Establishing a Taiwan Biodiversity Information Network and Its Integration with Germplasm Databanks

Abstract

With the establishment of the “Biodiversity Promotion Plan” by the Executive Yuan, the National Science Council commissioned Academia Sinica to integrate Taiwan’s biodiversity databases. Subsequently Academia Sinica created TaiBNET in 2002 and TaiBIF in 2003. The Agricultural Research Institute’s National Plant Genetic Resources Center, which is in charge of integrating data on agriculture, forestry, fishery, animal husbandry, and germplasm, began collaborating with the Catalog of Life of TaiBNET in 2004. Through a linker, i.e., the scientific name, data in these two databases can be matched against each other. Because the TaiBIF is cooperating with GBIF, all germplasm data in Taiwan can now be accessed globally.