How to tackle the molecular species inventory for an industrialized nation-lessons from the first phase of the German Barcode of Life initiative GBOL (2012-2015).
Biodiversity loss is mainly driven by human activity. While concern grows over the fate of hot spots of biodiversity, contemporary species losses still prevail in industrialized nations. Therefore, strategies were formulated to halt or reverse the loss, driven by evidence for its value for ecosystem services. Maintenance of the latter through conservation depends on correctly identified species. To this aim, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the GBOL project, a consortium of natural history collections, botanic gardens, and universities working on a barcode reference database for the country's fauna and flora. Several noticeable findings could be useful for future campaigns: (i) validating taxon lists to serve as a taxonomic backbone is time-consuming, but without alternative; (ii) offering financial incentives to taxonomic experts, often citizen scientists, is indispensable; (iii) completion of the libraries for widespread species enables analyses of environmental samples, but the process may not hold pace with technological advancements; (iv) discoveries of new species are among the best stories for the media; (v) a commitment to common data standards and repositories is needed, as well as transboundary cooperation between nations; (vi) after validation, all data should be published online via the BOLD to make them searchable for external users and to allow cross-checking with data from other countries.
a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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b Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
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d Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz, Am Museum 1, 02826 Görlitz, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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b Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
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c SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Münchhausenstraße 21, 81247 München, Germany.
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d Senckenberg Museum für Naturkunde Görlitz, Am Museum 1, 02826 Görlitz, Germany.
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e Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany.
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j Plant Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Evolution and Ecology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
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e Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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c SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Münchhausenstraße 21, 81247 München, Germany.
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f Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Hüfferstrasse 1, 48149 Münster, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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g Nees-Institut für Biodiversität der Pflanzen, Meckenheimer Allee 170, 53115 Bonn, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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h Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe, Erbprinzenstr. 13, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.
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i Universität Bielefeld, Universitätsstraße 25, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
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c SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung München, Münchhausenstraße 21, 81247 München, Germany.
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a Stiftung Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Adenauerallee 160, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
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Wägele
D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D019049:Developed Countries; D005858:Germany; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007990:Libraries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
Allemagne; DNA barcoding; Germany; biodiversity assessment; citizen science; codage à barres de l’ADN; collection de référence; reference library; science citoyenne; évaluation de la biodiversité