Showing papers on "Catalogue of Life published in 2018"

A decade of the World Register of Marine Species - General insights and experiences from the Data Management Team: Where are we, what have we learned and how can we continue?

Abstract: The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017. WoRMS is a unique database: there is no comparable global database for marine species, which is driven by a large, global expert community, is supported by a Data Management Team and can rely on a permanent host institute, dedicated to keeping WoRMS online. Over the past ten years, the content of WoRMS has grown steadily, and the system currently contains more than 242,000 accepted marine species. WoRMS has not yet reached completeness: approximately 2,000 newly described species per year are added, and editors also enter the remaining missing older names–both accepted and unaccepted–an effort amounting to approximately 20,000 taxon name additions per year. WoRMS is used extensively, through different channels, indicating that it is recognized as a high-quality database on marine species information. It is updated on a daily basis by its Editorial Board, which currently consists of 490 taxonomic and thematic experts located around the world. Owing to its unique qualities, WoRMS has become a partner in many large-scale initiatives including OBIS, LifeWatch and the Catalogue of Life, where it is recognized as a high-quality and reliable source of information for marine taxonomy.

Catalogue of Life Plus: innovating the CoL systems as a foundation for a clearinghouse for names and taxonomy

Abstract: In 2015, the global biodiversity information initiatives Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), Barcode of Life Data systems (BoLD), Catalogue of Life (CoL), Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) took the first step to work on the idea for building a single shared authoritative nomenclature and taxonomic foundation that could be used as a backbone to order and connect biodiversity data across various domains. At present, the Catalogue of Life is being used by BHL, BoLD, EOL, and GBIF, but each extend the CoL with additional data to meet the specific backbone services required. The goal of the CoL+ project is to innovate the CoL systems by developing a new information technology infrastructure that includes both the current Catalogue of Life and a provisional Catalogue of Life (replacing the current GBIF backbone taxonomy), separates scientific names and taxonomic concepts with associated unique identifiers, and provides some (infrastructural) support for taxonomic and nomenclatural content authorities to finish their work. The project’s specific objectives are to establish a clearinghouse covering scientific names across all life; provide a single taxonomic view grounded in the consensus classification of the Catalogue of Life along with candidate taxonomic sources, show differences between sources, and provide an avenue for feedback to content authorities while allowing the broader community to contribute, and establish a partnership and governance, allowing a continuing commitment after the project’s end for a clearinghouse infrastructure and its associated components, including a roadmap for future developments of the infrastructure. establish a clearinghouse covering scientific names across all life; provide a single taxonomic view grounded in the consensus classification of the Catalogue of Life along with candidate taxonomic sources, show differences between sources, and provide an avenue for feedback to content authorities while allowing the broader community to contribute, and establish a partnership and governance, allowing a continuing commitment after the project’s end for a clearinghouse infrastructure and its associated components, including a roadmap for future developments of the infrastructure. As result of the project we expect to have a shared information space for names and taxonomy between the Catalogue of Life, nomenclator content authorities (e.g. IPNI, ZooBank) and several global biodiversity information initiatives.