Editing Biological database (section)

== Biodiversity and species databases ==
[[File:Animal kingdom chart from Catalogue of Life.png|thumb|Animal groups and their number of species from the [[Catalogue of Life]]<ref>{{cite web |author=Catalogue of Life |date=2001 |title=Homepage |url=https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/catalogueoflife |accessdate=2022-05-05 |work=Search |publisher=Species 2000 |archive-date=2022-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505190235/https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/catalogueoflife |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

Numerous databases attempt to document the diversity of life on earth. A prominent example is the [[Catalogue of Life]], first created in 2001 by Species 2000 and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Identifying and Relating Biological Concepts in the Catalogue of Life |journal=Journal of Biomedical Semantics |year=2011 |last=Jones |first=Andrew C. |volume=2 |issue=1 |page=7 |doi=10.1186/2041-1480-2-7 |pmid=22004596 |pmc=3245425 |doi-access=free }}</ref> The Catalogue of Life is a collaborative project that aims to document taxonomic categorization of all currently accepted species in the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/catalogueoflife#our-mission. |title=What is Catalogue of Life? |author=Catalogue of Life |work=Our Mission |publisher=Species 2000 |date=2001 |accessdate=2022-05-05 |archive-date=2022-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505190235/https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/catalogueoflife#our-mission. |url-status=live }}</ref> The Catalogue of Life provides a consolidated and consistent database for researchers and policymakers to reference. The Catalogue of Life curates up-to-date datasets from other sources such as Conifer Database, [[International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses|ICTV]] MSL (for viruses), and LepIndex (for butterflies and moths). In total, the Catalogue of Life draws from 165 databases as of May 2022.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/source-datasets |title=Source Datasets |author=Catalogue of Life |publisher=Species 2000 |date=2001 |accessdate=2022-05-05 |archive-date=2022-05-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514042628/https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/source-datasets |url-status=live }}</ref> Operational costs of the Catalogue of Life are paid for by the [[Global Biodiversity Information Facility]], the [[Illinois Natural History Survey]], the [[Naturalis Biodiversity Center]], and the [[Smithsonian Institution]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/funding |title=Funding |author=Catalogue of Life |publisher=Species 2000 |date=2001 |accessdate=2022-05-05 |archive-date=2022-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505190235/https://www.catalogueoflife.org/about/funding |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some biological databases also document geographical distribution of different species. Shuang Dai et al. created a new multi-source database to document spatial/geographical distribution of 1,371 bird species in China, as existing databases had been severely lacking in spatial distribution data for many species.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Spatialized Digital Database for All Bird Species in China |journal=Science China Life Sciences |year=2019 |last=Dai |first=Shuang |volume=62 |issue=5 |pages=661–667 |doi=10.1007/s11427-018-9419-2 |pmid=30900164 |s2cid=84845653 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-018-9419-2 |accessdate=2022-05-05 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Sources for this new database included books, literature, GPS tracking, and online webpage data. The new database displayed taxonomy, distribution, species info, and data sources for each species. After completion of the bird spatial distribution database, it was discovered that 61% of known species in China were found to be distributed in regions beyond where they were previously known.<ref>{{cite journal |title=A Spatialized Digital Database for All Bird Species in China |journal=Science China Life Sciences |year=2019 |last=Dai |first=Shuang |volume=62 |issue=5 |pages=661–667 |doi=10.1007/s11427-018-9419-2 |pmid=30900164 |s2cid=84845653 |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-018-9419-2 |accessdate=2022-05-05 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>