The Earth Metabolome Initiative
Mapping the chemistry of life on Earth
We connect field sampling, metabolomics, biodiversity knowledge, and open infrastructure to make Earth’s chemodiversity discoverable and reusable.
EMI in numbers
Current totals across the emi Directus project group
Directus data refreshed 1 September 2026
Biodiversity has a chemical dimension. EMI brings the people, methods, and infrastructure together to document it as an open atlas of Earth’s chemodiversity.
From biological diversity to reusable knowledge
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01
Sample
Coordinate well-documented sampling across living collections, wild populations, and ecosystems while preserving biological and environmental context.
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02
Analyse
Use metabolomics and complementary approaches to capture chemical fingerprints and annotate the molecular diversity of life.
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03
Connect
Link chemistry with specimens, taxonomy, geography, ecology, and open knowledge so that data can be found, compared, and reused.
Missions in practice
From a global vision to work on the ground
DBGI
An open-science pilot connecting living botanical collections with metabolomics and biodiversity data.
View mission →ViNEsh BioBlitz
A place-based BioBlitz mission in Valais connecting biodiversity observation with EMI sampling.
View mission →The network
A global community for chemodiversity
Open infrastructure
Tools made to be used and reused
Updates
Latest from the initiative
Take part