Nature in Norway (NiN) is a common set of concepts and tools for all Norwegian professional environments and institutions that work with nature. The system, which handles natural variation on all scales, has been developed by researchers from the GEco group, Natural History Museum, UiO, in collaboration with other scientific institutions. The work is funded by the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (Artsdatabanken).
New systematics for ecological diversity?
Carl von Linné is regarded as the inventor of the modern principles for the systematic division of species into genera, families and so on. The principles behind NiN can be a step on the way to a similar systematic division of ecological diversity.
The authors of the article summarize the scientific principles, framework and type divisions that form the basis of Nature in Norway. They also show how variation in nature can be systematized according to these principles – for instance at the ecosystem and landscape level. Using such a system can help increase precision and credibility in mapping and preserving Nature’s diversity.
International knowledge
The authors suggest that scientific framework presented in the article may allow other countries to create their own, parallel systems for characterizing natural variation. The implementation for Norway is used as an example. The authors further outline a path towards a universal system for biodiversity, which can lay the foundation for global type divisions of nature.
The article contains English versions of ecosystem type names, landscape type names, names of variables for variation and more. The summary and translation of NiN into English may open for several publications and collaboration on nature variation internationally.
The article is openly available in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. The authors are Rune Halvorsen, Olav Skarpaas, Anders Bryn, Harald Bratli, Lars Erikstad, Trond Simensen and Eva Lieungh.
This news item has been prepared by the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre and the Natural History Museum.