Researchers have discovered three new Pleurothallis orchid species in the cloud forests of Costa Rica and Panama. The new species utilise an unusual method of asexual reproduction known as prolification.
Pleurothalliswinkeliana. Credit: Karremans et al.
Found in the cool, misty highlands of the Talamanca range at elevations between 1400 and 2550 metres, the newly discovered species, Pleurothallis matrisilvae, Pleurothallis pridgeoniana and Pleurothallis winkelianaare described in the open-access journal PhytoKeys.
Prolific stems in species across Pleurothallidinae. Credit: Karremans et al.
Prolificating plants produce miniature plantlets directly from their flowering stems, allowing them to bypass seed production.
Whilst prolification is rarely a fixed feature within this group of orchids, it becomes common under stressful environmental conditions. The ability may be advantageous in the challenging conditions of cloud forests, but remains underexplored scientifically. Methods of asexual reproduction might also be important when pollinators are scarce.
Pleurothallismatrisilvae. Credit: Karremans et al.
The new species have each adapted to exhibit prolification in different ways, such as forming long chains or bushy growths. These adaptations helped researchers identify them as distinct species, despite their initial visual similarities with other plants.
With close to 1700 species currently recorded, a third of which not known from anywhere else in the world, Costa Rica is a well-known orchid biodiversity hotspot. The discovery of these orchids displays the Talamanca range’s significance as a rich and largely unexplored area.
Pleurothallispridgeoniana. Credit: Karremans et al.
With these additions, Costa Rica now boasts 67 recognised species of Pleurothallis, though researchers believe many more await formal identification. Such abundance highlights the importance of conserving these unique ecosystems.
Thanks to Costa Rica’s robust system of protected areas (SINAC), local institutions such as Lankester Botanical Garden of the University of Costa Rica are able to uncover and describe floristic novelties in an effort to study and conserve the country’s unique biodiversity.
Original source
Karremans AP, Pupulin F, Gange J, Bogarín D (2025) Three new species of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae) from Costa Rica and Panama, with a note on asexual reproduction by prolification in Pleurothallidinae. PhytoKeys 256: 197-220. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.256.140316
Bermuda’s Walsingham cave system harbors a wide diversity of cave-dwelling animals not found anywhere else in the world; now, one more joins their ranks as researchers of the University of Cambridge, the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Senckenberg am Meer German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research have discovered a new copepod species.
Confocal laser scanning microscopy images of Tetragoniceps bermudensis.
Copepods are some of the most diverse of all crustaceans, found everywhere from freshwater ponds to the open ocean. These tiny organisms are some of the most abundant animals in the marine plankton, and an essential component of food webs worldwide. However, their huge diversity remains rather poorly known, particularly in challenging environments like subterranean caves.
The new Bermudian copepod, Tetragoniceps bermudensis, was first collected in 2016 by Sahar Khodami, Pedro Martinez Arbizu, and Leocadio Blanco-Bercial from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the Senckenberg am Meer German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research, who ventured into Roadside Cave through a narrow passageway in Bermuda’s ancient limestone bedrock. However, it was only when researchers analysed it in detail, in 2024, that T. bermudensis was confirmed to be an entirely new species. Like other members of Bermuda’s cave fauna, Tetragoniceps bermudensis – named after the country where it was discovered – might represent an ancient, early-diverging member of its evolutionary lineage, the research team say. Together with other ancient crustaceans inhabiting the island’s caverns, it persisted in a secluded, delicate underground ecosystem relatively free from competitors and predators.
Sahar KhodamiLeocadio Blanco-BercialPedro Martinez ArbizuThe team during the sampling expedition to Roadside Cave in 2016.
“The new species of copepod crustacean, Tetragoniceps bermudensis, is the first of its genus from Bermuda, as well as the first known cave-dwelling species of the genus anywhere in the world and only the second within its family, Tetragonicipitidae,” says lead author Giovanni Mussini of the University of Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “This finding from Roadside Cave adds to the great diversity of endemic crustaceans (and other cave fauna) found in the island’s network of limestone caves.”
The team during the sampling expedition to Roadside Cave in 2016.
The team only found one female egg-bearing individual at Roadside Cave, a small cavern in Bermuda. It is hard to estimate just how rare the new species is based on a single specimen, but the finding “suggests a correspondingly limited area and a probable endemic status, consistent with the high degree of endemism typical of Bermuda’s cave-dwelling fauna,” the researchers write in their paper in the journal ZooKeys.
Views of Roadside cave.
Roadside Cave, where the new species was found, may face threats from “urban development, vandalism, dumping, littering and pollution, and sediment disturbance due to unlawful access by humans and domesticated animals,” which makes protecting this small creature all the more urgent. The researchers call for formal protection of the cave and for robust enforcement of existing measures to protect its precious fauna.
“The discovery of this species highlights that there remains a cryptic diversity of cave-dwelling species still to be discovered even in a densely populated island like Bermuda, whose hidden, underground biodiversity is all too often overlooked,” Mussini says in conclusion.
Research article:
Mussini G, Niimi YJ, Khodami S, Kihara TC, Martinez Arbizu P, Blanco-Bercial L (2025) A new species of Tetragoniceps Brady, 1880 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Tetragonicipitidae) from an anchialine cave in Bermuda, with an updated key to the species of the genus. ZooKeys 1239: 1-19.https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1239.144436
On Monday, 28 April, the first day of the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2025 (EGU 2025), participants had the chance to discover one of the most promising initiatives in biodiversity informatics: the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH). BKH was presented as part of a dedicated poster session, titled “Biodiversity Knowledge Hub: Addressing the impacts of environmental change by linking Research Infrastructures, Global Aggregators and Community Networks“.
Understanding and addressing the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and ecosystems demands access to reliable FAIR data (as in Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). However, the current landscape is often fragmented, making it difficult to combine and use these resources effectively.
Enter the Horizon-funded project Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL): a pioneering initiative that demonstrates the transformative power of interdisciplinary collaboration. Coordinated by Pensoft, BiCIKL ran between 2021 and 2024.
Within BiCIKL, 14 European institutions from ten countries teamed up with the aim to integrate biodiversity data across research infrastructures, scientific repositories, and expert communities.
Through this integration, BiCIKL bridged the gap between isolated knowledge systems and delivered actionable insights to guide conservation and resilience efforts. The project embodies the principles of open science by demonstrating how interdisciplinary collaboration can turn fragmented data into cohesive, usable knowledge for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.
At the heart of BiCIKL’s success is the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH): an innovative platform that provides seamless access to biodiversity data, tools, and workflows. The BKH fosters interoperability between diverse resources, thus making it easier to combine information from different sources. Whether for advanced research analytics or policymaking in support of sustainable development, the BKH empowers users with tools tailored to their needs.
A few of the standout features of the BKH include:
Modular design to allow continuous expansion and adaptability to new challenges in biodiversity and climate resilience
Interoperable systems that connect a variety of databases, repositories, and services to deliver integrated knowledge.
Community building by welcoming a broad network of stakeholders to ensure the platform’s long-term sustainability and growth.
Watch the Biodiversity Knowledge Hubvideo on YouTube.
Setting a New Benchmark in Biodiversity Informatics
Through its collaborative approach, BiCIKL set a new standard for how biodiversity and climate resilience initiatives can be harmonised globally. By showcasing best practices in data integration, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement, BiCIKL became much more than a project: it turned into a blueprint for future biodiversity knowledge infrastructures.
The Biodiversity Knowledge Hub serves to demonstrate how harmonised standards and active collaboration are key to unlocking the full potential of biodiversity data. In doing so, its mission is to create scalable, long-term solutions that are crucial for addressing today’s pressing environmental challenges.
The poster presentation at EGU25 outlined the methodologies and technologies driving the BKH, emphasizing its role as a pioneering model for integrated biodiversity knowledge and action. As environmental pressures continue to mount, the work of BiCIKL and the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub offers a hopeful path forward—one where knowledge flows freely, collaborations flourish, and data-driven solutions guide our way to a more resilient future.
Visit the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project’s website at: https://bicikl-project.eu/.
Introducing Haploniscus hades, isopod of the underworld.
The deep sea is the largest yet least explored biome in the world, with estimates suggesting that up to 91% of marine species are yet to be discovered.
Indeed, when it comes to finding new species in the deep sea, things are more than a little tricky. Besides the obvious difficulties associated with scouring such vast, inaccessible depths, researchers also face the obstacle of so-called ‘cryptic’ species: groups of closely related taxa that are almost impossible to tell apart from looks alone.
The recently discovered Haploniscusbelyaevi isopod species complex is one such group, collected from the the abysso-hadal Kuril-Kamchatka Trench (KKT) region in the Northwest Pacific Ocean.
Distribution of haploniscid species of the belyaevi-complex in the greater Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and Sea of Okhotsk area of the Northwest Pacific. Stars indicate each species type locality.
Isopods collected from the region were initially believed to represent a single species, but are now known to represent at least six distinct species, five of which are new to science. Published in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, a new study combines classical morphology with DNA barcoding, confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the first-ever genomic sequencing of Haploniscidae isopods to distinguish these cryptic species.
In the research paper, lead author Dr Henry Knauber and his colleagues from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Goethe University Frankfurt provide detailed descriptions of each species and reveal the names of the new species, inspired by Greek mythology.
Meet the new isopods
Left to right: H.hades, H.belyaevi, and H.erebus.
Haploniscus hades
Who else could rule the hadal zone but Hades himself? This isopod’s pleotelson (tail segment) hides its uropods (tail appendages), which, to the endlessly creative research team, evoked the cap of invisibility used by Hades.
Haploniscus apaticus
Named after Apate, the goddess of deceit, this ‘deceptive’ isopod hides in plain sight thanks to its unassuming looks, which kept it hidden amongst its sibling species until recently.
Haploniscus erebus
Bearing the name of Erebus, the primordial god of darkness, this species lurks in the shadowy depths.
Haploniscus kerberos
Named after Kerberos (Cerberus), the multi-headed guardian of the underworld’s gates, this species is currently only known from the abyssal plains, watching over the borderlands between deep and deeper.
Haploniscus nyx
Nyx, the goddess of night, lends her name to this elusive species.
–
The isopod specimens were collected during deep-sea research expeditions between 2012 and 2016, covering depths of up to 8,000 meters.
While the names of these species represent little more than creative fun, the study’s findings help illuminate evolutionary processes across natural barriers such as the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench and underscore the potential for new discoveries in Earth’s least explored environments.
Who knows, perhaps Haploniscus hades has two brothers, H. zeus and H. Poseidon, hiding above, still waiting to be found.
Original source
Knauber H, Schell T, Brandt A, Riehl T (2025) Across trench and ridge: description of five new species of the Haploniscus belyaevi Birstein, 1963 species complex (Isopoda, Haploniscidae) from the Kuril-Kamchatka Trench region. Zoosystematics and Evolution 101(2): 813-853. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.137663
Cover image credit: Isopods: Knauber et al.; Illustration: macrovector/Freepik.
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The European Union (EU) has been working to protect nature for decades, with the Natura 2000 network now safeguarding over 18% of EU land and 9% of its marine territory. Yet, biodiversity is still in trouble, with only 50% of bird species and 15% of habitats in good conservation status.
To turn the tide, the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 will expand the existing Natura 2000 areas, implement the EU’s first-ever Nature Restoration Law, and introduce concrete measures to achieve global biodiversity targets. Success will depend on enhancing biodiversity monitoring, making better use of data and gaining a clearer picture of how nature is changing.
Addressing this urgent challenge, the EU Horizon project BMD (abbreviated for Biodiversity Meets Data) will offer a centralised platform (Single Access Point or SAP) for improved biodiversity monitoring across Europe.
Pensoft’s role
Pensoft will play a role in Biodiversity Meets Data’s impact by planning and implementing the communication, dissemination and exploitation of project results, as well as helping with the training and capacity building for BMD’s end-users, which will be led by LifeWatch ERIC. Pensoft will adopt a multi-format approach to knowledge transfer with tailored outputs for the scientific community, decision-makers, industry representatives and the general public.
Furthermore, the BMD SAP will also incorporate elements of the Biodiversity Knowledge Hub (BKH), developed under the BiCIKL project, coordinated by Pensoft.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the continuity in our projects, with the legacy of the BiCIKL project continuing with Biodiversity Meets Data. This seamless progression not only builds on our past successes but also ensures that our work continues to deliver long-lasting value to the biodiversity community.”
said Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and Founder of Pensoft, and project coordinator of BiCIKL (abbreviated from Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library).
The BMD project consortium at the project’s kick-off meeting in early March 2025 (Leiden, the Netherlands).
International consortium
Coordinated by Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the project brings together 14 partner organisations from 11 countries to develop innovative solutions for biodiversity management.
Visit the BMD project website at https://bmd-project.eu/, and make sure to follow the project’s progress via our social media channels on Blueskyand Linkedin.
China’s Guizhou Province has long been known for its remarkable biodiversity, but a recent study in Zoosystematics and Evolutionhas shed light on some of its creepier, lesser-known inhabitants: pirate spiders.
What is a pirate spider?
The name ‘pirate spiders’ refers to species belonging to the family Mimetidae. Also known (misleadingly) as cannibal spiders, they earned their name because of their araneophagic (spider-eating) nature.
Araneophagic behaviours.
Araneophagic behaviours.
Araneophagic behaviours.
These eight-legged predators don’t spin webs to catch prey; instead, they infiltrate the webs of other spiders and mimic the vibrations of prey or potential mates, then ambush the unsuspecting hosts when they come to investigate.
A recent research paper by Zhang et al. offers the most comprehensive survey to date of the pirate spider genus Mimetus in Central Guizhou, including two new species, bringing the provincial total to eight and giving Guizhou the highest Mimetus diversity in China.
Mimetussinicus.
China’s new species
Mimetus guiyang
Mimetusguiyang.
Discovered in Guiyang City, this species is known only from females collected via pitfall traps. Its most distinctive feature is the presence of large bubble-shaped ossified hair bases on the abdomen, a rarity among known Mimetus species. Its genital morphology and body patterns make it easily distinguishable from close relatives.
Mimetus lanmeiae
Mimetuslanmeiae.
Also found in Guiyang, this species was observed perched on a spider web, likely in the act of mimicry. Its unique palpal structures and small body size (~2.14 mm) distinguish it from other known Mimetus species. The name of the species honours the mother of the specimen collector. Hopefully this was meant as a compliment.
Other findings
New records: The researchers recorded two previously known species (M. caudatus and M. sinicus) for the first time in Guizhou, expanding their known range.
Rediscovery and redescription:M. caudatus, previously known only from male specimens, now has its female described in detail.
Molecular insights: DNA barcoding (COI gene sequencing) was used to support species identification and match males and females – a critical step for accurate taxonomy, especially given the subtle differences between males and females in Mimetus.
Original source
Zhang J, Zhang H, Liu J, Yu H, Xu X (2025) A survey of mimetid spiders (Araneae, Mimetidae) from Central Guizhou Province, China. Zoosystematics and Evolution 101(2): 711-734. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.146895
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Over forty years ago, Menno Schilthuizen, while still a high school student, conducted a study on carrion beetles at the Lichtenbeek estate near Arnhem. Using small traps baited with meat and other attractants, he recorded over a thousand beetles in the spring of 1982, meticulously documenting the species and their numbers.
Field notes from 1982.
Four decades on, Schilthuizen (now a professor of evolution and biodiversity at Leiden University) and his team collaborated with high school students from the Thomas a Kempis College in Arnhem to replicate the study with precision: at the same location, using the same methods, on the same dates. The goal was to examine how the carrion beetle population has changed over the years. Their findings have been published in the Biodiversity Data Journal; the article can be viewed online here.
Fieldwork.
Key findings: shifts in biodiversity
The high school students analysed the beetles that they collected. Their research revealed that some carrion beetle species have disappeared, while other, new species have appeared. However, the overall number of species and population densities have remained largely the same.
Sorting and mounting specimens.
One striking discovery was that common species have become even more abundant, while rare species have become even rarer. This widening gap in species commonness suggests a decline in biodiversity, which could signal the potential local extinction of the rarer species.
A citizen science initiative
The research was initiated by the Taxon Foundation, a nonprofit set up and headed by Schilthuizen, in collaboration with biology teacher Leonie Wezendonk of the Thomas a Kempis College. Taxon foundation specializes in biodiversity research conducted by school children, local residents, and other community scientists. The project was made possible through funding from the Netherlands Cultuurfonds and the Suzanne Hovinga Foundation.
Research article:
Schilthuizen M, van der Sterren T, Kersten I, Groenhof M, van der Meulen H, Wezendonk L (2025) Resampling a carrion beetle fauna after 40 years (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Silphinae, and Leiodidae, Cholevinae). Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e151206. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e151206
A team from the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) has discovered groundbreaking ways for rapidly digitizing collection data. Data of insect specimen labels can now be easily read with just a smartphone – and all wirelessly and using only free, already available apps!
Screenshots from a mobile phone showing the steps of scanning of real-time data collection, and examples of labels: A step 1: marking of the text to be captured via touch screen of the mobile phone (example – printed labels scanned on pin) B step 2: select from menu bar (at the right side under three dots) “Copy to computer” (example – printed labels scanned separately). C Capture of multidirectional printed labels scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Lens” D Capture of multiple distorted, printed labels scanned on the pinned specimen in “Google Lens” E Initial capture of a printed label scanned separately from the specimen in “Google Keep” F Extracted data resulting from E.
Why is this important?
Around 1.1 billion objects in the largest natural history museums worldwide remain undigitized and manual extraction of specimen label information for taxonomic revisions, another source for biodiversity data mobilization, is very time consuming. By digitizing these data, we can preserve valuable knowledge about our biodiversity, especially in times of climate change and human biodiversity crisis when many species are going extinct before they are even discovered.
This innovation will accelerate and advance global research and the preservation of our biological knowledge. And the best part? It’s not expensive and accessible to everyone – from professionals to amateur scientists!
Research article:
Ahrens D, Haas A, Pacheco TL, Grobe P (2025) Extracting specimen label data rapidly with a smartphone—a great help for simple digitization in taxonomy and collection management. ZooKeys 1233: 15-30. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1233.140726
A team of researchers from the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador, in collaboration with the Natural History Museum of London, has announced the discovery of three new species of torrent frogs belonging to the genus Hyloscirtus. The study, recently published in the journal ZooKeys, combines genetic, genomic, morphological, and bioacoustic analyses, revealing hidden diversity in one of the planet’s richest ecosystems.
Maximum likelihood phylogram of Hyloscirtus for DNA sequences of mitochondrial (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, ND1 and adjacent tRNAs) and nuclear genes (RAG1 and c-myc). Bayesian posterior probabilities (pp × 100) are shown above branches and bootstrap values below. Asterisks represent values of 100%. Missing values indicate posterior probabilities and bootstrap < 50. Amazonian species of the H. bogotensis group are shown with colored boxes. Outgroup species are not shown and include two species of Boana and two of Dendropsophus. Voucher museum numbers are shown before the species name. For Ecuadorian populations, the province is provided after the species name. Abbreviations for other countries at the end of terminals: BOL (Bolivia), COL (Colombia), PAN (Panamá), PER (Perú), and VEN (Venezuela). UCS: unconfirmed candidate species.
Frogs in the mist
The research focuses on frog populations inhabiting the Amazonian cloud forests, a region known for its high biodiversity and conservation challenges. By combining DNA sequencing (both genomic and mitochondrial), detailed morphological studies, and the analysis of mating calls, the authors have identified three new species:
Hyloscirtus maycu
Hyloscirtus elbakyanae
Hyloscirtus dispersus
Hyloscirtus dispersus
Hyloscirtus elbakyanae
Hyloscirtus elbakyanae
Hyloscirtus dispersus
Hyloscirtus maycu
Hyloscirtus maycu
A tribute to open knowledge
As a recognition of the value of free access to scientific information, one of the newly described species has been named after Alexandra Elbakyan, programmer and creator of Sci-Hub. This website provides free access to scientific articles, allowing researchers worldwide to consult studies that would otherwise be locked behind expensive subscriptions—especially in low- and middle-income countries. Sci-Hub has been instrumental in democratizing scientific knowledge on a global scale.
Variation in life of Hyloscirtus elbakyanae.
Importance of the study
“This discovery not only expands our understanding of cloud forest biodiversity but also highlights the urgent need to conserve these ecosystems in the face of growing environmental threats,” said Andrea Varela, lead researcher of the study.
Geographic distribution of Amazonian species of the Hyloscirtus bogotensis group. Stars represent the type locality of H. albopunctulatus, H. phyllognathus and H. torrenticola.
The paper also examines the impact of the Andes on the diversification of this group. Colonization events across the Andes have been very rare; in the studied group, only two such events were recorded, over 14 million years ago, both from the Amazon towards the Pacific basin. These findings underscore the crucial role of the Andean barrier in the evolution and distribution of these species, offering a unique perspective on the complex biogeographic history of the Andes—one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.
Research article:
Varela-Jaramillo A, Streicher JW, Venegas PJ, Ron SR (2025) Three new species of torrent treefrogs (Anura, Hylidae) of the Hyloscirtus bogotensis group from the eastern Andean slopes and the biogeographic history of the genus. ZooKeys 1231: 233-292. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1231.124926
Pensoft is among the first signatories dedicated to fully leveraging biodiversity knowledge from research publications within an open science framework by 2035
Some of the world’s leading institutions, experts and scientific infrastructures relating to biodiversity information are uniting around a new 10-year roadmap to ‘liberate’ data presently trapped in research publications.
The initiative aims to enable the creation of a ‘Libroscope’ – a mechanism for unlocking and linking data from scientific literature to support understanding of biodiversity, as the microscope and telescope previously revolutionized science. The plan largely builds on existing technology and workflows, and does not rely on construction of a new technical infrastructure.
The proposals result from a symposium involving 51 experts from 10 countries held in August 2024 at the 7th-century monastery at Disentis in the Swiss Alps, supported financially by the Arcadia Fund. The symposium was a 10-year follow-up to the 2014 meeting at Meise Botanic Garden in Belgium, which led to the Bouchout Declaration on open biodiversity knowledge management. The Disentis meeting evaluated progress since then, and identified priorities for the decade ahead.
Group photo from the Disentis meeting (Switzerland, August 2024).
While acknowledging major advances in the sharing and use of open biodiversity data, the participants noted that accessing data within research publications is often very cumbersome, with databases disconnected from each other and from the source literature. Liberating and linking data from such publications – estimated to encompass more than 500 million total pages – would represent a compelling mission for the next decade.
A roadmap for staged action over the next decade was agreed by the symposium participants, with the following vision: “By 2035, the power of biodiversity knowledge from research publications will be fully leveraged within an open science framework, including unencumbered data discovery, access, and re-use across scientific disciplines and policy applications.”
The ‘Disentis Roadmap’, further developed following the symposium, and now released publicly, has already been signed by 26 institutions and a further 46 individual experts on five continents – among them major natural history collections such as Meise Botanic Garden, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; infrastructures such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), Catalogue of Life, LifeWatch ERIC and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB); journal publishers such as Pensoft Publishers and the European Journal of Taxonomy; research institutions such as Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research; and networks such as TDWG Biodiversity Information Standards and Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF). See the full list of signatories here.
The roadmap remains open for further signatures, ahead of the launch of an action plan at the Living Data conference in Bogotá, Colombia in October 2025. The original signatories hope that a much broader group of institutions and individuals, across global regions and disciplines, will join the initiative and help to shape implementation of its vision. Engagement of funders will also be critical to realize its objectives.
The specific goals of the roadmap are that by 2035:
All major public biodiversity research funders and academic publishers will encourage and enable publication of data adhering to the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable);
Biodiversity-focussed publications will be accessible in machine-actionable formats, with all non-copyrightable parts of articles flowing into public data repositories;
Published research on biodiversity will be ‘fully AI-ready’, that is openly available for AI training and properly labelled for ingestion by machine-learning modelled, within appropriate ethical and legal frameworks;
Dedicated funding from research and infrastructure grants will be reserved for ensuring access to biodiversity data and knowledge.
“We finally have a chance to make a quantum leap in understanding and monitoring biodiversity, by leveraging the power of digital technologies, and combining modern genomic methods with the vast amount of research data published daily and currently stuck in the publication prison. The ‘Libroscope’ will help to explore the universe of existing knowledge, accumulated over hundreds of years, and bring it to the forefront of developments in the digital age, helping nature and people across the globe.”
commented Donat Agosti of the Swiss organization Plazi, who convened the Disentis symposium.
A recent demonstration of the principles of the ‘Libroscope’ was the launch of data portals for the European Journal of Taxonomy (EJT) and the Biodiversity Data Journal, as part of the GBIF hosted portal programme. The new portals showcase the data contained within taxonomic literature published by the journals, making use of the workflow originally developed by Plazi and partners to extract re-usable data from articles traditionally locked in static PDF files. Once created, these data objects then flow into platforms such as GBIF, Catalogue of Life, ChecklistBank and the BiodiversityPMC, and are stored in the Biodiversity Literature Repository at Zenodo hosted by CERN. This process enables data on new species and the location of related specimens cited in the literature to be openly accessible in near-real time, and available for long-term access.
The newly launched Biodiversity Data Journal data portal is part of the GBIF-hosted portal programme. It showcase the data contained within taxonomic literature published by the journal.
“As a publisher of dozens of renowned academic journals in the field of biodiversity and systematics with experience in technology development, at Pensoft, we have always recognised the key role of academic publishers in scholarly communication. It’s not only about publishing the latest research. Above all, it’s about putting scientific work in the hands of those who need it: be it future researchers, policy-makers or their AI-powered assistants. Now that the Disentis roadmap is already a fact, we hope that many others will also join us on this ambitious journey to open up the knowledge we have today for those who will need it tomorrow.”
said Prof. Dr. Lyubomir Penev, founder and CEO at Pensoft, who attended the Disentis symposium.
“By repositioning scientific publications as an essential part of the research cycle, the Disentis Roadmap encourages publishers and the scientific community to move beyond open access towards FAIR access. Proactively ensuring data quality and dissemination is the core mission of the European Journal of Taxonomy. In this way, EJT enhances the immediate discoverability and usability of the taxonomic information it publishes, making it more valuable to the scientific community as a whole. Adherence to the Disentis vision marks a crucial step in the liberation and enrichment of knowledge about biodiversity.”
said Laurence Bénichou, founder and liaison officer of the European Journal of Taxonomy.
The Chief Executive Officer of Meise Botanic Garden, Steven Dessein, who attended the Disentis Symposium, commented:
“Meise Botanic Garden fully supports the Disentis Roadmap, which builds on the foundation laid by the Bouchout Declaration. Open biodiversity data is essential to tackling today’s pressing environmental challenges, from biodiversity loss to climate change. By ensuring research publications become more accessible and interconnected, this roadmap represents a critical step toward harnessing biodiversity knowledge for science, policy, and conservation.”
Christophe Déssimoz, Executive Director of the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, another signatory of the Disentis Roadmap, added:
“We have long championed the principles of open, structured, and interoperable data to advance life sciences. The Disentis Roadmap applies these same principles to biodiversity knowledge, ensuring that critical data is not just available, but truly actionable for research, policy, and conservation.”
The director of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum of Berlin, Thomas Borsch, noted that more than any other branch of science, taxonomic research depended on the machine-actionable availability of biodiversity data from the literature:
“The ‘Libroscope’ postulated in the Disentis Roadmap will enable a new generation of research workflows through its interoperable approach,” said Professor Borsch. “This will be very helpful to address pressing issues in biodiversity research and in particular to improve the use of quality information on organisms in national and global assessments.”
The chief scientist of the national museum of natural history in Paris (MNHN) said:
“We, like all similar museums and taxonomic institutions, are focussed on linking taxonomic and collection data with digital reproductions and molecular information to create the ‘extended digital specimen.’ However, the potential of taxonomic publications and text mining should not be underestimated either. On the contrary, it is a smart and accessible way to dig into scientific publications so as to retrieve, link and consolidate, research data of great relevance to many disciplines. This is why our institution fully supports the Disentis initiative.”
Christos Arvanitidis, CEO of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem e-Science Infrastructure LifeWatch ERIC, commented:
“LifeWatch ERIC is proud to be part of this initiative, as providing access and support to biodiversity and ecosystem data is fully aligned with our mission. The Disentis Roadmap opens up new opportunities for our research infrastructure to help make what science has provided us accessible and usable, and to improve the FAIRness of data for research and science-based policy.”
Tim Robertson, deputy director and head of informatics at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), who also attended the Disentis meeting added:
“We’re excited to see the results from Disentis partners like Plazi, BHL, Pensoft and the European Journal of Taxonomy who are focussed on liberating data connected with scientific publications,” said . “GBIF will continue to do our part to improve the standards, tools and services that help expand both the benefits and the impact of FAIR and open data on biodiversity science and policy.”
Olaf Bánki, Executive Director of the Catalogue of Life, commented:
“We call out to the scientific community, especially the younger generation, to join our effort in unlocking biodiversity data from literature. Actionable biodiversity and taxonomic data from digitized literature contributes to creating an index of all described organisms of all life on earth. We need such data to tackle and understand the current biodiversity crisis.”
