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European Register of Marine Species version 2.0

data management, current status and plans for the future

Edward Vanden Berghe, Philippe Bouchet, Geoff Boxshall, Mark Costello, Chris Emblow

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ERMS overview

• European Register of Marine Species

• Result of EU project, 10 partners

• Managed by SMEBD

• Will form taxonomic backbone of EurOBIS and MarBEF data management

• Will be updated

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ERMS v 1.0

• EU project (MAST)• 2 years: 1998-1999• 19 contractual partners

• responsible for data management, promotion of the product, dialogue with end users…

• 100+ editors of taxonomic lists• not necessarily from the partner institutions• responsible for the content

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ERMS v 1.0 content

• List of names

• Synonymy for some groups

• Very limited distribution information• level of major sea area (Atlantic,

Mediterranean,…)• very incomplete

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ERMS geographic scope

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ERMS taxonomic scope

• Multicellular organisms• Animals, plants, macroorganisms

• Protoctista not part of the original plan• Gaps exist

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ERMS statistics

all taxa species valid

Biota 47319 32996 29862

Animalia 38378 26540 24352

Mollusca 4899 3343 3343

Platyhelm. 3696 2427 2427

Arthropoda 11221 8007 7436

Fungi 597 332 331

Plantae 19 6 6

Protoctista 7737 5658 4713

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ERMS v 1.0 availability

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ERMS v 1.0 weaknesses

• Taxonomic gaps• Set of excel sheets, no proper database

• Checklists, some created from scratch, some compilations of existing regional lists

• No hierarchy

• Detail available varies across checklists• distribution info, synonymy, literature…

• No integration between checklists• Programme-based, no continuation

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SMEBD

• Society for the Management of European Biodiversity Data• All data contributors are members of the

society• Society manages intellectual property right

on behalf of authors• ERMS authors, discussions to include also

Fauna Europaea authors

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MarBEF

• Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning

• EU FP 6 ‘Network of Excellence’• VLIZ does data management

• Needed taxonomic authority list for integration of databases• EurOBIS

• SMEBD gave mandate to VLIZ/MarBEF to manage data

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ERMS v 1.1

• Integrating spreadsheets in one relational database• MS SQL Server, front end Access• Structure is open hierarchy (± ITIS)

• Content remains same as ERMS 1.0• some inconsistencies removed

• But adding taxonomic hierarchy

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ERMS v 1.1 structure

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ERMS v 1.1 availability

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ERMS v 2.0

• Content will be updated• through web interface• snapshot frozen and archived at regular intervals

• Structure revised to allow audit trail • who did what, when

• Taxon editors have been invited• Extra information (not strictly ERMS)

• Feeding types, distribution info (country), trophic level, biomass…

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ERMS v 2.0 editorial structure

• ERMS Editorial committee• Arvanitides, Bouchet, Boxshall, Costello (chair),

Emblow, Vanden Berghe (db)• responsible for management

• Associate editors (‘Group coordinators’ of FE)• responsible for part of taxonomic tree• have edit rights through web site

• Review editors (‘Validation’ of FE)• assist associate editors

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ERMS v 2.0 db structure

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ERMS future

• Species 2000 Europa member• ‘EuroHub’ for Species 2000, together with Fauna

Europaea and Euro+Med PlantBase• Through dynamic link

• distributed system• Spice protocol developed under Species 2000 Europa• possible alternatives are DiGIR and BioCASe

• Contribution to global systems• ITIS• URMO