Encyclopedia of Life, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box 37012, MRC 106, Washington, DC 20013-7012, USA.
Trends Ecol Evol. 2012 Feb;27(2):94-103. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2011.11.001. Epub 2011 Dec 10.
The accelerating growth of data and knowledge in evolutionary biology is indisputable. Despite this rapid progress, information remains scattered, poorly documented and in formats that impede discovery and integration. A grand challenge is the creation of a linked system of all evolutionary data, information and knowledge organized around Darwin's ever-growing Tree of Life. Such a system, accommodating topological disagreement where necessary, would consolidate taxon names, phenotypic and geographical distributional data across clades, and serve as an integrated community resource. The field of evolutionary informatics, reviewed here for the first time, has matured into a robust discipline that is developing the conceptual, infrastructure and community frameworks for meeting this grand challenge.
进化生物学中数据和知识的加速增长是无可争议的。尽管取得了这一快速进展，但信息仍然分散、记录不佳，并且格式阻碍了发现和整合。一个重大挑战是创建一个链接系统，其中包含围绕达尔文不断增长的生命之树组织的所有进化数据、信息和知识。这样一个系统，在必要时容纳拓扑学上的分歧，将整合分类群名称、表型和地理分布数据，并作为一个综合的社区资源。进化信息学领域，这是首次进行审查，已经成熟为一个稳健的学科，正在为迎接这一重大挑战开发概念、基础设施和社区框架。
