Vliegenvanger

What is the Dietbank?

Learn more about Dietbank and our mission to advance dietary research

We strive to make dietary research data more accessible and useful

Diet information is important for understanding ecological process and trophic interactions. Monitoring the role of specific organisms in ecosystems, especially of those under threats such as insects, is crucial for reporting and mitigating human effects on ecosystems. However, researching something as basic and crucial as diets is surprisingly not straightforward, especially when both prey and predator are small. Dietary data collection with classic observational methods is not common practice anymore in ecological studies or wildlife monitoring programs. It is time-consuming and costly, or simply unfeasible, and this had led to a scarcity of information on diets. This lack of information is currently being addressed by technological advances in molecular techniques such as DNA metabarcoding, yielding high-throughput and high-resolution dietary information. To make this wealth of information on diets available to the large community of researchers, wildlife managers and the general public we present DietBank. DietBank is a repository of taxa detected by DNA metabarcoding that were food to another organism, whether an insect, birds, mammal of fish. DietBank contains sample metadata, taxonomically assigned DNA sequence variants, and quantitative information on the occurrence and abundance of each variant in each sample. DietBank can be queried to summarize diet overviews but can also be mined for local biodiversity, trophic interactions, and specific species interactions. We recommend DietBank as a tool for ecological assessments, study design, or to simply be browsed to reveal the wonders of the natural world.

What We Do

Dietbank serves as a comprehensive resource for dietary data across species and ecosystems. Our platform offers:

  • Data Mobilization — We work with researchers and institutions to digitize and standardize dietary observations, feeding records, and nutritional analyses from field studies, museum specimens, and published literature
  • Education & Outreach — We provide training materials, workshops, and best practices for collecting, managing, and sharing dietary data using standardized vocabularies and data formats
  • Tools Development — We develop and maintain open-source tools for dietary data capture, validation, and analysis, making it easier for the community to contribute high-quality data
  • Research Support — We facilitate research by providing integrated access to dietary observations linked with occurrence data, environmental variables, and taxonomic information

Collaborators and Partners

We work closely with a network of dedicated researchers, institutions, and organizations:

  • Dr. Maria Ecologist, University of Conservation Biology — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0002]
  • Dr. John Taxonomist, Natural History Museum — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0003]
  • Dr. Sarah Nutritionist, Institute of Wildlife Biology — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0004]
  • Dr. David Fieldworker, Global Biodiversity Institute — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0005]
  • Dr. Lisa Curator, Museum of Natural Sciences — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0006]
  • Dr. Michael Analyst, Center for Biodiversity Informatics — [ORCID: 0000-0000-0000-0007]
  • GBIF Secretariat — Global coordination and data infrastructure
  • Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) — Standards development and community coordination

Acknowledgments

Dietbank builds upon decades of foundational work in biodiversity informatics and dietary ecology. We gratefully acknowledge:

Founding Contributors The project was initiated through the vision and efforts of pioneers in dietary ecology and biodiversity data science who recognized the critical need for standardized, accessible dietary data.

Principal Investigators We thank our current and former principal investigators whose leadership and scientific guidance have shaped the project’s direction and impact.

Funding Support This work has been made possible through generous support from [funding agencies and institutions to be specified].

Community Contributors Most importantly, we acknowledge the hundreds of researchers, data collectors, and institutions who have contributed dietary observations and continue to enrich this shared resource.

For more information about contributing data or collaborating with Dietbank, please contact us.