About the Institution
The LIB – Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change is an amalgamation of the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn, and the Centre of Natural History of the University of Hamburg. It is dedicated to research into biological diversity and how it changes, the findings from which have illuminating relevance for society as a whole.
The LIB comprises more than 16 million collection objects, primarily from the field of zoology, but also from geology-palaeontology and mineralogy. Using state-of-the-art technologies, researchers study the changes in biodiversity based on this valuable, historical object database in order to answer relevant questions of our society for the future. As an integrated research museum, the LIB promotes innovative research. Documentation, indexing, and the expansion of the collections are important goals of this research infrastructure.
The results of research and the collections are made accessible to the public with permanent and temporary exhibitions and using other methods for public education.
About the Data Center
The Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change is a foundation under public law. The Biodiversity Data Center as part of the LIB is aimed at hosting, archiving, publishing and distributing data from biodiversity research and zoological collections.
The Biodiversity Data Center handles and curates data on:
- The specimens of the institutes collection, including provenance, distribution, habitat, and taxonomic data.
- Observations, recordings and measurements from field research, monitoring and ecological inventories.
- Morphological measurements, descriptions on specimens, as well as
- Genetic barcode libraries, and
- Genetic and molecular research data associated with specimens or environmental samples.