Articles for category "Programme"

One of IUBS’ main activities is to initiate, facilitate and coordinate research and other scientific activities necessitating international, interdisciplinary cooperation. IUBS conducts international collaborative scientific programmes in close cooperation with its ordinary and scientific members.

The IUBS currently runs several programmes, concerning education, climate change, and biodiversity to name a few. In the past the IUBS has successfully completed programmes concerning ethics, biodiversity change or traditional knowledge.

IUBS possesses core strengths in integrative biology that contribute to better understanding of life and its diversity. In this context, IUBS has been actively partnering with the "Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)" since 1998. A specific example of its active role is in the organization of meetings of “Science for Biodiversity Forum” at the CBD, framing policies with scientific information for the attainment of the goals of the conventions. IUBS supplements these core strengths by integrating information from other areas of biology, and from the physical sciences and humanities, to help solve major environmental problems.

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities of BCGC have been summarized for the years

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Triennium: 2016-2018

Leader

Zhibin Zhang

Steering Committee

John Buckeridge, Nils Chr. Stenseth, Mauricio Lima, Zhibin Zhang, David B. Wake, Yury Yu. Dgebuadz, Alain Roques, Hari C. Sharma, Abraham Haim, Jürgen Heinze, Sarita Maree, Chunxu Han, Yvon Le Maho, Anthony Barnosky, Guangshun Jiang*, Chun Yan*

* early career scientists

List of the IUBS National Committees involved in the project

China National Committee for IUBS

National Natural Science Foundation of China

China Association for Science and Technology

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Russian National Committee for IUBS

IUBS Scientific Members involved in the project

International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS)

Field of research

Zoology, botany, ecology, statistics, biography, meteorology, anthropology, morphology, anatomy, biogeography, evolution, time series analysis, bio-matrix, molecular biology, biodiversity and conservation, risk assessment, biomathematics and modelling, etc.

Questions addressed by the project

• Impact of global change on outbreaks of biological disasters, such as diseases, insect and rodent pests, etc.
• Impact of global change on biological invasion of alien species
• Impact of global change on abundance and range shift of endangered species
• Impact of global change on community structure and biodiversity of different ecosystems
• Nonlinearity and interactions of global change in affecting biological populations

Website of the Programme

http://www.globalzoology.org/dct/page/70004

The report of all activities of the iCCB programme in 2018 is now online.

The BCGC Program organized several academic activities and achieved very fruitful outputs in 2018. 

Those included organizing the 10th International Symposium of Integrative Zoology in Beijing, the cooperative research visits on rodent monitoring and population control in Southeast Asia and Africa, co-organizing the 6th International Conference on Rodent Biology and Management, the 16th Rodent et Spatium in Germany, the 2018 Annual Meeting of the International Alliance of Protected Areas in Changbaishan, China, the 3rd Training Course on Wildlife Monitoring and Camera Trapping in Xishuangbannan, China, the Asia-Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network Training Workshop – Developing Skills in Forest Protection: an Integrative Approach in Beijing, the Symposium on the Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road (Pan-TPE) in Beijing, the World Forum on Integrative Zoology, and the Exhibition on Coordination Man and Biosphere to Protect Life Community in Beijing.

Prof Hiroyuki Takeda, President, IUBS and Prof Nils Chr. Stenseth, Immediate Past President, IUBS were invited to attend some of the activities above. 

Prof Zhibin Zhang, Leader of the BCGC program, received his Life Time Recognition of Excellence and Contribution Award at the 6th International Conference on Rodent Biology and Management in Germany. Prof Nils Chr. Stenseth, a core scientist in the BCGC program, was met by the Chinese Vice Primer, Liu He in Nov 2018 in Beijing and received his International Cooperation Award at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Dec 2018.

Download BCGC 2008-2018 Full Report

The BHBD Initiative has made great progress in 2018 with the support of IUBS. One major achievement is the official launch of the BHBD Alliance on October 14, 2018 in Beijing, China (http://bhbd-alliance.org/). Founding members of the Alliance include five institutions from China, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand.

The Alliance is open to any IUBS member and other organization for application. In 2018 we organized five international meetings/conferences/workshops with over 400 participants in total, gave presentations of the programme on seven additional occasions, and published one article in Nucleic Acids Research.

The BCGC programme of IUBS celebrated its 10^th anniversary during the 10^th International Symposium on Integrative Zoology (ISIZ) with the 2018 World Life Science Conference (2018 WLSC) that was held on 27-31 October 2018 in the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

150 participants attended the symposium.

During 2018 the program organized two workshops. A holistic framework to understand sustainable pastoralism at the global scale was defined. Indicators to assess sustainability of pastoralism across time scales and disciplines were listed. This yielded a draft for a perspective paper to be submitted in 2019 presenting this novel approach. At the same time, potential future collaborators and funding was identified. A roadmap toward securing major funding to implement the proposed framework was decided. This included the drafting of two different concept notes: One more academic, centered in the exercise of understanding pastoralism globally, and another one emphasizing the policy relevance and applied aspects gained from such a proposed framework. Small funding was obtained from several sources to cover costs of the group meetings.
 
We are planning to finish the perspective manuscript presenting the interdisciplinary approach, and submitting it to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).
 
We are planning to have a session on the Pastoralism initiative during the General Assembly this summer in Oslo, to present and discuss the work we have been doing and our future plans.

During 2018 the program organized two workshops. A holistic framework to understand sustainable pastoralism at the global scale was defined. Indicators to assess sustainability of pastoralism across time scales and disciplines were listed. This yielded a draft for a perspective paper to be submitted in 2019 presenting this novel approach. At the same time, potential future collaborators and funding was identified. A roadmap toward securing major funding to implement the proposed framework was decided. This included the drafting of two different concept notes: One more academic, centered in the exercise of understanding pastoralism globally, and another one emphasizing the policy relevance and applied aspects gained from such a proposed framework. Small funding was obtained from several sources to cover costs of the group meetings.
 
We are planning to finish the perspective manuscript presenting the interdisciplinary approach, and submitting it to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS).
 
We are planning to have a session on the Pastoralism initiative during the General Assembly this summer in Oslo, to present and discuss the work we have been doing and our future plans.

BCGC programme has completed its action plan and got all its expected results for 2017.

It co-organized the 9^th International Symposium of Integrative Zoology (ISIZ) 27-31 August 2017, Xining, Qinghai province, China with a focus on response and adaptation of animals to extreme environments. Over 150 scientists from more than 20 countries came and attended the symposium. The co-organizers and supporters were: 

• the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS)
• the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS)
• the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology (IOZ), CAS
• Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN)
• Asia-Pacific Wildlife Diseases Network (APWDN)
• Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis (CEES), University of Oslo, Norway
• Bureau of International Cooperation (CAS)
• Department of International Affairs and Department of Academic and Societies Affairs (CAST)
• Division of Life Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China
• Qinghai Association for Science and Technology, China
• the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology (NWIPB), CAS,
• John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The BCGC programme will celebrate its 10^th anniversary during the 10^th ISIZ (International Symposia on Integrative Zoology) with the 2018 World Life Science Conference (2018 WLSC) that will be held on 28-30 October 2018 in the Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

We worked toward securing institutional support for the iCCB mission in continuing to advance the research in trait-based approaches to conservation. We also started planning towards an Africa-specific program concentrating on conservation paleobiology under the IUBS.

iCCB’s goals for 2017 were to publish collaborative high impact research papers, to organize a research and training workshop, and hold at least one steering committee meeting. We published 16 papers, including in Science, PNAS, Nature Ecology & Evolution, and Current Biology.

We organized a training workshop in March 6th-8th 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya and we had a steering committee meeting for planning our activities for 2018 and for creating a new vision for an inclusive programme in conservation paleobiology in Africa.

Organized a Town Hall meeting for biodiversity professionals at the Natural History Museum, London to discuss the strategies for registration of organismal names with Thomas Pape (President of the ICZN), March 2017.

Represented at the Catalogue of Life+ (CoL+) meeting in Woods Hole, Ma, USA, April, 2017

Presented a seminar on registration of scientific names at GenBank/NCBI, NIH, Washington, D.C., July 2017

Represented at the International Council for Science (ICSU, now International Science Council) and Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) meeting held at the Royal Society, London, November 2017

Contributed to an NSF proposal on scientific names

Contributed to a huge, collaborative, cross-disciplinary topical rebuttal paper on scientific nomenclature - see Thomson SA, Pyle RL, et al. [184 authors] Taxonomy based on science is necessary for global conservation. PLoS Biology. (published 2018)

The following projects were continued in the "AgroEcosystems Managed Pollinators" programme:

The programme on Ecological Intensification by using managed pollinators, understanding of the diversity of wild pollinators, coupled with dissemination of biological control agents against crop diseases and pests has progressed exceedingly well.

The projects in Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, Serbia, USA and Canada were continued (read more).

Expertise derived from the IUBS sponsored experiments is being shared internationally in North, South and Central America, Europe, Africa, and Asia on the pollination/protection systems on the crops mentioned above. To facilitate progress, passive dispensers and an alternative diluent/carrier powder (to BVT Inc.’s Vectorite ®) recipe have been provided by ADI to partners for continuing and comparative experiments.  The electro-mechanical dispenser for honeybee hives (BVT Inc.) seems to have encountered technical difficulties.  Prototypes may be available to the IUBS programme in 2018.

Overall, the programme has received positive responses. The IUBS Programme has exceeded expectations as seed-funding and has resulted in extra-mural national grants about 9X the IUBS/ADI grant to ADI’s partners in Kenya, Colombia, Canada and Mexico and 1.4X the IUBS/ADI grant in value handled directly by ADI.

Publications and presentations at meetings with participants ranging from the public and growers, to policy makers, to extension and scientific bodies continue to expand the technology transfer.

Partnerships with academic and research organisations (e.g. academic and government research and with IOBC and ICPPR) are growing and industry support, especially BVT Inc. and with growers, is increasing.

The project is building a consortium of BHBD with core members consist of countries and regions within IUBS. China, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Thailand agreed to be founding members, Korea is likely to join too.

see attached a slide presenting the timeline of the project

The website of the project was established: www.bhbd-alliance.org

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities of UBTI have been summarized for the years

2018 

2017

Global change is one of the most hotly discussed topics in the world. Understanding the impact of global change is extremely important for the sustainable development of our earth. Therefore, in 2008, the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS) initiated an international research program called Biological Consequences of Global Change (BCGC). In 2009, BCGC was adopted by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) as a new international research program. In 2012, BCGC was reviewed as the core of IUBS scientific programmes and it was approved the by the 31st IUBS GA to implement the BCGC program for the next triennium (2013-2015).

The aim of BCGC is to promote understanding of the impact of global change on our biological systems so as to improve the management of our changing world. The focus of BCGC is to organize a diverse group of international experts in various scientific disciplines, to study the consequences of both global climate change and human activities on biological systems.

The BCGC programme also endeavors to promote international collaborations in this field among different countries, by organizing academic publications, workshops, a database and young scientist trainings. Moreover, through building the BCGC into a flagship program, the influence and leadership of IUBS in this very important field will be promoted and secured.

In 2013, BCGC organized 2 symposia, 1 workshop, 1 training course, 1 special issue in Integrative Zoology, and database consolidation. BCGC not only completed all actions described in the action plan for 2013, but exceeded.

Development of partnership

Sarita Maree, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Zoology & Entomology and Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, South Africa became a member scientist in the program.

Other outcomes

• A special issue on BCGC in Integrative Zoology was organized and published in June 2013
• A special presentation about the BCGC program was delivered at the ISZS Institutional Members meeting on 29^th June 2013, Beijing, China
• A program information leaflet was displayed at the 5th ICSU Regional Consultation, “Future Earth in Asia and the Pacific”, 26–27 November 2013, Seoul, Korea
  
• A presentation on BCGC was delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Ecology 17–19 October 2013, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
  
• A website was designed and constructed on ISZS official website at: http://www.globalzoology.org/dct/page/70004

Several activities were carried out in the Biological Consequences of Global Change (BCGC) scientific programme of IUBS in 2015.

The scienftfic programme Biological Consequences of Global Change (BCGC) has completed its action plan and got all its expected results for 2016. By organizing the 8^th International Symposium of Integrative Zoology (ISIZ) with a focus on long-term monitoring and data analysis on grassland ecosystem under global change, over 100 scientists from Russia, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Israel, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Iran, Malaysia, Bangladesh, USA, UK, France, German, Australia and China attended. The co-organizers and supporters were International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS); Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere Program, UNESCO; Institute of Zoology (IOZ), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); The State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management, IOZ, CAS; National Nature Reserve of Xilinguole Grassland, Inner Mongolia, China; Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo, Norway; A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences; China National Committee for International Union of Biological Sciences (CCIUBS); Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network (APFISN); Asia-Pacific Wildlife Diseases Network (APWDN); Bureau of International Cooperation, CAS; Department of International Affairs, China Association for Science and Technology; Division of Life Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Development of partnership

Six scientists from France, USA, China (2), Mexico, and India joined the BCGC program in 2016

Our economy, supply of food and materials, our health, and individual and collective well-being are set within the context of our natural world. Our world is under pressure from the demands of a growing population. Biologists need new ways to access, organize and analyze biological information to better predict the nature of future change and to inform decisions makers. Biological information relates to elements as small as subatomic particles, and as large as the entire biosphere, and to processes that last from less than a femtosecond to many billions of years. We must develop and integrate the informatics tools, processes and skills to manage digital information across the full spectrum of biological phenomena. The first component is to index all information out there using tools that manage the problems that arise from the use of many different names for each species and the increasing use of molecular identifiers for species. The new tools must penetrate deep into the long tail of information sources. 'Unifying Biology Through Informatics' will articulate, in increasing detail, the nature of an indexing infrastructure capable of evolving in response to the evolving needs of producers and users of data; the hosting, funding and sustainability of the infrastructure, and the political and social changes needed to secure the adoption, longevity, and use of the infrastructure. The programme will identify selected use-cases, and use them to identify the most pressing challenges and opportunities.

Leader

Nils Chr. Stenseth

Steering Committee

Nils Chr. Stenseth (Norway), David Patterson (Ireland), David Shorthouse (Canada)

IUBS National Committees involved in the project

Australian Academy of Sciences

Royal Irish Academy 

IUBS Scientific Members involved in the project

Biodiversity Information Standards (Taxonomic Database Working Group, TDWG)

Field of Research

Biological information management

Disciplines involved

Biodiversity, Molecular Biology, Ecology, Computing Science, Informatics

Questions addressed

The programme will articulate the scope and scale of biology, the likely nature of an infrastructure, existing elements, technical (e.g. ontologies and data transfer schemas), sociological (e.g. open access) issues, where an infrastructure may be housed, sustainable funding, and a road map for a comprehensive infrastructure. The Programme will target production-grade indexing services to optimise access to digital information about Biology.

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities in the scientific pollinator programme have been summarized for the years

2017 

2016

2015

2014

2013

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities of iCCB have been summarized for the years

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities of ICB have been summarized for the years

2017

2016

2015

2014

Milestones reached: 2010-2013

2013

2012

2011

2010

The year of 2010 is an important year for the BCGC program and it made progress in scientific research on biodiversity, endangered species and biological disasters. It also organised a special issue in the official journal of the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS), Integrative Zoology. 9 papers on BCGC were published in the journal.

In 2010, the program constructed an online working platform and a preliminary database for scientists in the BCGC program. Currently, the website is in its testing phase and it will soon be formally launched.

In 2010, the program also organized several international meetings and conferences. Those included an international symposium on Invasion of Alien Species, in Myshkin, Russia, another international symposium on “BCGC – Data Analysis and Sharing,” and a special workshop on the program, both in Kunming, China.

In June 2010, the program presented a progress report to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the CAS is satisfied with the progress made in the programme.

Development of partnership

Two more scientists from Russia joined the programme.

Global change is one of the most hotly discussed topics in the world. Understanding the impact of global change is extremely important for the sustainable development of our earth. In 2008, the International Society of Zoological Sciences (ISZS) initiated an international research program called Biological Consequences of Global Change (BCGC). In 2009, BCGC was adopted by the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) as a new international research program. In 2012, BCGC was reviewed as the core of IUBS scientific programmes and it was approved the by the 31st IUBS GA to implement the BCGC program for the next triennium (2013-2015).

The aim of BCGC is to promote understanding of the impact of global change on our biological systems so as to improve the management of our changing world. The focus of BCGC is to organize a diverse group of international experts in various scientific disciplines, to study the consequences of both global climate change and human activities on biological systems.

The BCGC programme also endeavors to promote international collaborations in this field among different countries, by organizing academic publications, workshops, a database and young scientist trainings. Moreover, through building the BCGC into a flagship program, the influence and leadership of IUBS in this very important field will be promoted and secured.

Events

In 2014, BCGC organized 1 symposium, 1 workshop, 1 training course, and database consolidation.

Development of partnership

China National Committee for Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program, United Nations.

Activities are summarized every year for review through the Executive Board of IUBS.

Activities of BCGC have been summarized for the years

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Website of the Programme

http://iccbio.org/

Introduction

A wealth of data now exists on biotic changes that occurred over the last one to two decades, but scientific understanding of the processes involved, the magnitude of the changes, and their likely outcomes is still in its infancy, largely due to the lack of long-term baselines against which to compare these data.

The iCCB is working to provide appropriate baselines by integrating data from long-term ecological studies and the even longer-term data provided by paleontology. A trait-based, community macroecology approach allows integration of data across the temporal and spatial scales at which climate change biologists, ecologists, and paleontologists work.

Leader

Jussi T. Eronen, A. Michelle Lawing, Jason Head

Jenny McGuire added to the leadership during 2017 to foster new research initiative and Johannes Müller as program secretary.

Steering Committee

Jussi T. Eronen, Mikael Fortelius, Jason Head, Michelle Lawing, P. David Polly, Christoph Scheidegger, Nils Chr. Stenseth

Countries involved

Finland, Norway, Germany, UK, Switzerland, USA

Field of Research

Climate Change Biology, Conservation Paleobiology, Global Change Ecology

Disciplines involved

Paleontology, Ecology & Evolution, Geology, Atmospheric Science, Conservation Science, Political Science

Questions addressed

1. Develop methods that can be used to measure past, present and future.
2. Develop modeling for trait evolution and community dynamics through time.
3. Investigate what are functional  “tipping points” before ecological collapse
4. Can we jointly estimate detectability and occurrence in the fossil record?
5. How can we use fossil record to inform about future environmental changes?

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2016 is online now.

The programme on Ecological Intensification through applications of managed pollinators, understanding of the diversity of wild pollinators, coupled with dissemination of biological control agents against crop diseases and pests has progressed well. Three projects on sunflower seed production and protection (Serbia, Canada & USA) all showed yield increases by 20 - 30% through honey bee and bumblebee pollination and simultaneous suppression of Sclerotinia head rot. Field trials on strawberries in USA and Canada show that fruit yield, size, sugar content, shelf-life are all significantly improved through managed pollination and simultaneous suppression of grey mould (Botrytis). Experiments are in progress for strawberry protection and pollination in Colombia. Expertise has been shared in Serbia, Colombia and Canada with expectation of experiments on raspberries and more on strawberries being started in 2017.

Research on coffee pollinators pollination has progressed well in central and southern Mexico with several presentations and publication of a book. Advances in Brazil for coffee pollination and protection in Bahia have progressed well with demonstration that Africanized honeybees can be effective disseminators of biological control materials. In Pernambuco, progress has been hampered by continuing drought. In Kenya, the team has surveyed for the pests and diseases of coffee and identified field sites for 2017 experiments. In Canada, major advances through BVT Inc. have been made in development of an electro-mechanical biocontrol agent dispenser for honeybee hives. These will be available to projects under the IUBS programme in Canada, USA, Serbia, Kenya, Mexico and Colombia early in 2017. Passive dispensers have been provided to partners for continuing and comparative experiments.

The programme has received positive responses from some 10 presentations at meetings with participants ranging from the public and growers, to policy makers, to extension and scientific bodies.  Seven publications can be attributed in full or in part to the programme and range from scientific reviews to policy guidelines and for the general public.

Partnerships with academic and research organisations (e.g. academic and government research and with IOBC and ICPPR) continue to expand and industry support, especially BVT Inc. and with growers is increasing.

The programme has enjoyed a great deal of cooperation and synergy by working with other organisations in Serbia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Canada.

Development of partnerships

The consortium of partners has expanded to include one additional member, The National University of Colombia (UNAL).  UNAL obtained grant support in 2016 from granting agencies in Colombia for Research and Development to explore the use of managed pollinators (honeybees) in suppressing diseases in strawberry production.  It is expected that the program will expand to include coffee in the near future.  ADI visited the team late in 2016 and more formal partnerships between UNAL and U of Guelph have been initiated.

Overtures to include NSseme, a major commercial seed producer in Serbia, resulted in formalization of the partnership and a successful project on the use of bumblebees to disseminate Chlonostachys rosea for the control of Sclerotinia head rot on sunflowers. This partnership also includes BVT Inc. and its collaborating scientists at North Dakota State University. The consortium already includes the University of Belgrade which has been central to this development.

Partnerships have been established in the beekeeping sector and are allowing testing of dispensing devices under field conditions in Canada. 

Partnership prospects have been initiated between ICPPR and IOBC (both scientific members of IUBS) for the establishment of a joint Working Group to explore international scientific collaborations in the area of using managed pollinators for control of crop pests and diseases.

Partnership within the University of Guelph have resulted in an NSERC-Engage Grant  ($CAD25,000) to study the mathematical models applicable to epidemiology and control of the Varroa-virus complex devastating honeybee colonies in EU and North America. This partnership included BVT Inc. It is now in the process of being expanded for more general issues in honeybee colony health with Dutchman’s Gold Inc. (honey producers) in Ontario, Canada.

A partnership was initiated in 2016 with the horticulturalists and plant pathologists for the Government of Manitoba.  It is expected that trials for pollination and disease control will start on raspberries in 2017.  These will be coordinated with research planned for 2017 in Serbia through the University of Belgrade.

The Chair of International Committee for Bionomenclature (ICB), Ellinor Michel, presented an invited seminar and extended discussion session on registration of scientific names of animals at GenBank, the global genetic sequence database at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) in Washington DC, Dec 2016. As an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequence, GenBank is one of the largest, most professionally focused and influential users of scientific names of organisms. This meeting set the foundation for collaborative links between ICB and GenBank.

Work also continued on a collaborative, cross-user and cross-taxonomic ‘white paper’ on digital nomenclature, with input from approximately 12 authors who met with IUBS funding in 2016.

Development of partnership

Discussion of a collaborative link with GenBank was initiated during a seminar and discussion meeting in December 2016. 

Other activities

The ICB website was developed to include presentations from the ICB-IUBS meeting in Berlin in December 2015.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2016 is online now.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2015 is online now.

Several activieties were carried out 2015.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2015 is online now.

Several activities took place in 2015.

Our grand goal for the next three years is to bring to fruition some of our most impactful products, including a high impact perspectives paper on “Managing for a Changing Planet” and a book on methodologies associated with the ecometric approach. We plan to work toward securing institutional support for the iCCB mission in continuing to advance the research in trait-based approaches to conservation, as well as work towards planning a larger global change initiative under IUBS.

iCCB’s goals for 2016 were to publish collaborative high impact papers on the ongoing research, to start planning for the ecometrics book, and to organize a training workshop and hold at least one steering committee meeting.  We published 10 papers, including one in PNAS and one in Science. We also have engaged Cambridge University Press in discussions about an Ecometrics book that synthesizes iCCB’s work on functional traits as a common currency for scaling data from paleontology, ecology, and climate change biology.  A training workshop will be held in March 6-8 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya.

iCCB’s goals for 2014 were to facilitate research on climate change biology that integrates ecological, paleontological, and climatic data and to promote integrated research to the scientific community.  A key feature of iCCB research is focus on organismal trait/environment links because such data are scalable across time and space.  In 2014, iCCB held two international research workshops, organized an open scientific symposium, published 4 papers, submitted 4 more articles, and disseminated research through public plenaries and individual presentations by iCCB members at venues in China, North America, and Europe.

The first workshop was titled “Traits in Texas: Ecometrics, phylogeny, fossils, and biotic change” on April 2014 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The two research purposes of this workshop were to continue iCCB research projects that originated at our Birmensdorf, Switzerland workshop in 2012 and to introduce new US researchers to the iCCB program.

The second workshop, titled Ecosystem services and traits”, was held on November 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. This meeting convened interdisciplinary group of scientists to discuss how the functional trait concept could be applied to ecosystem services and how to develop new research that would have a societal impact. Participants were researchers from universities, private companies, and state research institutes. The products from this workshop will be a new concept paper about combining the traits concept and ecosystem services, a review paper, and a presentation on these papers at a conference in Turku, Finland in June 2015 (Futures Studies Tackling Wicked Problems).

iCCB also sponsored a symposium titled “Ecometrics and biotic change” at the 74^th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Berlin, Germany on 8 November, 2014.  The symposium featured presentations on ecometric theory and methods, as well as research applications.  The aim was to raise awareness within the vertebrate paleontology research community about the questions and techniques being used in climate change biology.  Speakers included vertebrate paleontologists, evolutionary ecologists, and phylogeneticists who have approached climate change biology from interdisciplinary perspectives.

The project on the application of managed pollinators to crop protection and production using coffee in Latin America as a case study was fully launched in 2014 with experimental activities in Pernambuco, Ceara, and Bahia in Brazil and in Chiapas ,Veracruz and Puebla in Mexico. The main activities in 2014 were the selection of sites and co-operator farmers where coffee is being produced organically and commercially. The cooperator grower are enthusiastic to be involved and excited with the prospects of suppressing populations of berry borer (a beetle) and some fungal pests. Coffee blooming was expected to start late in 2014, but seems to have been delayed by weather until early 2015. All is in complete readiness for the bloom when honeybees foraging from hives equipped with special dispensers (models and plans were delivered in 2014 for local manufacture of additional dispensers) will transfer custom-formulated biological control agents (shipped and delivered to Brazil and Mexico in 2014) to coffee flowers. Standard Operating Procedures for making and using dispensers, applying the biocontrol agents, and monitoring the outcome of the treatments were written and delivered with dispensers and formulated agent. Results are expected to start flowing early in 2015.

The project has also presented one well-received webinar on coffee pollination and protection directed at Latin America and the Caribbean. The next is planned for early 2015 for Africa and Asia. The scope of the technology of pollination coupled with crop protection has been presented at several university seminars in Europe, at international meetings, at the International Pollination Course in Brazil, through magazine articles and at organic grower and like meetings in Canada. The result has been international interest in the technology and its application in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North America.

A modernised digital nomenclature is at the nexus of accelerating taxonomy. We held an ICB-linked, invited workshop of key players to outline how we can exploit the opportunity created by nomenclatural registration, mass digitisation, rapid and accessible publication and data generation in e-taxonomy, to allow a step-change increase the rate delivery of biodiversity information, catalysing new research and exposing emergent patterns from complex information. Fifteen participants representing major taxonomic projects met in London and are drafting a white paper document, to be followed by professional taxonomic community participation in a follow-up meeting in 2015.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2014 is online now.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2014 is online now.

The main focus of activty was the discussion of nomenclature in the context of increased role for molecular data as the prmary taxobase underpinning taxonomic decsions. The symposium in Vienna was a premier opportunity to do this, and the collaborative links were followed through in additional meetings. New collabortions and further meetings are planned as a result.

The key unifying mechanism for all the components discussed by the ICB in recent years is a unified system of digital nomenclature (as indicated in last year’s ICB report to IUBS). The sope of the programme should thus be shifted to Nomenclature in an age of Big Data as the next major item on the agenda for ICB consideration. An informal working group with extensive experience in this topic has been convened, including a number of chief executives of relevant projects (e.g., GBIF, Smithsonian, ZooBank, etc.). This group has had a number of Skype meetings and drafted planning documents to launch a cross-taxonmic, global digital system for nomeclatural information access, with an aim to hold a workshop, paired with a major symposium, on digital nomenclature in Septmeber 2014. The ICB will provide the core participants for the workshop, with additional funding and hosting by the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA and Oxford University, UK.

Development of partnership

The ICB BioCode Programme has brought together representatives of all established codes of nomenclature. Discussions continue about linking existing Codes digitally, and harmonising the process through aspects presented in the BioCode. The main mechanism for this is developing a globally integrated system for digital nomenclature. Further meetings to establish protocols and standards are planned, and new partners with expertise in ‘Big Data’ in the natural sciences have become key partners in the work of the ICB.

The 2013 activities of iCCB focused on furthering progress among our working groups in ecometric (trait-based) research on climate change biology, on developing our internet outreach tools, especially an iCCB website and database, on obtaining supplemental funding for major iCCB-led meetings, and on planning for future workshops and short courses. A meeting of our trait modeling working group was held at Indiana University in February, which produced a prototype numerical model of the dynamics between species, geography, traits, environment, and climate, the first results of which were presented at an international conference in Los Angeles in the autumn.  A working group created iCCB’s first outreach website. A database working group met in Helsinki to begin assembling ecometric data for dissemination via the iCCB website. iCCB members were also important contributors to the Scientific Consensus on Maintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21^st Century.

We organized two workshops.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2013 is online now.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2013 is online now.

We reviewed input on the Draft BioCode (2011) and emerged satisfied that a single typological Code for the future covering all organisms is feasible, provided that there were exceptions for some special groups. The workshop decided that it would be premature to seek its formal adoption by IUBS and IUMS because: (1) the increasing convergence in the Special Codes, and (2) the development in new digital models for handling nomenclatural information. The Committee was pleased to note that elements of the Draft BioCode (2011) were being incorporated into the Special Codes. It was determined that the BioCode would continue to serve as a framework to influence the development of future typological Codes. As harmonization of the principle terms used by the Codes will facilitate inter-Code discussions, the committee published its recommendations on terminology (see: David et al. 2012).

Three new areas were identified as requiring particular attention: (1) the naming of organisms in an era of molecular-based discovery; (2) challenges with ambiregnal organisms, (3) the changing electronic environment for handling names.

A wealth of data now exists on biotic changes that occurred over the last one to two decades, but scientific understanding of the processes involved, the magnitude of the changes, and their likely outcomes is still in its infancy, largely due to the lack of long-term baselines against which to compare these data. The iCCB is working to provide appropriate baselines by integrating data from long-term ecological studies and the even longer-term data provided by paleontology. A trait-based, community macroecology approach allows integration of data across the temporal and spatial scales at which climate change biologists, ecologists, and paleontologists work. In its current phase, the iCCB is disseminating this approach through outreach aimed at researchers and university students around the world via web and strategically chosen conference symposia, through sharing of trait-based data to facilitate new research in this area, and through original research by iCCB working groups.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2012 is online now.

The report of all activities in the BCGC programme 2012 is online now.

In operation for three years, the program has become more effective in 2011. The second special issue of BCGC will be published in Integrative Zoology in the first half of 2012, just before the 31^st IUBS General Assembly in Suzhou, China. Integrative Zoology is an SCI indexed journal with an impact factor in 2011 at 1.000.

The program organised two workshops, one symposium and an international training course, either individually or in cooperation with other organizations. These included: a training workshop on "Climate Change and Biosphere Reserves" in cooperation with the Chinese National Committee for MAB Programme and a Workshop on Wildlife–borne Diseases Control and Management in the Asia-Pacific Region in cooperation with the Bureau of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Natural Reserve Management, the State Forestry Administration (SFA), China; and Wildlife Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Publications

9 submitted papers

Development of partnership

Two scientists from France and two from China joined the program.

The Draft BioCode 2011 was published in January 2011, both on the project's webpage and separately in Bionomina, Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, and Taxon. A symposium to present the new draft to biosystematists, "Modernizing the Nomenclatural Codes to meet future Needs of Scientific Communities (BioCode)", was convened during Biosystematics 2011 (incorporating the VII International Congress of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology) in Berlin on 23 February 2011. A round-table debate followed the formal presentations, which enabled many features on the new draft to be further explained and concerns aired. The new draft was approved in principle by the Congress subject to finalization of the BioCode in the light of comments received from biologists as a whole. In order to facilitate the views of the widest possible range of biologists, a mechanism for posting comments has been established through the International Commission on Zoological Nomencalture's website.

We intend our effort to be integrative to provide hierarchical explorations of processes at the individual, population and community levels. We will need to understand the past if we are to forecast the future. Climate change biology is a complex societal and scienti?c issue that requires joint efforts in scienti?c research, outreach and education.

Only when researchers of diverse expertise join forces to

(i) identify, articulate and structure the problem,

(ii) provide hierarchical explorations of the issue, and

(iii) develop research, outreach and educational frameworks, can we address climate change biology in a proper way.

Overcoming challenges of inter-disciplinary research requires a common framework and language that is able to link biological and physical processes that occur, and are investigated, across a huge variety of spatial and temporal scales.

An up-dated version of the Draft BioCode 1997 was circulated to a working group of the IUBS/IUMS International Committee on Bionomenclature for discussion in September 2010, prior to a workshop convened at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum in Berlin on 21-23 October 2010. This was attended by 13 members representing different groups of organisms, and who were involved in the bodies concerned with biological nomenclature. The draft was discussed in detail and revised, and the procedure for obtaining inputs and views from a wide range of taxonomists agreed. The Draft BioCode 2011 was then released through the Committee's website [www.bionomenclature.org]and also for publication in Bionomina, the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, and Taxon. A session devoted to the initiative has been planned for the International Congress of systematic and Evolutionary Biology to be held in Berlin on 21-27 February 2011. A book "Terms used in bionomenclature: the naming of organisms (and plant communities)" prepared in support of the programme was also finalized and published.

We intend our effort to be integrative to provide hierarchical explorations of processes at the individual, population and community levels. We will need to understand the past if we are to forecast the future. Climate change biology is a complex societal and scienti?c issue that requires joint efforts in scienti?c research, outreach and education. Only when researchers of diverse expertise join forces to (i) identify, articulate and structure the problem, (ii) provide hierarchical explorations of the issue, and (iii) develop research, outreach and educational frameworks, can we address climate change biology in a proper way. Overcoming challenges of inter-disciplinary research requires a common framework and language that is able to link biological and physical processes that occur, and are investigated, across a huge variety of spatial and temporal scales.

Development of partnership

We work with two programmes of similar aims: "Biological Theory to Inform Global Change Strategies" and "Conservation Paleobiology. Both coordinators are also iCCB participants.