Department of Biodiversity informatics
Formed in 2011, the unit is focused on research and development in biodiversity informatics, a rapidly expanding discipline internationally. We develop new technology to speed up the charting of the planet’s biological diversity. We also assist scientists, policymakers, and the general public in accessing and analyzing environmental data, in particular data held by the world’s natural history museums.We manage the Swedish node of GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) and we are an important partner in LifeWatch Sweden. We coordinate the DINA project, aimed at developing an open-source information system for natural history collections. DINA is backed by a Nordic-Baltic consortium, and involves partners in the US and in Australia.
We do cutting-edge research on statistical methods for comparative analysis of DNA sequences and for reconstructing evolutionary trees. We also assemble reference databases and develop tools for molecular identification of species, so-called DNA barcoding. For example, these methods can be used to establish whether a piece of sushi originates from a red-listed species of fish, or to trace the origin of microscopic animal remains in crime scene investigations.
We also work with new technology for the digitization of natural history colletions, with the aim of making it possible to present rich digital information on all our specimens on the Web, including locality data, high-resolution images, and links to DNA sequences and other research-related infor
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