Barcode of Life initiative Fish-BoL Workshop 6 June 2005 University of Guelph, Ontario Canada Nicolas BAILLY WorldFish Center Philippines Office, Los Baños n.bailly@cgiar.org

Available in DVD, CD-ROM and on the web (www.fishbase.org + 4 mirrors) FishBase, a global public good developed as a decision-support system for conservation and management of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystems. Available in DVD, CD-ROM and on the web (www.fishbase.org + 4 mirrors) Book in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese Multi-language (13) on-line access (Main Pages) 16 Non-roman scripts for common names

FishBase and the private life of a fish … Reproduction and Life History Maturity Spawning Eggs Larvae Broodstock Fry nursery Larval dynamics Larval speed Morphology and Physiology Metabolism Gill area Vision Disease Brain Abnormalities Ecotoxicology Swim mode Distribution Occurrence FAO areas Country Ecosystem Genetics & Aquaculture Electrophoresis Heritability Strains Introductions Fish as Food Processing Ciguatera FAO catches Aquaculture (production) Trophic Ecology Ecology Predators Food items Diet composition Food consumption Ration Other Tables Pictures Keys Sounds Class Order Family Species Common Name Population Dynamics Growth/Mortality L/W relations Maximum sizes Recruitment L/L relations Length frequency

Drown by numbers (as of 3rd June 2005) 28,598 species (incl. 219 with 322 subspecies = 28,920) 81,190 “synonyms” 207,403 common names in 264 languages 160,866 country records for 295 “countries” 108,813 ecosystem records for 379 ecosystems 53,388 FAO area records for 27 areas 12,157 morphology records 1,158 identification keys for 6,408 species 41,116 fish images and photos 36,129 bibliographic references 2 million occurrences (> 24,800 species, 43 museums) 4.48 million records (2 Gb; 180 database tables)

FishBase as a web service

FishBase basic structure Species description and life history Fish collections Fish names Biology Ecology Fisheries … FB Fish literature CoF Collaborators

FishBase basic structure

xml file for common names

xml file for common names

Encoding of records in Table Species After CoF, Mai 2005

“Species” total 2000/2005 Fresh 13779 46.4% 747 59.1% Drown by numbers again “Species” total 2000/2005 Fresh 13779 46.4% 747 59.1% Brackish 86 0.3% 4 0.3% Marine 15758 53.3% 513 40.6% Total 28920 1263 After FB, June 2005 Miss 270 spp. 2004 After CoF, Mai 2005

Checking, validation, quality assurance Internal checks by queries Checks by specialists (taxonomy, other specialties) Checks by area specialists Cross-check with CoF Classification: Nelson -> Eschmeyer + Authors Difficulty to coordinate all changes Problem: what is to be complete?

Information systems as icebergs: optimal situation Distinction between views for end-users … … and tables for specialists Views for end-users (VEU) VEU VEU VEU VEU VEU TS TS TS TS TS Tables for specialists (TS)

FishBase identification tools Quick identification through outlines down to Families Quick identification through photos by Family, Country, Ecosystems Dichotomous key computerised (FAO, Ichthyofaunas) Matrix approach (computer-aided identification)

Biogeographic modelling Occurrence points in can be mapped and used with available environmental parameters to predict other possible occurrences of the species through mapping and spatial modelling Georeferenced records from 43 museum collections and survey data

Mapping in SAUP (Fisheries Centre, UBC, Vancouver)

Common Access and Interoperability What is common access? Accessing at the same time to databases covering the same topic What is interoperability? Accessing at the same time to databases covering complementary topics The same topic for instance, fish collection records. Complementary topics for instance, names and record collections

Common Access and Interoperability Data providers Common Access and Interoperability Wrappers Gadus morhua User Portal Answer Request FishNet 1 to n

FishBase and Common Access Data providers FishBase and Common Access User FishBase Gadus morhua Answer Data Request FishNet 1 to n

FishBase and Interoperability Data providers FishBase and Interoperability User FishBase Gadus morhua URLs FishNet Fish-BoL 1 to n

How to deep-link in FishBase

Lists of species by taxononmy, by country, by ecosystems, by FAO areas What we can provide Lists of species by taxononmy, by country, by ecosystems, by FAO areas A fixed English common name Deep-links to species pages or others to flesh the barcode Diagnosis, description, photo*, other infromation as required List of "synonyms" and common names Link with traditional identification tools Link to mapping system To discuss: web services through xml * Depending on author agreement

A new link from FishBase for users What we expect A new link from FishBase for users Widen our collaborator network (new data, data check) Importing the survey data Complete our photo set (at least one photo per species) Taking the opportunity to handle more taxonomic levels To root the iceberg for the taxonomy management (concept approach = potential taxa)

Lessons learned in FishBase ‘Science first’ attitude ‘Yes’ attitude towards suggestions Invite, accept and act on criticism Keep in the limits of the project Data quantity and quality first Keep it simple, software keeps changing Invest in people Give more credit than expected

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FishBase Consortium Members WorldFish Center Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Kiel Swedish Museum of Natural History Africamuseum, Tervuren Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

fishbase.org fishbase.de fishbase.fr fishbase.se fishbase.tw fishbase.org.ph