La Jornada – A global database of natural history and herbalism created

Jerusalem. More than 1.1 billion natural history artifacts from 73 major natural history museums and herbariums from 28 countries have been compiled into a massive global database.

Created by an international team of scientists and museum staff, it will help researchers and decision-makers find solutions to the global challenges of endangered wildlife conservation, the climate crisis, food insecurity, and pandemic preparedness. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which participated in the project, said in a statement. .

remains of animals and plants

The inventory is described in a new article published in the journal Sciences, It houses diverse collections of animal and plant remains of all kinds, along with archaeological and geological finds.

The project organizers subdivided the huge overall group by creating a unique shared vocabulary through group types and their geographical areas of origin.

The result is a network of 19 types of collections across 16 geographic regions, which means that any collection collectible from anywhere in the world will fit into just one of the subsequent 304 categories.

The researchers hope that the digital database will stimulate collaborative, aggregation-based efforts to support global sustainability, biodiversity and climate frameworks in the future.