ants. AntWeb is serving information on tens of thousands of ant species through the EOL. See AntWeb agreement.
ARKive	ARKive is a Wildscreen initiative – a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to promoting the public understanding of biodiversity and the need for its conservation. ARKive’s mission is to create a lasting, publicly accessible, audio-visual record of life on Earth. ARKive is sharing with EOL its species texts. To access ARKive’s rich repository of films and photographs, follow links in the Specialized Projects area of our pages. See ARKive agreement.
AskNature	AskNature is a free, open source project, built by the community and for the community. Our goal is to connect innovative minds with life's best ideas, and in the process, inspire technologies that create conditions conducive to life. To accomplish this, we're doing something that has never been done—organizing the world's biological literature by function.
Atlas of Living Australia	ALA - The Atlas of Living Australia is a five-year project funded under the Australian Government's National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Its mission is to develop a biodiversity data management system which will link Australia’s biological knowledge with its scientific and agricultural reference collections and other custodians of biological information. See Atlas of Living Australia agreement.
BioLib.cz	BioLib, the Biological Library, is a non-commercial educational project intended to be used both by experts and general public. It produces a gallery, glossary, vernacular names dictionary, database of links and literature, systems of biotopes, discussion forum and several other functions related to biology. EOL partnered with BioLib to present many of its images.
Biolib.de	Biolib.de is a collection of historic and modern biology books.
BioPedia	Biopedia is a communal repository of descriptions of organisms. Biopedia works in conjunction with the STAR biodiversity web sites, such as microscope, and with the Encyclopedia of Life. Text descriptions will be immediately be visible in the STAR sites. If you would like to be able to add to Biopedia, please contact us or register. We accept content on the understanding it can be made available under a Creative Commons attribution license.
Biopix	Biopix is a collection of biological photos, primarily from Scandinavia. It is used by a wide range of students, teachers, researchers, photographers, among others. EOL partnered with Biopix to present many of its images.
Catalogue of Life	The Catalogue of Life Partnership (CoLP) is an informal partnership dedicated to creating an index of the world’s organisms, called the Catalogue of Life (CoL). The CoL provides different forms of access to an integrated, quality, maintained, comprehensive consensus species checklist and taxonomic hierarchy, presently covering more than one million species, and intended to cover all know species in the near future. They contain substantial contributions of taxonomic expertise from more than fifty organizations around the world, integrated into a single work by the ongoing work of the CoLP partners. EOL currently uses CoLP as its taxonomic backbone. See Catalogue of Life agreement.
Consortium for the Barcode of Life	The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) is an international initiative devoted to developing DNA barcoding as a global standard for the identification of biological species.
Naturalis	The Dutch Species Catalogue provides a current and comprehensive overview of Dutch biodiversity. It is based on the data gathered by experts in various aspects of flora and fauna. Dutch biodiversity is among the best investigated in the world. This research has resulted in numerous papers, reports and books. The Dutch Species Catalogue combines this information for the first time in history. A reliable list is offered of all multicellular species recorded in the Netherlands, displayed in a comprehensive taxonomic tree of the species, and combined with standardized ecological status of the species, sources and consulted specialists per taxon and numbers of species/names per taxonomic level. New data (biological, ecological, images, sounds, distribution maps)are added on a regular basis by Dutch scientific organisations and individual specialists. See Naturalis agreement.
FieldScope	National Geographic FieldScope is a web-based mapping, analysis, and collaboration tool designed to support geographic investigations and engage students as citizen scientists investigating real-world issues –both in the classroom and in outdoor education settings. FieldScope enhances student scientific investigations by providing rich geographic context—through maps, mapping activities, and a rich community where student fieldwork and data is integrated with that of peers and professionals, adding analysis opportunities and meaning to student investigations.
Finding Species	An international non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, Finding Species uses compelling and original professional-grade photographic images, technology, and on-the-ground field experience to “give a face to biodiversity,” promoting the conservation of threatened species and habitats. We also document anthropogenic elements that are relevant to conservation, including indigenous cultures and unsustainable industrial activities that threaten these cultures and the biodiversity of the regions they have historically inhabited. Finding Species, by combining art, science and advocacy, bridges the gap between scientists, conservationists and the public, to advance science, empower conservation campaigns and enhance environmental education programs. Active field work in the US and in Latin America’s tropical forests has produced traveling exhibitions, scientific publications, field guide books, websites and species databases for public education and use. Photographs are powerful tools to communicate about conservation and have played a compelling role in the creation of several signature National Parks in the United States and around the world. Given the amount and sophistication of visual information that individuals see today, the value of visually stunning conservation tools are indispensable to conservation campaigns.
FishBase	FishBase is a global information system with all you ever wanted to know about fishes. FishBase is a relational database with information to cater to different professionals such as research scientists, fisheries managers, zoologists and many more. The FishBase Website contains data on practically every fish species known to science. The project was developed at the WorldFish Center in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and many other partners, and with support from the European Commission. FishBase is serving information on more than 30,000 fish species through EOL. See FishBase agreement.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)	The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is the world's premiere source for information on biological specimen and observational data, providing on-line access to more than 135 million data records from around the world. GBIF is providing range maps for the EOL species pages. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is the world's premiere source for information on biological specimen and observational data, providing on-line access to more than 135 million data records from around the world. GBIF is providing range maps for the EOL species pages. See Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) agreement.
Illinois Wildflowers	The Illinois Wildflowers site provides descriptions, photographs, and range maps of over 800 species of vascular plants in Illinois, USA. All of the text, maps, line drawings, and nearly all of the images are the work of Dr. John Hilty, who has spent over six years organizing this information into five habitat categories: Prairie, savanna, weedy, wetland, and woodland. A sixth category includes grasses, sedges & non-flowering plants. See Illinois Wildflowers agreement.
IUCN	International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) helps the world find pragmatic solutions to our most pressing environment and development challenges. IUCN supports scientific research; manages field projects all over the world; and brings governments, non-government organizations, United Nations agencies, companies and local communities together to develop and implement policy, laws and best practice. EOL partnered with the IUCN to indicate status of each species according to the Red List of Threatened Species.
*Microscope**	microscope is a communal web site that provides descriptive information about all kinds of microbes. It combines locally assembled content with links to other expert sites on the internet. Information is assembled in collections provided by various contributors. See Microscope agreement.
Missouri Botanical Garden	eFloras is a web portal of authoritative botanical data published by Missouri Botanical Garden containing an aggregation from more than 200 years of floristic surveys and nomenclatural research. eFloras contains descriptive information about the plants growing in various geographic regions, including species descriptions, identification keys, and digital images of herbarium specimens as well as live plants in situ. eFloras provides a shared, web-based editing environment that allows project participants in geographically disparate areas to collaborate and share knowledge about plant life.
Mushroom Observer	Mushroom Observer is a collaborative mycology-related website. The community supporting Mushroom Observer is committed to sharing and expanding people's knowledge of Fungi at all levels from beginners to world authorities. Users provide content to the site in the form of observations, species descriptions, discussions, voting and expert review. All copyrighted content on the Mushroom Observer is available under one of the Creative Commons licenses and all source code for the site is open source.
Nemertea	This will be the primary resource for nemerteans where participants will edit and maintain their classification, upload images and videos, maintain bibliographic resources and biogeographical data, among other activities. Species pages will contain information pertaining to morphology, ultrastructure, phylogeny, life histories, ecology, and physiology. The 7th International Conference on Nemertean Biology (http://nemerteanconference2009.org) will convene in Santa Barbara, California 29 June - 03 July 2009, hosted by the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. It will be held at the University of California at Santa Barbara. See Nemertea agreement.
Plazi.org	Plazi is a not-for-profit association supporting and promoting the development of persistent and openly accessible digital taxonomic literature. Plazi maintains a digital taxonomic literature repository, enhances submitted taxonomic treatments by creating TaxonX XML versions, participates in the development of new models for publishing taxonomic treatments, and advocates and educate about the vital importance of maintaining free and open access to scientific discourse and data.
Shorefishes of the Tropical Eastern Pacific Online Information System	The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution (STRI) in Panama, is a bureau of the Smithsonian Institution based outside of the United States, is dedicated to understanding biological diversity.
Solanaceae Source	The Solanaceae Source Web site is the product of an ongoing five year project: Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (PBI) Solanum: A worldwide treatment. The aim of the project is to produce a worldwide taxonomic monograph of the species occurring within the plant genus Solanum (the potato and tomato family), organized by a robust phylogenetic framework. The project began in January 2004 and is just one of four inventories funded by the National Science Foundation at that time. The project is made possible through collaborations between Solanaceae specialists worldwide, with principal investigators from four research institutions in England and the United States.
The Nearctic Spider Database	The Nearctic Spider Database presents peer-reviewed species pages, aggregates individual and institutional collection records, and maintains deep links to the primary literature on spiders throughout Canada, United States, Greenland, Bermuda, and parts of Mexico. The forum, public commenting on pages, web services, reverse geocoding services, syndicated content, and nomenclatural checks are all well used by the public and by araneid systematists and their students.
Tree of Life web project	Tree of Life (ToL) project is a collaborative effort of biologists from around the world. On more than 10,000 World Wide Web pages, the project provides information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their evolutionary history (phylogeny), and characteristics. ToL pages are linked to one another hierarchically, in the form of the evolutionary tree of life. Starting with the root of all Life on Earth and moving out along diverging branches to individual species, the structure of the ToL project thus illustrates the genetic connections between all living things. Once the EOL has established its infrastructure for disseminating species page content through web services, ToL will concentrate on collecting content about supra-specific taxa and phylogenetic relationships between species. See Tree of Life web project agreement.
University of Alberta Museums	The University of Alberta Museums located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada is a network of 35 interdisciplinary museums and collections, ranging from art to zoology. Totaling more than 17 million objects, the collections are used on a daily basis to fuel discovery and advance knowledge through teaching, research, and community outreach. See University of Alberta Museums agreement.
USDA NRCS PLANTS Database	The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references. This information primarily promotes land conservation in the United States and its territories, but academic, educational, and general use is encouraged. PLANTS reduces government spending by minimizing duplication and making information exchange possible across agencies and disciplines.