This is a list of biodiversity databases. Biodiversity databases store taxonomic information alone or more commonly also other information like distribution (spatial) data and ecological data, which provide information on the biodiversity of a particular area or group of living organisms. They may store specimen-level information, species-level information, information on nomenclature, or any combination of the above. Most are available online.
Specimen-focused databases contain data about individual specimens, as represented by vouchered museum specimens, collections of specimen photographs, data on field-based specimen observations and morphological or genetic data. Species-focused databases contain information summarised at the species-level. Some species-focused databases attempt to compile comprehensive data about particular species (FishBase), while others focus on particular species attributes, such as checklists of species in a given area (FEOW) or the conservation status of species (CITES or IUCN Red List). Nomenclators act as summaries of taxonomic revisions and set a key between specimen-focused and species-focused databases. They do this because taxonomic revisions use specimen data to determine species limits.
| Name | Focus | Groups included | Collection | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plants | Birds | Reptiles | Fish | Arthropods | Other Euk. | Prok. & Vir. | ||||
| All Catfish Species Inventory [1] | Catfish | X | information collated by genera, including estimated numbers of species, taxonomic experts | |||||||
| Arctos [2] | Specimen holdings of several natural history museums, agencies, and accessible private collections | X | X | X | X | X | X | Vertebrates, invertebrates, parasites, vascular and non-vascular plants, many with images and extensive usage data. | ||
| AntWeb [3] | Ants | X | Specimen information, collection details, photographs, higher taxonomy | |||||||
| Avibase – the World Bird Database [4] | Birds, distribution, taxonomy | X | Avibase is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 27 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 20,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more. | |||||||
| ASEAN Biodiversity Information Sharing Service (BISS) [5] | Amphibians, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, edible plants, freshwater fishes, mammals, plants, reptiles and Malesian mosses of Southeast Asia | X | X | X | X | X | X | IUCN status, habitat, regional presence/absence, description, classification | ||
| BioLib – Biological Library [6] | BioLib is an international encyclopedia of plants, fungi and animals. | X | X | X | X | X | X | Apart from taxonomic system you can visit the gallery, glossary, vernacular names dictionary, database of links and literature, systems of biotopes, discussion forum and several other functions related to biology. | ||
| CITES species database [7] | All species ever listed in CITES Appendices I, II or III | X | X | X | X | X | X | Scientific names, higher taxonomy, distribution, photos and CITES quotas | ||
| Fauna Europaea [8] | Europe's main zoological taxonomic index | X | X | X | X | Quality-checked data, 180,712 accepted taxon names, web portal also provide links to other key biodiversity services. | ||||
| FishBase [9] | Fish | X | Higher taxonomy, common names, distribution, IUCN Redlist status | |||||||
| Fulgoromorpha Lists On the Web (FLOW) [10] | Planthoppers (Insecta: Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha) – 15.000 species | X | Taxonomy and classification, nomenclature, type depository, bibliography, distribution, photos on actual and fossil planthoppers of the world and various associated biological information (host-plants, parasites, trophobiosis, etc.). | |||||||
| Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW) [11] | Freshwater ecoregions | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Maps of species and endemic numbers. | |
| HerpNET [12] | Amphibians and reptiles | X | Amphibian and reptile distributions. | |||||||
| A Database of Plant Biodiversity of West Bengal (WBPBDIVDB) | Plants of West Bengal | X | richness of floral diversity of West Bengal from Terai, Duars, Darjeeling, the eastern Himalayan region and in the mangrove forests of Sundarbans. | |||||||
| Reptile Database | Reptiles | X | Taxonomic information, names, photos | |||||||
| All forms of life | X | X | X | X | X | X | Geolocated observations, location checklists, taxonomic information, range maps | |||
| Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) [13] | Plants of Australia | X | Taxonomic information, collection details, photographs | |||||||
| All forms of life large enough to photograph | X | x | X | X | X | X | Geolocated individual observations and other information produced by citizen science participants | |||
| Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) [14] | all taxa of interest to North America, with other taxa included as available | X | x | X | X | X | X | Taxonomic information, including higher taxonomy | ||
| Natural History Information System[15] | all forms of life, biotopes, rocks | X | x | X | X | X | X | X | Faunistic and floristic records (citizen science and other sources), phenology, ecology, biotopes, taxonomy, paleontology, stratigraphy | |
| NatureServe [16] | plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada | X | x | X | X | X | X | Source for information on more than 70,000 plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada, including rare and endangered species. | ||
| Pl@ntNet | Plants identification, observation, images | X | Plant identification, observations, citizen science project, photographs, distribution | |||||||
| Wikispecies [17] | All forms of life | X | x | X | X | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, synonyms, vernacular names, references | |
| A Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI) [18] | European taxa | X | x | X | X | X | X | Authoritative taxonomic checklist of European species, including higher taxonomy, synonyms, vernacular names and European distribution | ||
| Naturdata [19] | Portuguese taxa | X | x | X | X | X | X | Checklist of Portuguese species including mainland and islands with a page for each species including taxonomy, synonyms, vernacular names, images, videos and Portuguese distribution | ||
| Georgia (country) biodiversity website[20] | Georgia Biodiversity Database | X | x | X | X | X | X | Checklists covering ca. 11,000 of plants and animals recorded for Georgia (Central and Western Caucasus) | ||
| ScaleNet[21] | Scale insects (superfamily Coccoidea) | X | Nomenclature, distribution, hosts, systematics, references | |||||||
| Metadatabase that provides strain-linked information about bacterial and archaeal biodiversity. | X | Different kind of metadata like taxonomy, morphology, physiology, environment and molecular-biology. | ||||||||
| World Register of Marine Species | Marine organisms | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, scientific names, synonyms, distribution, attributes, references | |||||
| AlgaeBase | Algae and other oxygenic photosynthesisers other than embryophyte land plants | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, scientific names, common names, images, distribution, references | |||||
| Tropicos[22] | Taxonomy, distribution, and specimen data for Missouri Botanical Garden. | X | Nearly 1.3 million scientific names and over 4.4 million specimen records, accumulated during the past 30 years. | |||||||
| iAMF[23] [24] | Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Database for Phylogeny, Nomenclature, Taxonomy and Distribution in India | X | X | Distribution, phylogeny and taxonomy database of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was built in two phases: In the first phase of the study (2013–2015) occurrence of about 148 species of AM fungi was reported across 18 states of India namely: Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Goa, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (Gupta et al. 2014, under Delhi University innovation project) . In the second phase under UGC project (2015 onwards) the study has been extended to three more states namely Delhi, Tripura and Manipur reporting occurrence of 161 species. rRNA sequence data for these fungi is added as Phylogenetic Map and distribution data is available as Google Map. | ||||||
| Name with reference or link | Taxonomic or geographical focus | X for column All Groups | X for column Plants | X for column Birds | X for column Reptiles | X for column Fish | X for column Insects | X for column Other Groups | Data collected--> | |