Hello everyone!
I am a member of the Indicators & Assessment team at the Institute of Zoology, London. We are building a worldwide population time series database (vertebrate species only) which is being used to help monitor trends in biodiversity. One important application of this data is the creation of the Living Planet Index (as well as other indices) which are published as part of the WWF report ‘Living Planet Report’. The last such report was published in 2006 (see webpage
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/publications/living_planet_report/index.cfm) and we are currently preparing the next, due this autumn 2008.
Although our database now has over 9000 populations and is growing, we have identified several areas where species are under-represented – this can be both at the class level as well as the geographical level. So we are hoping to be able to address this over the next year in order to produce more robust indices.
These gaps include reptiles/amphibians and in particular, species from the order squamata, across the Neotropics, Indo-Malay, Afro-tropical and Australasia realms.
If anyone could help us by providing population data for any of the above, this would be gratefully received. We would need at least 2 data points over the last 30 years and this can be actual counts or proxies such as numbers of nests. Contributions can be kept confidential if required and can include unpublished data, so long as research method robust.
Looking forward to hearing from you all!
Thank you so much
Regards
Louise McRae.
Living Planet Index Coordinator
Indicators and Assessment Unit
Institute of Zoology
London NW1 4RY
email:
louise.mcrae@ioz.ac.uk
