[ISBN will be applied to the post-Conference version] The Proceedings of TDWG Provisional Abstracts of the 2009 Annual Conference of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group 9-13 November 2009 Montpellier, France (Hosted by Agropolis and Bioversity International at Le Corum) Edited by Anna L. Weitzman Published by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Montpellier, France, 2009 TDWG 2009 was sponsored by: © Taxonomic Databases Working Group, 2009 To be cited as: Weitzman, A.L. (ed.). Proceedings of TDWG (2009), Montpellier, France. This book contains abstracts of the papers, posters and computer demonstrations presented at the Annual Conference of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group held 9-13 November 2009 at Le Corum, hosted by Agropolis and Bioversity International in Montpellier, France. The meeting attracted more than 275 participants from 30 countries and over 150 prestigious scientific research institutions, museums and companies. The editor gratefully acknowledges with thanks the vitally important contributions of Lynette Woodburn, Gail Kampmeier, Arturo Ariño, P. Bryan Heidorn, and Lee Belbin towards the editing of this publication. We also appreciate the session chairs and numerous independent peer reviewers who have ensured the quality of the submissions. Editor’s Note: Due to the late submission of many abstracts, not all abstracts have been reviewed or edited. These abstracts are indicated with a ∞ (infinity symbol) after the title. In addition, Table of Contents, Index, and any supplemental files submitted by the authors have not been verified as present. For all abstracts, layout, formatting and proofreading are also incomplete; acronyms have not all been reviewed and sessions have not been checked for order or completion. These things will be corrected in the final version. Published and distributed as an Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) document for free download from the Conference web site at http://www.tdwg.org/conference2009/ Proceedings of TDWG – 2009 Provisional Page 2 Proceedings of TDWG 1. e-Biosphere 09-Outcomes 1.1. UK Roadmap for delivery of Internet-based Taxonomy Frank Bisby, Malcolm Scoble, Norman MacLeod, Colin Miles, Amanda Read, Walter Berendsohn, Mark Costello, Thomas Orrell School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, UK & Species 2000 The UK Government has asked its research funding bodies to prepare policies on various issues that are seen as impediments to successful funding for systematics. One of these is the delivery of Internet-based taxonomy. BBSRC has set up a small panel that includes UK and international participants, to prepare a ‘UK Roadmap for delivery of Internet- based Taxonomy’. Included in the remit is that the panel should consult widely at international fora on some of the issues raised, and for this reason the panel was linked to the e-Biosphere 09 discussions, and is now seeking inputs from the TDWG and other communities. Later on in 2010 there will be an open meeting at the Linnean Society of London to discuss the outcomes and report for the Roadmap. Three particular issues raised so far are i) the vision of where taxonomy should be 5 and 10 years from now, ii) the need to link initiatives with parallel funding across the funding bodies of different countries and continents, and iii) the need to bring together partnerships between funded scientific infrastructures and funded taxonomic research. Preliminary ideas on where taxonomy should be 5 and 10 years on are these. Five years from now we believe it should be possible to have all known species on Earth effectively available and treated in Taxon Databases, and thus accessible through the aggregative or synthetic species checklist works such as Catalogue of Life via Species 2000 or via ITIS, in WoRMS, in FADA, in ToL, EoL etc. Similarly it should be possible to expose effectively all names in use through the Global Names Architecture now being set up by EoL, GBIF, CoL and the nomenclators. A contentious issue is whether increased productivity promoted by Internet-based techniques and resources may lead to, say, a doubling of monographic output into Taxon Databases by existing levels of expert staffing, and whether these Taxon Databases can be established on a sustainable basis. There is the suggestion that 10 years from now we should expect automated or semi-automated identification systems involving both molecular and morphological techniques to become available for species in a significant number of the Taxon Databases. We would thus have the existence and concept for each species, but, more importantly for practical work, the ability to make accurate identifications by all, something that will revolutionise accessibility of good biodiversity data. Discussions about these 5 and 10 year targets for the Roadmap bring two key issues into focus, and it is about these that we seek inputs from TDWG participants at this meeting. First: would it be possible for funding bodies in different countries to establish collaborative arrangements for funding just their part in international or even global programmes? Do any of you in the audience have experience of such arrangements between funding bodies, either in relation to taxonomy, or indeed in relation to other disciplines? Second: in some countries an impediment to funding Internet-based Taxonomy is that this necessarily combines real taxonomic research with the development of a scientific infrastructure. In the UK BBSRC and NERC fund research, but usually not infrastructures. Are there countries in which funding applications for research and infrastructures can be combined on a standard basis – something that the panel presently only know of in the European Commission’s programmes? Support is acknowledged from: The UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) 1.2. e-Biosphere and TDWG ∞ Walter G. Berendsohn, et al. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem The e-Biosphere 09 conference in July (www.e-biosphere09.org/) brought together more than 500 individuals from 63 countries for an intense three days reflecting the status and future of biodiversity informatics. In the two days following the conference, a smaller group of representatives from several of the larger biodiversity informatics initiatives met to begin to draft a roadmap for building interoperability among their information systems. The Workshop Resolution Proceedings of TDWG – 2009 Provisional Page 3 (www.e-biosphere09.org/assets/files/workshop/Resolution.pdf) calls for the further development of a broad-based coalition to further the efforts of biodiversity informatics. The Resolution identifies several priority action items, including: • Creating a seamlessly connected virtual laboratory or platform for integrating, synthesizing, and analyzing biodiversity information; • Promoting linkages with user communities that would use the platform to better model and understand the entire biodiversity of the globe; and • Developing and disseminating a periodic outlook report on biodiversity informatics that would assess the status and future of the field. The Resolution also identifies several initiatives for which workshop participants agreed to take leadership roles. These include: • Creating durable, global registries for the resources that are basic to biodiversity informatics (e.g., repositories, collections); • Completing the construction of a solid taxonomic infrastructure; • Creating ontologies for biodiversity data; • Developing an approach to the citation of published data and information services; Implementing active and effective outreach to the policy and research domains that rely on biodiversity informatics as a resource. The workshop participants readily acknowledged that their meeting was only the beginning of a much broader effort. However, hopes that a process of community-wide consultation and communication could be facilitated by the e- Biosphere Online Conference Community (OCC) have not materialised. The purpose of the discussion at TDWG 2009 is to try to define TDWG’s role in the process. For this, an introductory session will be held in the beginning of the conference, and individual sessions throughout the TDWG meeting will make a few minutes room to reflect on how their activities relate to the overall e-Biosphere roadmap effort. The results will be gathered and presented in the end of the conference, ideally leading to a statement clarifying TDWG’s role. 2. Sharing e-knowledge on agricultural diversity worldwide 2.1. CONABIO’s experience: Sharing e-knowledge, solutions and lessons learned ∞ Patricia Koleff, Cecilio Mota, Francisca Acevedo, Oswaldo Oliveros, Claudia Sánchez, Israel Martínez National Commission for the Knowledge and use of Biodiversity of Mexico (CONABIO) Biodiversity is an essential element for the development of food and agriculture production strategies. Genetic diversity of crops plays a critical role in increasing and sustaining production levels and nutritional diversity throughout the full range of different agroecological conditions. Free and open access to knowledge on crop science is crucial to the sustainable management of resources. Despite the wide range of available data, there are still large information gaps for countries that are centers of origin and diversification of crops, and some results of scientific research are not easily available or updated. The National Commission for the Knowledge and use of Biodiversity of Mexico (CONABIO) has more than 15 years of experience in compiling standardized information