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 | Fungi | Mammals | Birds | Reptiles | Amphi-bians | Fish | Arthropods | Other Euk. | Prok. & Vir. | |||
| AlgaeBase | Algae and other oxygenic photosynthesisers other than embryophyte land plants | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, scientific names, common names, images, distribution, references | |||||||
| All Catfish Species Inventory | Catfish | X | information collated by genera, including estimated numbers of species, taxonomic experts | |||||||||
| AmphibiaWeb | Amphibians | X | Information about almost 9,000 species of amphibians | |||||||||
| AntWeb | Ants | X | Specimen information, collection details, photographs, higher taxonomy | |||||||||
| Arctos | Specimen holdings of several natural history museums, agencies, and accessible private collections | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Vertebrates, invertebrates, parasites, vascular and non-vascular plants, many with images and extensive usage data. | |
| Avibase – the World Bird Database | 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) | Amphibians, birds, butterflies, dragonflies, edible plants, freshwater fishes, mammals, plants, reptiles and Malesian mosses of Southeast Asia | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | IUCN status, habitat, regional presence/absence, description, classification |
| BacDive | Metadatabase that provides strain-linked information about bacterial and archaeal biodiversity. | X | X | Different kind of metadata like taxonomy, morphology, physiology, environment and molecular-biology | ||||||||
| BioLib – Biological Library | BioLib is an international encyclopedia of plants, fungi and animals. | X | X | X | X | 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 | All species ever listed in CITES Appendices I, II or III | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Scientific names, higher taxonomy, distribution, photos and CITES quotas | |
| Catalogue of Life (CoL) | All forms of life and viruses | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Highly complete database with various information about known species |
| Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) | All forms of life and viruses | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Highly complete database with various information about known species |
| Fauna Europaea | Europe's main zoological taxonomic index | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Quality-checked data, 180,712 accepted taxon names, web portal also provide links to other key biodiversity services | |||
| FishBase | Fish | X | Higher taxonomy, common names, distribution, IUCN Redlist status | |||||||||
| FishNet 2 | Fish | X | Information about fish taxon distribution | |||||||||
| Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (FEOW) | Freshwater ecoregions | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Maps of species and endemic numbers |
| Fulgoromorpha Lists On the Web (FLOW) | 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.) | |||||||||
| Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) | All forms of life | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | All forms of life and a map of known occurrences with data about such occurrences. Also taxonomy and links to other databases |
| Georgia Biodiversity Database | Georgia (country) biodiversity website | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Checklists covering ca. 11,000 of plants and animals recorded for Georgia (Central and Western Caucasus) | ||
| HerpNET | Amphibians and reptiles | X | X | Amphibian and reptile distributions | ||||||||
| iAMF | Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Database for Phylogeny, Nomenclature, Taxonomy and Distribution in India | 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 | |||||||||
| Integrated Botanical Information System (IBIS) | Plants of Australia | X | Taxonomic information, collection details, photographs | |||||||||
| iNaturalist | All forms of life | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Geolocated observations, location checklists, taxonomic information, range maps |
| iSpot | All forms of life large enough to photograph | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Geolocated individual observations and other information produced by citizen science participants | |
| Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) | All taxa of interest to North America, with other taxa included as available | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Taxonomic information, including higher taxonomy |
| JACQ | Specimens from various Herbaria | X | Contains information about plant specimen taxonomy and collection information | |||||||||
| MicrobeWiki | Microbes | X | X | Higher taxonomic information, scientific/vernacular names, images, attributes, references | ||||||||
| Monarch Data Portal | Museum specimens (zoology, botany, geology) | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Open access biodiversity data (taxonomy, geography, images) | ||
| Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory | Culicidae family (mosquitoes) | Taxonomy, literature, references | ||||||||||
| Natural History Information System | all forms of life, biotopes, rocks | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Faunistic and floristic records (citizen science and other sources), phenology, ecology, biotopes, taxonomy, paleontology, stratigraphy |
| Naturdata | Portuguese taxa | X | X | X | X | 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 |
| NatureServe | plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States and Canada | X | X | 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 | ||
| A Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI) | European taxa | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Authoritative taxonomic checklist of European species, including higher taxonomy, synonyms, vernacular names and European distribution | |
| Pl@ntNet | Plants identification, observation, images | X | Plant identification, observations, citizen science project, photographs, distribution | |||||||||
| Reptile Database | Reptiles | X | Taxonomic information, names, photos | |||||||||
| ScaleNet | Scale insects (superfamily Coccoidea) | X | Nomenclature, distribution, hosts, systematics, references | |||||||||
| Tropicos | 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 | |||||||||
| 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 | |||||||||
| Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit | Arthropod disease vectors | X | Taxonomy, photos, identification keys, geospatial data | |||||||||
| Wikispecies | All forms of life | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, synonyms, vernacular names, references |
| World Spider Catalog | Spiders | X | Taxonomy, literature, references | |||||||||
| World Register of Marine Species | Marine organisms | X | X | X | Higher taxonomy, scientific names, synonyms, distribution, attributes, references | |||||||
See also
External links
- List of species databases at the Catalogue of Life Archived 17 September 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- List of biodiversity databases at Biodiversity Tools
References
"All Catfish Species Inventory". Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://silurus.acnatsci.org/ ↩
"AntWeb". Archived from the original on 27 October 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.antweb.org/ ↩
"Arctos". Archived from the original on 4 May 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2011. http://arctos.database.museum/ ↩
"Avibase – the World Bird Database". Archived from the original on 19 January 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2019. https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/ ↩
"ASEAN Biodiversity Information Sharing Service". Archived from the original on 6 June 2024. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.aseanbiodiversity.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=342&Itemid=137 ↩
"BioLib – Biological Library – Home". January 1997. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2019. https://www.biolib.cz/en/ ↩
"CITES-listed species database". Archived from the original on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.cites.org/eng/resources/species.html ↩
"COL". COL. Retrieved 19 December 2024. https://www.catalogueoflife.org/ ↩
"Fauna Europaea – All Europaean Animal Species Online". Archived from the original on 4 May 2022. Retrieved 4 June 2010. https://fauna-eu.org/ ↩
"FishBase : A Global Information System on Fishes". Archived from the original on 17 October 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.fishbase.org/ ↩
"Fishnet2". www.fishnet2.net. Retrieved 18 May 2025. https://www.fishnet2.net/about ↩
"Freshwater Ecoregions of the World". Archived from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.feow.org/ ↩
"FLOW: Fulgoromorpha Lists on The Web". Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018. https://www.hemiptera-databases.org/flow/ ↩
"GBIF". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 19 December 2024. https://www.gbif.org/ ↩
"Georgian Biodiversity database". www.biodiversity-georgia.net. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2022. http://www.biodiversity-georgia.net/ ↩
"HerpNET". Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.herpnet.org/ ↩
"Gupta, M., Naqvi, N., Kumar, P. (2017). i AMF – Centralized database of arbuscular mycorrhizal distribution, phylogeny and taxonomy. Journal of Recent Advances in Applied Sciences, 30 (1). 1 - 5". Archived from the original on 6 June 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317639054 ↩
"The state of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in India: An analysis | Request PDF". Archived from the original on 6 June 2024. Retrieved 16 August 2020. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286446497 ↩
"Integrated Biodiversity Information System". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2015. http://www.anbg.gov.au/ibis/ ↩
"Integrated Taxonomic Information System". Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 4 June 2010. http://www.itis.org/ ↩
"JACQ - Virtual Herbaria". www.jacq.org. Retrieved 19 December 2024. https://www.jacq.org/#database ↩
"microbewiki". microbewiki.kenyon.edu. Retrieved 29 October 2024. https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/MicrobeWiki ↩
"Mosquito Taxonomic Inventory". mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.myspecies.info. Retrieved 18 May 2025. https://mosquito-taxonomic-inventory.myspecies.info/ ↩
"Natural History Information System". Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 22 January 2014. http://www.nkis.info/ ↩
"Naturdata – Biodiversidade online". Archived from the original on 1 January 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2011. http://naturdata.com/ ↩
"NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life". Archived from the original on 15 March 2006. Retrieved 4 June 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20060315221327/http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/ ↩
"A Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI)". Archived from the original on 29 May 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2011. http://www.eu-nomen.eu/ ↩
"ScaleNet: Scale insect web catalog". Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2014. http://scalenet.info/ ↩
"Tropicos". www.tropicos.org. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 13 June 2022. https://www.tropicos.org/ ↩
"Wikispecies, free species directory". Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 5 June 2010. https://species.wikimedia.org/ ↩
"WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species". www.marinespecies.org. Retrieved 18 May 2025. https://www.marinespecies.org/ ↩