Biodiversity knowledge and information system

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Biodiversity knowledge and information system

Comprehensive information system development:
The development of BKIS involving GIS is described in Fig.1. Taxonomic, ecological and cultural variables needed for assessment of biodiversity and their corresponding scales are given in table-1. Out put of this exercise is comprehensive knowledge and information system for efficient and integrated biodiversity management decisions.

The information system must also support the two most fundamental types of database queries; what attributes occur at a specific location? And where do specific attributes occur?

Data on biodiversity comes from many sources, ignoring community participation in the process of data collection, may lead to faulty database. Various techniques should be adopted to ensure community integration in the data acquisition process.

Figure :1 Logarthim of Biodiversity and Information System(BKIS)

Uses of Biodiversity Knowledge and Information System (BKIS):
Outputs of GIS based BKIS of forest and grassland ecosystems will provide products in the form of maps of species richness, habitat "hot spots" of restricted range species (endemic species), availability and requirement of fodder and fuel wood, specific locations requiring specific conservation measures. Human-livestock-natural resources linkage maps is another feasible output. Specific questions related to various kinds of threatened categories (Table-2), and assessment of degradation factors can also be answered. The system contributes to many activities of biodiversity conservation such as zonation based on multiple variables, defining unit of analysis, periodical assessment and updating of inventory of flora and fauna; identification of exemplary sites of high diversity value- leading to a concrete decision support system of indispensable activities for conservation and maintenance of biodiversity.

Various users of BKIS products are; foresters, natural resource managers, policy makers, Govt. and Non Govt. developmental organizations. These stakeholders require diverse information, which can be retrieved from GIS in the form of various outputs, BKIS will be able to answer following common questions:

What is frequency and dominance of species/ communities ?
What species and sites are at greatest risk ?
Which sites possesses high biodiversity value to serve as exemplary sites ?
What attributes are related to the sites of high biodiversity value ?
Which ecosystems are well protected ?
What are important degradation factors in a particular ecosystem ?

Conclusion
GIS provides tool to manage and monitor the spatial relationships of various components making up the stratification (species distribution pattern, plant associations, bio-geo-climatic variables, forest and soil types etc.).

Lack of primary biological data for construction of species richness maps, less expertise of modelling for species richness maps based on ecological factors, lack of awareness of GIS application etc. are some of the constraints, which needs to be rectified at various levels.

Table2 : GIS application to various categories of threatened species

Category	Output from GIS
Extinct: Taxa,which no longer known to exist in the wild after regular searches of their type localities and other likely places	Factors of extinction analyzed Type locations determined
Endangered: Taxa in danger of extinction and whose survival is unlikely if the causal factors continue to operate	Inventory of causal factors Habitat changes evaluated Remedial measures suggested
Vulnerable: Include taxa of which, most or all the populations are decreasing because of over exploitation and environmental disturbances	Inventory of populations Inventory of causal factors Biotic/ Abiotic disturbances listed Remedial measures suggested
Rare: Taxa with small population, that are not at present endangered or vulnerable but are at risk. These taxa are usually localized within restricted geographical areas	Factors of restricted localization assessed Variables of risk identified Probable rare spp. listed Remedial measure suggested

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