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Tools for Assessing Biodiversity
Today, research on forest biodiversity is shifting away from broad inventory surveys as scientists and forest managers acknowledge the costliness and impracticality of such an approach. Instead, there is much interest in acquiring techniques that can predict species occurrence, habitat type and genetic impacts from environmental data based on geographic information systems (GIS). CIFOR is working to develop and refine a number of innovative tools to aid biodiversity research and analysis. These include rapid survey methods, molecular markers, computer software, new applications of GIS and remote sensing, and "criteria and indicators" to assess biodiversity. An increasingly popular product of these efforts is DOMAIN, a Windows 95 software package for mapping the potential distribution of plants and animals. Users can model this biodiversity status through links to GIS data and other baseline information. POPGENE, a genetic analysis computer program that was developed in part by CIFOR, is already being used widely around the world for analysis of data on trees, agricultural crops, fish and wildlife. In another innovative system, CIFOR scientists are working to develop a more useful framework for measuring how plants respond to climatic and other environmental changes. This centers on a concept known as Plant Functional Attributes (PFAs) – basically sets of characteristics that interact to affect various aspects of plant performance, such as responsiveness to photosynthesis and vascular control of nutrient balance. Once refined, this system could facilitate manipulation of biodiversity-related data for mapping and global comparisons. Currently, beta testing is underway for a related Windows 95 software programme called PFAPro, which is designed to aid the collation, storage and analysis of field data from biodiversity surveys. It has been used successfully in several training programmes worldwide coordinated by CIFOR and the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) as part of the CGIAR’s system-wide Alternatives to Slash and Burn programme. Multi-lingual packages are now being developed.
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