Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) is a project undertaken by Parks Australia Division of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

's Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA).

Background

ABRS was founded in 1973 from the recommendations of a 1972 Senate Select Committee report on Wildlife Conservation. Its purpose is to collate from the many libraries, museums and other collections the

taxonomy Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

of Australia's estimated 2 million species of

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, including aquatic

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. These represent almost 20% of the

earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (''genetic variability''), species (''species diversity''), and ecosystem (''ecosystem diversity'') l ...

, 80% of which are unique to Australia. ABRS has undertaken active funding for taxonomic research of Australia's biodiversity and is internationally recognised for its extensive data bases and publications.

Publications

The most important outputs of the ABRS has been the publication of the multi-volume ''

Flora of Australia The flora of Australia comprises a vast assemblage of plant species estimated to over 30,000 vascular and 14,000 non-vascular plants, 250,000 species of fungi and over 3,000 lichens. The flora has strong affinities with the flora of Gondwana, ...

'' and '' Fauna of Australia'' series. Other output includes ''

The Banksia Atlas ''The Banksia Atlas'' is an atlas that documents the ranges, habitats and growth forms of various species and other subgeneric taxa of ''Banksia'', an iconic Australian wildflower genus. First published in 1988, it was the result of a three-ye ...

'' and the "Platypus"

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

package for taxonomists. Sponsored publications from grants, or publishing projects include: : : :

References

External links

* {{cite web , title = Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) , url = http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/index.html , publisher =

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts was an Australian Government department that existed between December 2007 and September 2010. Scope Information about the department's functions and/or government funding allocatio ...

, access-date = 2006-06-27, archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060615220052/http://www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/index.html, archive-date= 15 June 2006 , url-status= live Biota of Australia Botany in Australia Environment of Australia Natural history of Australia