ORKNEY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS CENTRE

Welcome to Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre's website.

Biodiversity is a relatively new term, first coined by the American biologist EO Wilson in the mid 1980s, that abbreviates 'biological diversity' and encompasses the range of variation in living organisms from genetic variation to species and ecosystem variation.

Thus the term is simply a substitute for 'Nature' or 'variety of life' but it has grabbed the attention of politicians and decision-makers the world over in a way that the term 'wildlife conservation' never did.

The Orkney Biodiversity Records Centre is situated in central Kirkwall, capital city of the Orkney Islands, and we are in the process of gathering together all the biodiversity and biological records for our county.

The OBRC project started in September 1998 and in that time we have created a resource centre consisting of computerised biological records, reference books and equipment for species recording & identification, permanently housed in the Orkney Library & Archive.

Existing biological records for Orkney from land, freshwater and sea are currently being entered into a Recorder 2000 computerised database. This includes species, sites and habitats. The database can be used to update and develop the existing audit of species and habitats which underpins the Orkney Biodiversity Audit 2002. It is also a resource for use by naturalists, ecologists, conservationists, educationalists, planners, business and the general public.

The Centre is manned by Sydney Gauld, who is happy to deal with your enquiries.

Photo of Sydney Gauld
Sydney Gauld (Recorder 2000 Technician)

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This site was last updated on 24 April 2006

Special thanks to John Crossley for bumble bee pictures and SNH for other images.

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