Ocean Biogeographic Information System

Mark CostelloEdward Vanden Berghe

‘Mission’

• OBIS publishes primary data on marine species locations online through www.iobis.org – It facilitates data discovery and exploration by

• Searching by species, higher taxa, time, location, depth, database

• Mapping, overlaying species distributions on ocean environment, modelling of potential environmental range

– Integrates data over marine themes• Microbes to whales• Genetics and morphology• Poles to equator…

– Enables data capture for re-use

Why do this?

• Proper management of natural resources requires properly managed data and information– Several organisations sharing fisheries data

• OBIS model makes data and information management more efficient– Share responsibilities, tools, standards…– Share data across different organisations and

countries• OBIS is a way of ensuring data is not lost

– Archaeology and rescue for historic data– Repositories for new data

• Assist in data discovery– Links with EoL, BOLD…

Standards

• Biogeography: GBIF/TDWG– Darwin Core, Extended to OBIS Schema

• Metadata: discovery metadata– Global Change Master Directory – NASA– MEDI – IODE; FGDC – US Gov?

• Taxonomy: World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) – Contribution to Species 2000 and Catalogue of

Life• Geography

– Polygon sets• EEZs, FAO areas, IHO…

– Gazetteer

Standards: taxonomy

• Aphia is general species register maintained at VLIZ– Consists of several overlapping subsets

• defined geographical (ERMS, NWARMS…) • defined taxonomic (Porifera,

Platyhelminthes…)• defined thematic (HABs, invasive species)

• Exposed through www.marinespecies.org

• WoRMS = Aphia + external GSDs– Algaebase, Hexacorallia, FishBase…

WoRMS plans

• 100,000 valid species end 2007

• 2x0,000 valid species end 2008– 85-90% of known species

• Distribution records for all of these by 2010

• Gap analysis

OBIS number of records

• 231 databases

• In cache:– 13.6 million records, 147,000 names

• In index:– 6.9 million records at genus level and below,

80,000 species

• Among the largest provider to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Location of RONs

Public Accessibility

IOBIS

Global Datasets e.g.FAO, HexacoralliaFishbase &Seamounts

Data Found ByIOBIS Not FromGlobal Databases

Online Providers

Regional Node With Local DatasetsAnd Online Providers

RegionalSubset

All data

Regional Node With Local Datasets Only

GBIF

Global NodeRegional NodeProviderGlobal DatabaseRegional DatabaseProductsAll DataSubset of Data

OBIS Regional Node Architecture

RMB - March 14, 2004

Data providers to OBIS

• 7 Million from RONs

• 700,000 from all CoML combined– Deadline for 2010 synthesis?

New species are discovered

Data from http://marinespecies.org

Taxonomic bias

Taxon # species # in OBIS %Cetaceans 133 117 88Seals… 45 36 80Fish 24139 21258 88

Echinoderms 6199 1624 26Bryozoans 6000 1096 18Decapods 8227 3796 46

Global pattern of sampling effort

Pattern in number of species

Corrected for bias: ES(50)

Large Marine Ecosystems

Current priorities

• Filling some of the gaps– In collaboration with existing Regional OBIS

Nodes– By creating new Regional OBIS Nodes

• Completing the inventory of known marine species: WoRMS– As a contribution to Catalogue of Life– http://www.marinespecies.org– Prioritise on having at least one distribution record

per species, preferably the type locality

• Creating an inventory of existing data– Importance of metadata

Plans for the future

• Develop thematic portals, on issues of direct societal relevance– Invasive species, HABs…

• Develop demonstrator projects– Species distributions, hotspots…

• Support CoML scientists– Integration across themes– 2010 Synthesis– Publications: theme section(s)