Research Guides: Biological Sciences Research Guide: Biodiversity Environmental Biology

Resources & Tools

Google Earth Engine

Google Earth Engine combines a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets with planetary-scale analysis capabilities. Scientists, researchers, and developers use Earth Engine to detect changes, map trends, and quantify differences on the Earth's surface. Earth Engine is now available for commercial use, and remains free for academic and research use.

Earth Engine Data Catalog. Earth Engine's public data archive includes more than forty years of historical imagery and scientific datasets, updated and expanded daily.
- Dataset tags include: Surface Temperature, Climate, Weather, Terrain, Land Cover, Agriculture, Plant Productivity, Fire, Hydrology, Ecosystems, F orest and Biomass, and Soil
- Image Collections include: Landsat, Sentinel, MODIS, and High-Resolution Imagery

DAYMET (Daily Surface Weather and Climatological Summaries)

Daymet provides long-term, continuous, gridded estimates of daily weather and climatology variables by interpolating and extrapolating ground-based observations through statistical modeling techniques. The Daymet data products provide driver data for biogeochemical terrestrial modeling and have myriad applications in many Earth science, natural resource, biodiversity, and agricultural research areas. Daymet weather variables include daily minimum and maximum temperature, precipitation, vapor pressure, shortwave radiation, snow water equivalent, and day length produced on a 1 km x 1 km gridded surface over continental North America and Hawaii from 1980 and over Puerto Rico from 1950 through the end of the most recent full calendar year.

California Open Data

A statewide open data portal created to improve collaboration, expand transparency and lead to innovation and increased effectiveness. Open data is public data collected by the state through its routine business activities and published in a format that is easy to search, easy to download and easy to combine with other data sets from other sources; it does not include private or confidential data about individuals.

Dataset topics and tags include: California Natural Resources Agency, Wildlife, Habitat, Fire, and Water
Organizations include: CAL FIRE, CA Department of Conservation, CA Department of Fish and Wildlife, CA Department of Food and Agriculture, and CA Department of Parks and Recreation

USGS ScienceBase

ScienceBase is a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Trusted Digital Repository providing access to scientific data products and resources, managed by the Science Data Management team in the Science Analytics & Synthesis branch.

USGS Library

Authorized by Congress in 1879, the U.S. Geological Survey Library is recognized as one of the world’s leading Earth and natural science libraries, providing services, collections, and expertise essential to the USGS mission.

Humboldt County Large Format Maps and GIS Data

Maps include Agricultural Preserves, Fire History, Flood Zones, Vegetation, and Public Lands.
GIS Data includes Hazards, Natural Resources, Demographics, Topography, and Critical Facilities.

Resource information pulled from their associated websites.

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Beacham's Guide to Endangered Species of North America by Thomson Gale Staff; Walton Beacham; Frank V. Castronova; Suzanne Sessine
Call Number: QH77.N56 B43 2000

ISBN: 9780787650285

Publication Date: 2000-11-01

(Print copy is also available) Contains 2-5 page species accounts for more than 1,200 North American plants and animals that were classified as either threatened or endangered by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 2000.

Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (Lincoln, Boxshalt, & Clark) 1982 (ref QH 540.4 L56 1982)
A dictionary of the natural environment (Monkhouse) 1978 (ref GB 10 MG4)
An ecological glossary (Carpenter) 1956 (ref QH 541 C3 1956)
Ecology Field Glossary: A Naturalists Vocabulary (Lewis) 1977 (ref QH 540.4 L48)
Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Levin) 200 (ref QH 541.15 B56 E53 2000) (5 volumes) Includes over 300 5-15 page signed articles, each with is own bibliography of additional references
Encyclopedia of Environmental Biology (Nierenberg) 1995 (ref QH 540.4 E52 1995) (3 volumes) Includes over 150 5-15 page signed articles, each with is own bibliography of additional references.
Encyclopedia of Theoretical Ecology (Hastings and Gross) 2012 (ref QH 540.4 E526 2012)
Oxford Dictionary of Natural History (Allaby & Attenborough) 1985 (ref QH 13 O9 1985)

Biodiversity Glossary of Terms
Provided by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Encyclopedia of Biodiversity Articles
NatureServe Explorer: an Online Encyclopedia of Life
(NatureServe) Database containing conservation information on more than 70,000 plants, animals, and ecological communities of the United States and Canada. Search by common or scientific name. Each species or community includes information on conservation status, distribution maps, life history, and other conservation information.

Taxonomy: Nomenclature

Naturalist's Lexicon: A List of Classical Greek and Latin Words Used or Suitable for Use in Biological Nomenclature (Woods) 1944 (ref QH 83 A94)

Official Lists and Indexes of Names in Zoology
(International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature) Lists all family-group, generic and specific names placed on the Official Lists and Indexes.

Taxonomy: Databases

Catalogue of Life
(Species 2000 and Integrated Taxonomic Information System) Cooperative database that is attempting to list all known species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes. Presently the sponsoring database organizations estimate that 40% of the Earth's 1.75 M species are listed. There are two parts to the Species 2000 system:
Catalogue of Life's Annual Checklist
(most recent checklist is 2019) An annually updated index to 47 cooperating taxonomic databases that contain information on individual species. Search by common, scientific name, or geographic distribution; or browse by taxonomic classification.
Index of Organism Names
(Thomson Reuters) Lists all animal names found within Zoological Record and BIOSIS Previews.

Taxonomy: Field Guides

Field Guides
(eNature.com) Identification guide to 5,500 plant and animal species in North America derived from 35 Audubon Society field guides. Each species entry includes a large thumbnail image, description, habitat, range and varying additional information depending upon the species, e.g., an audio file. Select from 13 major groups of organisms (e.g., mammals, amphibians, fishes, trees, etc.) Within each group browse by broad types of organisms in the group; search by scientific or common name; or conduct an advanced search by size, color, habitat, region, and other options unique to each each group.
International Field Guides
(Schmidt) Index to published field guides covering plants, animals, rocks, minerals, astronomy and weather. Browse by broad taxonomic category or search by keyword.

Content Attribution

Some of the content of this page was created in another format by Robert Sathrum, HSU Librarian, retired 06/2013.

Bibliographies

Biodiversity Heritage Library
Project by ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. Goal is to digitize 2 million volumes, including journals.
Smithsonian Database
(Smithsonian Institution. Museum of Natural History) Database includes over 29,000 references on conservation biology from 1983 to the present. References have previously appeared in the Smithsonian Institution's Biological Conservation Newsletter. Search by author, title or keyword.

Directories

Biodiversity Collections Index
Worldwide index to natural history reference collections that contain biological specimens.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
(International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Searchable catalog of plant and animal taxa that are facing a high risk of global extinction (i.e. those listed as Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable) as well as taxa that are categorized as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild. For each taxa includes taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information.

Habitats and Ecosystems by Mark Crawford
Call Number: Third Floor, south; QH76 .C73 1999

ISBN: 9781576074534

Publication Date: 2002-10-12

Includes an overview of endangered ecosystems; state-by-state roster of threatened sites; a discussion of the controversialquestion of what is endangered and what isn't; appendixes listingimportant state and federal agencies and endangered and threatened species.

Internet Subject Directories

Biodiversity Web Resources
(Creech)