Attributes as part of the Aphia database
Leen Vandepitte On behalf of WoRMS data management team Traits in Aphia database
• Currently available – Functional group (benthos/plankton) => Linked to life-stage (larva-adult)! – Fossil range – Feeding type – IUCN Red List category – Paraphyletic group (algae, fish, mangroves)
Still incomplete Feeding type will probably need adaptation, depending on outcome of this workshop • Hierarchically structured – Parent-child relationships
Functional group: Benthos Plankton • Macrobenthos • Phytoplankton • Meiobenthos • Zooplankton
Fossil range: • Phanerozoic – Cenozoic » Quaternary • Holocene • Pleistocene • Upper • …
• Search options take into account hierarchy
• Inheritance – Where possible, assign traits on higher levels than species – Indication of exceptions still possible
– Currently applied for functional group trait
Phylum Mollusca Class Bivalvia Functional group: benthos as adult Subclass Heterodonta Infraclass Euheterodonta Order Veneroida Inheritance of trait & value Superfamily Tellinoidea Family Semelidae Genus Abra Genus Leptomya * Exception: adult is plankton
Abra alba (W. Wood, 1802) World databases of marine species have now been established but are limited to taxonomic (e.g. WoRMS) and distribution (e.g. OBIS) data. The benefits of these databases could be multiplied by associating species with richer ecological and biological information. (Mark Costello)
AphiaDB: 27.000 taxa with a trait TRAIT
TAXONOMY DISTRIBUTION WoRMS: >221.436 accepted species OBIS: >37 million distr. records
=> All brought together within the LifeWatch taxonomic backbone National BeRMS LifeWatch Sweden FloraBank VIS
RAMS FaEU Regional Eu+MedPlantbase PESI ERMS
Thematic NeMys Fishbase Algaebase IF IPNI
SPECIES REGISTERS SPECIES Mollusca
Global WoRMS FADA CoL
LifeWatch Taxonomic Backbone
BHL IMIS WoRMS LITERATURE
GBIF
ECOLOGY ECOLOGY (
AntaBIF EoL TraitBank Aphia DB
OBIS nodes OBIS
OBIS traits EMODnet Environmental
BIOTIC databases )
EurOBIS PANGAEA
SPECIES OBSERVATIONS SPECIES GENETICS EU data BOLD
MedOBIS OBIS Black Sea EU institutes GenBANK
Example questions to be answered by the taxonomic backbone: Taxonomic backbone will be able to provide an answer to trait-related biodiversity questions – Which (macro)benthic species live in the North Sea at depths between 50-100m? • Input: – Which (macro)benthic species live in the North Sea between Trait(s): benthos (macro) Biogeography: North Sea; defined depth- 50-100m? range • Output: Taxonomy (based on WoRMS): species list – Which invasive species are known to occur in the Black Sea?
– Where does species X appear? – Which species from the Habitat/Bird Directive are on the – Which invasive pelagic species are known to occur in the Black Sea? IUCN Red List? – Which species from the Habitat/Bird Directive are on the IUCN Red List? – How does my marine species list relate to the African Register of Marine Species? – …
=> LifeWatch data services available (or in development) to answer these questions