The resource now holds over 1.1 million geographic records of living organisms which are important to agriculture and the environment.
The Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) Distribution Database has reached a historic milestone with over 300,000 distribution records added in 2021 – meaning the resource now holds over 1.1 million geographic records of living organisms which are important to agriculture and the environment.
The database covers over 55,000 species, across key areas such as crop pests and hosts, crop and animal diseases, invasive species and natural enemies. The data has been sourced from peer reviewed published literature, CABI project work and other authoritative third-party sources such as EPPO and OIE.
Throughout 2021, CABI has been working hard to use new Distribution Database tools to import more geographic records. This includes over 12,000 new species to the database and information that has filled thousands of gaps in existing species distributions.
The CABI Distribution Database serves data to five different Compendia (Animal Health & Production, Aquaculture, Crop Protection, Forestry and Invasive Species), distribution maps for plant pests and plant diseases, the Horizon Scanning Tool, Pest Risk Analysis Tool, Plantwise Knowledge Bank Species Pages (Datasheets) and the Plantwise Knowledge Bank Diagnostic Tool.
Tim Beale, Senior Data Analyst at CABI, said, “CABI is regularly updating its distribution data so that when users go to our knowledge products, they can be more confident that they are getting the latest information about where their species of interest is present or absent. Furthermore, when they use our tools they can have greater trust in the results of their horizon scan, or pest risk assessment.”
