BEIJING — The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has officially published a catalog of biological resources, with more than 7.43 million pieces of biological resource data released.

The catalog collects biological resource data from 72 resource libraries in 40 research institutes of the CAS, which includes biological specimens, plant resources, genetic resources, animal experiment resources, and biodiversity monitoring network resources.

All the resource data are available to the public on network portals, the CAS said.

The released open-access biological resources data and related results will effectively promote the integration and sharing of China's biological resources data and support the national biological industry, said Ma Juncai, director of the information center of the CAS Biological Resources Programme.

Biological resources are the most basic material basis for human reproduction and development. China has some of the richest biological resources on earth, in terms of both diversity and quantity, Ma said.