WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, ANIL MAHAJAN
The US Geological Survey’s National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) program was closed its popular website yesterday (January 15) after the budget was slashed from $7 million in 2010 to zero in 2012. The program gave researchers a “one-stop shopping” for environmental data, species taxonomy, and disease propagation—information that was collected from a number of government agencies, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The closure came as a surprise to many institutions who consider the database a vital resource for their researchers. While the Geological Survey is working to create an archive of the information that could still be accessed, NBII Deputy Director Michael McDermott said that even if they are successful, the information will still be more difficult to locate.
For now, however, researchers ...
