By Miles Nicholls and Lynne Sealie, Atlas of Living Australia
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a joint project between a number of Australian museums, universities, plant and animal collections, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Government.
These organisations could see the national benefits of making their biodiversity information more widely accessible, and being able to combine, interrogate and analyse biodiversity information, all online.
Together, they initiated the ALA project to complement and support Australia’s museums and herbaria, biological collections, universities and research organisations, as well as government policy and planning agencies.
Photo courtesy: Leo Berzins
The ALA project is building an online gateway to biodiversity information from research, literature, observations, maps, images and information from museums and biological collections, including information previously not available to the public.
Being able to combine and analyse this information will help build a more detailed picture of Australia’s biodiversity.
As the Atlas progresses, more tools and services will become available, including identification tools and molecular data. Over time, people across Australia will be able to contribute sightings and pictures of plants, animals and microorganisms; download tools and more …
Sharing your biodiversity information via the ALA will make it more discoverable and useable, and directly assist biological and ecological research, education and decision-making in Australia.
Like to discuss sharing your biodiversity information with the ALA?
The simplest way is to contact Miles Nicholls, ALA Data Manager and we will make it as easy as possible for you to share all, or parts of, your biodiversity information with the ALA.
For more information:
phone: +61 2 6246 4463
email: Miles.Nicholls@csiro.au
alternative email: data_management@ala.org.au
See sharing your data with the ALA for more detailed information.