"Green future" is a hot word recently. Although many people always talk about this hot word, they do not necessarily have a deep understanding of biodiversity that is closely related to a green future.

Deeply understand the importance of biodiversity

First of all, biodiversity is the material basis for human social and economic development. The most basic survival of mankind, including food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, is inseparable from biodiversity. If the requirements are higher and the life is rich and colorful, it is even more inseparable from biodiversity, because it is the diversity of nature that provides diverse choices for human life. Natural resources are not inexhaustible and inexhaustible. At present, human beings are in a state of over-exploitation of nature, so it is necessary to protect nature, and the change of protection concept is the top priority. In the past, we thought that to protect animals, we must take them out of nature and put them in a good environment that we separately provided for protection, but it turned out to be counterproductive. If our goal is to achieve successful protection, this path will not work; only relying on the natural environment and ecosystems can truly protect biodiversity.

Secondly, one side tried hard to protect, and the other side arrogantly destroyed, and ultimately failed to protect. The behavior of protection should be incorporated into the mainstream of the country and the international community, specifically the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development 2015-2030. The fourteenth and fifteenth items of this goal are provisions on the protection of terrestrial and marine biodiversity. my country's "green development" concept and "ecological civilization construction" initiative are fully in line with the UN's global goal of sustainable development, which is also a clear proof of our country's integration into the mainstream of the international society.

The most basic survival of mankind is inseparable from biodiversity

If sustainable development wants to become a reality, it must be supported by science and technology. From the perspective of big data, if humans want to use nature sustainably, they first need to understand nature. Big data provides an important channel for us to understand nature in all directions. Europe and the United States are leading the way in the construction and sharing of big data, and Asia should catch up.

Asia is the region with the richest biodiversity, and it has outstanding uniqueness and high conservation value. Asia is also the most populous continent and a major engine of global economic development, and it poses the most serious threat to biodiversity. Both the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of resources require comprehensive information on an intercontinental scale. In recent years, biodiversity informatics has developed rapidly, and global and regional biodiversity databases have been continuously established and improved.

Large global databases such as the Global Biodiversity Information Network and several national-level databases, such as the Australian Biodiversity Information System and the American Specimen Digitization Platform, can provide tens of millions of species distribution information. The Global Biodiversity Information Network can provide More than 700 million pieces of species distribution information (plant information only accounts for about a quarter). Massive species distribution data provides strong support for biodiversity conservation and research, and greatly promotes research on biodiversity conservation planning, biodiversity response to global ecosystem changes, large-scale biodiversity patterns, and alien species invasion trends Forecast and other aspects.

From the distribution of global biodiversity online data resources, Asia as a whole is a data-poor region, and Asia only accounts for 4% of the plant distribution data of the Global Biodiversity Information Network. Up to now, there is no regional-scale biodiversity database in Asia. Although China, India, Japan, South Korea, etc. have a relatively good foundation for the construction of biodiversity databases, most Asian countries do not have relatively complete biodiversity databases. It has seriously affected the research and protection of biodiversity at the regional scale in Asia.

Asia urgently needs big data on biodiversity

In Asia, where the foundation is relatively weak, building a regional-scale plant diversity database is full of challenges. Many data sets are not publicly published or released, especially the plant distribution data are mostly in the local language, and it is difficult to collect; the botany research in most countries is mainly done by overseas experts, sometimes looking for relevant taxonomy It is very difficult for families, and it is even more difficult to obtain information. The research level of various countries is uneven. For hundreds of years, the concept of species taxonomy has changed. After multi-source heterogeneous data is aggregated, it is very difficult to clean up and integrate.

Therefore, Chinese botanists hope to cooperate with the country’s big data strategy to step up scientific research. On the one hand, they will contribute to the economic development of our country in basic disciplines, and on the other hand, they will drive the plant disciplines of Asia to move forward. As a result, the "Mapping Asia Plants (MAP)" (Mapping Asia Plants, MAP) led by my country came into being. This project aims to conduct a comprehensive survey of existing plant information resources in various regions of Asia, such as species lists, related databases, and website resources.

"Asian Plant Diversity Digitization Project" aims to establish a big data online platform for Asian botany information, and provide comprehensive basic information and an interdisciplinary data mining environment for the conservation and research of Asian plant diversity. The first phase (2016-2020) focuses on establishing a list and distribution database of Asian higher plant species, and developing an online platform for data management and mining, and gradually integrating plant trait data, molecular-omics data, paleobotanical data, Environmental data and remote sensing data.

The plant species list and distribution database is the core part of the project. The main data sources are: (1) Flora, plant list and related papers; (2) Plant distribution map; (3) Plant specimens, including reliable plant photos (4) Vegetation survey plots; (5) Plant survey data; (6) Plant observation data, including data released by plant lovers; (7) Digital online data set.

In addition to building a comprehensive data platform to serve the research of plant ecology, evolutionary botany, plant geography, conservation biology and global change biology, the following outputs or services are planned to be formed: (1) Plant species distribution map; (2) ) Plant diversity distribution map; (3) National or regional plant species list; (4) Data cleaning and mining toolkit and online comprehensive analysis platform for botanical name revision and species distribution model.

The "Asian Plant Diversity Digitalization Plan" and the "National Specimen Resource Sharing Platform" can actually provide data and platform support for the country's "Belt and Road" initiative, which is of great significance. The overseas research centers successively established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences have provided important support for the development of the Asian Plant Diversity Digitization Project; The Chinese government’s new round of opening-up strategy marked by “going out”, including the “Belt and Road” initiative, is the Asian plant diversity The political basis for the implementation of regional projects such as the digitization plan. There is reason to believe that the Asian Plant Diversity Digitization Plan will surely carve the green future of Asia through a big data platform.

The original text was transferred from Guangming Daily (http://news.gmw.cn/2017-08/09/content_25519663.htm)　
Author: Ma Keping, Secretary-General of the Department of Chinese Academy of Sciences Committee on Biological Diversity

"Guangming Daily" (14th edition on August 9, 2017)

[Editor in charge: Li Boxi]