On Monday, February 25th, iDigBio PI's and project staff met with Walter Jetz,Ph.D. [1] from the Map of Life [2] project. Dr. Jetz shared with us how the The Map of Life assembles and integrates different sources of data describing species distributions worldwide. These data include expert species range maps, species occurrence points, ecoregions, and protected areas from providers like IUCN, WWF, GBIF, and more. All of Map or Life's data assets are stored, managed, backed up, and accessed using a hosted CartoDB instance in the cloud. 

iDigBio is excited about the work Dr. Jetz and his collaborators are doing through the Map of Life project. This introductory meeting provided a foundation for future collaboration between iDigBio and Map of Life.