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 OBSERVATIONSSPECIES 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 .