ILTER cited in DIVERSITAS publication

DIVERSITAS, an international programme of biodiversity science, has recently published 'Assessing, monitoring and predicting biodiversity change', the science plan and implementation strategy of one of its core projects, bioDISCOVERY. The publication, co-authored by ILTER chairman, Dr Terry Parr, outlines the bioDiscovery project, the goal of which is to 'facilitate the development of science that addresses fundamental questions concerning current and future biodiversity change'.

In the publication, ILTER is described as an example of 'in situ monitoring, experiments and demonstrations being combined into extensive networks of sites for assessing ecosystem processes'. ILTER has forty member networks around the globe, conducting a wide range of monitoring and research into the physical, chemical and biological components of ecosystems.

The DIVERSITAS publication outlines a strategy 'to improve assessment methods and to strengthen the science of observing, understanding and predicting biodiversity change'. Although ILTER addresses more than biodiversity, as a key observation and research infrastructure, our goals complement those of the bioDISCOVERY project very well.

Ash, et al. (2009) 'Assessing, monitoring and predicting biodiversity change' can be downloaded from the DIVERSITAS website, where sister documents relating to other DIVERSITAS core projects, particularly the closely related bioGENESIS project, can also be found.

The bioDISCOVERY core project is described in more detail here.