The new GBits number (No. 37 , November 2013), which is published every two months, is available, aiming to promote the activities of GBIF. In this edition, highlights are the more than 157000 visitors to the new GBIF portal, the election of the new chair of the GBIF Governing Board and the participation of Miguel Bastos Araújo, winner of GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize 2013 at the Science Symposium of the GBIF Governing Board 20.
The GBIF Governing Board has elected, Peter Schalk, as new chair for the next two years. Peter Schalk was managing director of ICT section at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Netherlands, having been a founder of the Species 2000 project, creator of the global species checklist, The Catalogue of Life.
In the GBIF Science Symposium "GBIF at work - advancing biodiversity science for a sustainable society " of 2013, Miguel Bastos Araújo participated as a speaker with the presentation entitled "Why the species of Where They Occur ?", also available online on video, addressing the theme of what factors influence the species distribution and the need to develop models based on biodiversity data such as GBIF.
In addition to the 20th Governing Board meeting and general meeting of the GBIF nodes, it was highlighted in this number of GBits the collaborations with the Convention on Biological Diversity and withe the IPBES, the new published data resources and news about nationals portals of GBIF.
The new number GBits is available here.