New biodiversity data access portal launched
Biofuel production and biodiversity are not necessarily two opposite ends of a spectrum. In fact, the large-scale use of sustainably produced carbon-negative biofuels may come at a cost in biodiversity that is far smaller than the cost of not using biofuels. After all, unmitigated climate change is set to have a major impact on global biodiversity and could bring countless species to the brink of extinction (earlier post and here).
Moreover, environmental damage in some of the biodiversity hotspots in the developing world is partly driven by material poverty which forces small farmers to slash and burn their way through forests for subsistence. The era of the bioeconomy provides opportunities to introduce far more advanced farming practises, opens an entirely new market that may yield unprecedented chances for farmers to increase their incomes, making them ultimately less dependent on destructive agricultural techniques. Sustainable farming in the South can only be achieved when farmers have the financial means to invest in inputs. Biofuels may be the market on which to obtain these means (earlier post).
But for this strategy to succeed against a far more destructive 'monoculturalist' logic, a whole series of policy instruments and decision making tools must be designed and made accessible to as large a number of stakeholders so that appropriate bioenergy strategies can be developed - from earth observation tools to 'biofuels atlases', policy databases and biodiversity records.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is exactly contributing to fulfilling this need. It launched a new internet tool today at an international meeting for scientific and technical advice to the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the UNESCO building in Paris.
The database produces zoomable maps showing the distribution of biodiversity records. In this example the map includes data shared for all species included in the genus Sorghum (218 species) (click to enlarge).
The new GBIF Data Portal is an Internet gateway to more than 130 million data records provided by 200+ institutions scattered over 30+ countries around the world. All of these data (with more to come) can be accessed all at once on the GBIF Data Portal.
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: developing world :: deforestation :: biodiversity :: database :: Google Earth ::
The Data Portal is a sophisticated tool for users to incorporate biodiversity data into their own websites, or download datasets for ecological studies.
When combined with environmental datasets (soil type, climate, elevation and the like), GBIF data can be used in predicting species' response to climate change, choosing the best places to put protected areas, and so on.
GBIF is an international organisation founded to make the world's biodiversity data freely and openly available worldwide. Membership now stands at 40 countries and 33 international organisations. Current non-members are welcome and invited to join.
The GBIF Data Portal is capable of handling hundreds of millions of data records. With the launch of the Portal, the GBIF network of data providers is set to grow dramatically, from hundreds to thousands of institutions.
GBIF makes the Portal and its extensive capabilities and services, as well as software for data providers, freely available. Civil society, countries and organisations are invited to utilise GBIF's new Data Portal.
References:
PowerPoint introductions to the new Portal used at the launch event are available in English, French and Spanish.
Article continues
Moreover, environmental damage in some of the biodiversity hotspots in the developing world is partly driven by material poverty which forces small farmers to slash and burn their way through forests for subsistence. The era of the bioeconomy provides opportunities to introduce far more advanced farming practises, opens an entirely new market that may yield unprecedented chances for farmers to increase their incomes, making them ultimately less dependent on destructive agricultural techniques. Sustainable farming in the South can only be achieved when farmers have the financial means to invest in inputs. Biofuels may be the market on which to obtain these means (earlier post).
But for this strategy to succeed against a far more destructive 'monoculturalist' logic, a whole series of policy instruments and decision making tools must be designed and made accessible to as large a number of stakeholders so that appropriate bioenergy strategies can be developed - from earth observation tools to 'biofuels atlases', policy databases and biodiversity records.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is exactly contributing to fulfilling this need. It launched a new internet tool today at an international meeting for scientific and technical advice to the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) at the UNESCO building in Paris.
The database produces zoomable maps showing the distribution of biodiversity records. In this example the map includes data shared for all species included in the genus Sorghum (218 species) (click to enlarge).
The new GBIF Data Portal is an Internet gateway to more than 130 million data records provided by 200+ institutions scattered over 30+ countries around the world. All of these data (with more to come) can be accessed all at once on the GBIF Data Portal.
This new Portal is one of the key tools GBIF has been working toward since its inception in 2001. It will be extremely useful in improving decisions in support of sustainable development. - Dr. Nick King, currently CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and soon to become Executive Secretary of GBIF.Using GBIF's new search engine, you can find where on the globe a species can be found, or get a list of species in your country or your back yard. The data retrieved are instantly mapped by the Portal. The data can also, if the user chooses, be easily plotted on Google Earth:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: developing world :: deforestation :: biodiversity :: database :: Google Earth ::
The Data Portal is a sophisticated tool for users to incorporate biodiversity data into their own websites, or download datasets for ecological studies.
When combined with environmental datasets (soil type, climate, elevation and the like), GBIF data can be used in predicting species' response to climate change, choosing the best places to put protected areas, and so on.
GBIF is an international organisation founded to make the world's biodiversity data freely and openly available worldwide. Membership now stands at 40 countries and 33 international organisations. Current non-members are welcome and invited to join.
The GBIF Data Portal is capable of handling hundreds of millions of data records. With the launch of the Portal, the GBIF network of data providers is set to grow dramatically, from hundreds to thousands of institutions.
GBIF makes the Portal and its extensive capabilities and services, as well as software for data providers, freely available. Civil society, countries and organisations are invited to utilise GBIF's new Data Portal.
References:
PowerPoint introductions to the new Portal used at the launch event are available in English, French and Spanish.
Article continues
Monday, July 02, 2007
Physicists find way to increase ultracapacitor energy density seven times
For electric vehicles to be mass-produced and penetrate the market, advances are needed in energy storage technologies. Besides batteries and fuel cells, ultra-capacitators stand a good chance of finding an important application in the sector: high performance capacitors would enable hybrid and electric cars with much greater acceleration and better regeneration of electricity when using brakes.
North Carolina State University physicists have now deduced a way to improve high-energy-density capacitors so that they can store up to seven times as much energy per unit volume than the common capacitor:
biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: electricity :: carbon-negative :: ultracapacitator :: hybrid ::
A capacitor is an energy storage device. Electrical energy is stored by a difference in charge between two metal surfaces. Unlike a battery, capacitors are designed to release their energy very quickly (graph, click to enlarge). They are used in electric power systems, hybrid cars, spacecraft and all kinds of electronics.
The amount of energy that a capacitor can store depends on the insulating material in between the metal surfaces, called a dielectric. A polymer called PVDF has interested physicists as a possible high-performance dielectric. It exists in two forms, polarized or unpolarized. In either case, its structure is mostly frozen-in and changes only slightly when a capacitor is charged up. Mixing a second polymer called CTFE with PVDF results in a material with regions that can change their structure, enabling it to store and release unprecedented amounts of energy.
The team, led by Vivek Ranjan, concluded that a more ordered arrangement of the material inside the capacitor could further increase the energy storage of new high-performance capacitors, which already store energy four times more densely than capacitors used in industry. Their predictions of higher energy density capacitors are encouraging, but have yet to be experimentally tested.
References
Vivek Ranjan, L. Yu, M. Nardelli and J. Bernholc, "High-performance energy storage", Physical Review Letters (forthcoming).
Eurekalert: The first heat transistor, remote controlled nanomachines, and more from APS Physics - July 2, 2007.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 8:29 PM 1 comments links to this post