Biological surveys – new perspectives in the Pacific

Abstract

Abstract Biological surveys have provided a wealth of data to advance the understanding, use and management of natural resources and were important in the establishment and development of museums of natural history. Museums, which hold billions of specimens worldwide, are now important repositories of biodiversity data. In the Pacific, the Bishop Museum has combined research and collections activities into the Hawaii Biological Survey and is integrating and synthesizing more than four million specimen records from Hawaii into an information system to guide future research and survey priorities. This has helped highlight the conservation importance of Hawaii and stimulate further research on Hawaii's biota. The Museum is now in the process of developing a Pacific Biological Survey and is working with a variety of partners to link all museum data – more than 22 million specimens – with other biodiversity and ecosystem data under the auspices of the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey, as part of IBOY, to create a Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN). This effort is also linked to the development of a Pacific-Asia Biodiversity Transect Network (PABITRA) through DIVERSITAS to advance the understanding and management of island ecosystems.