ARKive

There is little more fascinating than the overwhelming variety of life on our planet. This variety is represented in dazzling detail by a team of wildlife photographers, filmmakers, conservationists, and scientists who have partnered with wildlife charity Wildscreen to create "an awe-inspiring record of life on Earth." Visitors to the site can browse a library of images, videos, and information about over 15,000 species, from extinct to vulnerable. ARKive also allows users to browse by place and conservation status, for those users who are interested in finding out about endangered species close to home. The Educate tab provides materials for teachers, all of which are sorted into appropriate age categories. Finally, a Fun section adds a little levity to an otherwise very serious topic, offering a blog, activities, games, quizzes, and other options for those who enjoy learning through play.

http://www.arkive.org/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

University of Florida Herbarium Collections Catalog

The University of Florida Herbarium collection contains over 450,000 specimens in the vascular plant and bryophyte and lichen collections. Currently, over 55,000 of these specimens are available on this searchable database. The project was sponsored by a range of institutions, including the United States Department of Agriculture, the Florida Museum of Natural History, and the Florida Center for Library Automation. First-time visitors should use the About the Catalog area to learn more about the functionality and setup of the project. The Search the Catalog area contains ten different fields to facilitate searches, including family, genus, country, state, county, collector, and accession number. Additionally, many of the items have digitized photographs and other visual material attached to their records.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/herbarium/cat/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2013. https://www.scout.wisc.edu/

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species provides taxonomic, conservation status and distribution information on plants and animals that have been globally evaluated using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. This system is designed to determine the relative risk of extinction, and the main purpose of the IUCN Red List is to catalogue and highlight those plants and animals that are facing a higher risk of global extinction. The IUCN Red List also includes information on plants and animals that are categorized as Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; on taxa that cannot be evaluated because of insufficient information; and on plants and animals that are either close to meeting the threatened thresholds or that would be threatened were it not for an ongoing taxon-specific conservation programme. 

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

ITIS: Integrated Taxonomic Information System

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System provides "authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world"
 
http://www.itis.gov/

Catalogue of Life

" The Catalogue of Life is a quality-assured checklist of more than 1.3 million species of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms, about 70% of all those known to science. An uncomplicated structure, and both minimal and standardised dataset provide a sound baseline of species information for all biologists. The Catalogue of Life is unique in its breadth of coverage of organisms, the degree of validation in the knowledge set, and its wide global take-up"

http://www.catalogueoflife.org/prototype/

The Scientist: Magazine of the Life Sciences.

The Scientist is a magazine for life science professionals—a print and digital publication dedicated to covering a wide range of topics central to the study of cell and molecular biology, genetics, and other life-science fields. Through innovative print articles, online stories, and multimedia features, the magazine explores the latest scientific discoveries, trends in research, innovative techniques, new technology, business, and careers. Written by prominent scientists and professional journalists, articles in The Scientist are concise, accurate, accessible, and entertaining.

http://the-scientist.com/

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students

Students in the engineering and science fields need to communicate a broad set of often highly technical materials to lay audiences. This process can be challenging, and this nice set of materials from Pennsylvania State University will be a boon to students in these fields. The site has five main sections: Introduction, Presentations, Correspondence, Formal Reports, and Other Documents. The Introduction area contains three helpful documents that provide insights on crafting the style of any given document and assessing the audience. Moving along, the Formal Reports area gives helpful suggestions on composing laboratory reports, theses, and dissertations. The site is rounded out by a glossary of writing and composition terms and additional references and resources.

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2012. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Global Invasive Species Database

"Aims to increase awareness about invasive alien species and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities. It is managed by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature)"

http://www.issg.org/database/welcome/

IPM Images

" BugwoodImages provides an easily accessible archive of high quality images for use in educational applications. It is made up of four major website interfaces. These are ForestryImages, IPMImages, InsectImages, and Invasive.org.

The focus of BugwoodImages is on species of economic concern. Images cover invasive species, forestry, agriculture, integrated pest management, plants, insects, diseases, fungi, wildlife, fire and other natural resource issues. Images are reviewed for content and quality"

http://www.ipmimages.org/

Plant Genome Research Outreach Portal

"The mission of the PGROP site is to provide a centralized access point for locating Plant Genome Research "Outreach" activities, programs and resources. The site seeks to be a portal that serves the needs of a wide-ranging audience. Whether you are a high-school student or teacher, an undergraduate or graduate student, university faculty, someone looking for opportunities for minorities and underrepresented groups, or a member of the public at large (and that includes everyone!) - you will find a wealth of information and tools at your fingertips as you walk through the portal"

http://www.plantgdb.org/PGROP/pgrop.php

The American Phytopathological Society

The American Phytopathological Society (APS) is a professional society dedicated to "high-quality, innovative plant pathology research." Founded in 1908, the APS continues to provide educational resources for those seeking to learn more about the science of plant pathology. One way they work to accomplish this goal is through this particular section of their website. The materials on this site include "Plant Disease Management Simulations", "Laboratory Exercises", and "Topics in Plant Pathology". The "Topics in Plant Pathology" area includes topical articles that deal with various aspects of plant pathology, including the use of reverse genetic tools for investigating gene function and the population genetics of plant pathogens. The "Laboratory Exercises" area contains two activities that can be used by college students studying plant pathology. The "Plant Disease Management" area contains a handful of simulations that will help students learn about the spread and management of some common plant diseases. Finally, the site is rounded out by an illustrated glossary of plant pathology.

http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/advanced/Pages/default.aspx

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011.http://scout.wisc.edu/

Plant Genome Research Outreach Portal

http://www.plantgdb.org/PGROP/pgrop.php

Based at the Iowa State University, the mission of the Plant Genome Research Outreach Portal (PGROP) is "to provide a centralized access point for location plant genome research outreach activities, programs and resources." The site contains fact sheets, lesson plans, and other materials for students and educators, including specifically themed resources on crops like maize, rice, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. On the right-hand side of the page, visitors can use the "New and Noteworthy" area which contains links to genome databases like the Maize Genetics & Genomics database and the helpful "Fast Plants" website. Also, the "Resources Concerning" area includes peer-vetted links organized by topics like bioinformatics, genomics, molecular biology, and DNA. Finally, the site also contains the detailed report of the National Plant Genome Initiative.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011. http://scout.wisc.edu/

Australian National Herbarium

http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/herbarium/

The "About Us" section provides definitions and explains how specimens are used and stored and it is a nice prelude to the rest of the site. Since the Herbarium is not open to the public, the digitization of the Herbarium collections is important, particularly for botanists. Those persons interested in "Photographs of Plants" will find them under the "Botanical Information" category. There, visitors can search for plants by "genus", "species" or "family". It is noted how much of the digitization of each collection is complete. Visitors unfamiliar with botanical names of plants can find photographs using a "common name" database.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2011. http://scout.wisc.edu/

The Plant List

" A working list of all known plant species. Version 1 aims to be comprehensive for species of Vascular plant (flowering plants, conifers, ferns and their allies) and of Bryophytes (mosses and liverworts).

Collaboration between the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden enabled the creation of The Plant List by combining multiple checklist data sets held by these institutions and other collaborators.

The Plant List provides the Accepted Latin name for most species, with links to all Synonyms by which that species has been known. It also includes Unresolved names for which the contributing data sources did not contain sufficient evidence to decide whether they were Accepted or Synonyms."

http://www.theplantlist.org/

Center for Plant Conservation

http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/

This site contains information on the US based Center for Plant Conservation. Resources include a database of native plant species and links to publications and web links relevant to plant conservation.