Taxonomy is described sometimes as a science and sometimes as an art, but really it’s a battleground Bill Bryson A short history of nearly everything

Taxonomy: the “common denominator” from Ancient Greek: τάξις taxis "arrangement" and Ancient Greek: νομία nomia "method" = the academic discipline of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. To bring order into the “chaos” of species, to help scientists in how to deal with species, so they know they are talking about the same creature and to classify them in larger groups. International Code on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants Kingdom > Phylum > Class > Order > Family > Genus > Species

Taxonomy: human errors & variation Taxonomy: prone to spelling variations & mistakes Some names are harder to spell than others… Actinobacillus actimomycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actimycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actinmycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actinomicetemcomitans Actinobacillus actinomy Actinobacillus actinomyce Actinobacillus actinomycemcomitans Actinobacillus actinomyceremcomitans Actinobacillus actinomycetam Actinobacillus actinomycetamcomitans Actinobacillus actinomycetecomitans Actinobacillus actinomycetemcmitans Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomintans Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitance Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitants Actinobacillus actinomycetemcommitans Actinobacillus actinomycetemocimitans Actinobacillus actinomycetencomitans Actinobacillus actinomycetum Actinobacillus actinomyctemcomitans Actinobacillus actinomyectomcomitans Actinobacillus actinomyetemcomitans Actinobacillus actinonmycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actionomycetemcomitans Actinobacillus actynomicetemcomitans Actinobacillus antinomycetemcomitans Difficulties with Latinized Names Transcription errors Which one is correct? Controlled taxonomic vocabulary necessary! World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)

Taxonomy: prone to computer errors Automatic “series filling” is not always recommended… Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1758 Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1759 Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1760 Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1761 Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 1762 … Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 2254 Clupea harengus Linnaeus, 2255

Taxonomy: many ways to (correctly) spell a name… Agalinus paupercula borealis Agalinus pauperculum borealis Agalinis paupercula var. Borealis Agalinus pauperculum var. borealis Agalinus paupercula var. borealis Agalinus paupercula var. borealis Pennell Agalinus paupercula Britton var. borealis Pennell Agalinus paupercula (Gray) Britt. var. borealis Pennell Agalinis paupercula (A.Gray) Britton var. borealis Pennell Agalinus paupercula (Gray) Britton var. borealis (Pennell) Zenkert 1934 Gerardia paupercula borealis Gerardia paupercula var. borealis Gerardia paupercula var. borealis (Pennell) Deam Gerardia paupercula (Gray) Britt. var. borealis (Pennell) Deam Gerardia paupercula (A. Gray) Britton var. borealis (Pennell) Deam Gerardia paupercula (A. Gray) Britton subsp. borealis (Pennell) Pennell Gerardia paupercula (Gray) Britt. ssp. borealis (Pennell) Pennell Gerardia paupercula Britton ssp. borealis Pennell

Taxonomy: variation in the author name Ceratium hirudinella Ceratium hirudinella (Muller 1773) Ceratium hirundienella Ceratium hirundinella Ceratium hirundinella (Mull ) Ceratium hirundinella (Mull) Ceratium hirundinella (Muller ) Ceratium hirundinella (Muller 1773) Ceratium hirundinella (Muller) Ceratium hirundinella (O. F. Müller) Bergh Ceratium hirundinella (O.F. Müller) Bergh Ceratium hirundinella (O.F. Müller) Bergh Ceratium hirundinella (O.F. Müller, 1773) Dujardin, 1841 Ceratium hirundinella (O.F. M�ller) Bergh Ceratium hirundinella Dujardin Ceratium hirundinella O. F. M. Ceratium hirundinella O. F. Muller (Example from the Global Names Index - GNI)

Taxonomy – a complicated topic Synonymy Halichondria (Halichondria) panicea (Pallas, 1766) Bread-crumb sponge: more than 60 synonyms)

Important to know the context of your dataset! Homonymy A name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. Only one of the two names can stay “valid”, the other becomes “invalid”. Scientific name: Alebion Alebion Krøyer, 1863 => Animalia, Crustacea, parasitic copepods Alebion Gray, 1867 => Animalia, Porifera => Accepted as Iophon Gray, 1867 Important to know the context of your dataset!

Taxonomy: how to deal with all this variation? Link taxon names with World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) WoRMS: Standard list of marine taxon names First authoritative list of names of all marine & brackish water taxa worldwide Managed by VLIZ, directed by taxonomic experts Open access Follow international standards & serve permanent Global Unique IDs (LSIDs) http://www.tdwg.org/standards/150/download/ Up-to-date and (near) complete (incl. synonyms &commonly used spelling mistakes) If no link possible: Consult with data provider(s) Consult with taxonomic expert(s) at info@marinespecies.org Originally delivered name is always safeguarded! www.marinespecies.org

Taxonomy: a challenge (and head-ache?) for data managers Dataset Before tax. check After tax. check 1 Amphiura sunderali 2 Amphiura sundevali Amphiura sundevalli 3 Amphiura sundvali 4 Dataset Before tax. check 1 Amphiura sunderali 2 Amphiura sundevali 3 Amphiura sundvali 4 Amphiura sundevalli

“… In total, 6,172 unique taxon names were submitted “… In total, 6,172 unique taxon names were submitted... After a thorough quality control, however, this number was reduced to 4,525, mostly due to spelling variations and synonymy. Such [taxonomic] quality control is highly needed, since a misspelled or obsolete name could be compared to the introduction of a rare species, with adverse effects on further (biodiversity) calculations…” Source: Vandepitte et al. (2010). Data integration for European marine biodiversity research: creating a database on benthos and plankton to study large-scale patterns and long-term changes. Hydrobiologia.

Uncertain identifications Sp. 1, Sp. a, Sp. X … Cfr., aff. … Aphelochaeta spp./ Chaetozone spp. => Link to first higher taxonomic level! Dataset A (Spain) Dataset B (Greece) Acantholaimus sp. 1 Acantholaimus sp. 2 ? Which equals which? Specimen comparison!? Reduction of information till genus level (Acantholaimus) = loss of biodiversity, but underestimation is preferred to overestimation

Cf. & aff. The term “cf” (or “cfr”) stands for “confer”, and loosely interpreted, means “looks like”. Acanthonchus duplicatus <> Acanthonchus cf. duplicatus Acanthonchus Bolbolaimus abebei <> Bolbolaimus aff. abebei Bolbolaimus

Aphelochaeta sp./Chaetozone sp. Identify higher classification of both genera Find first common higher level Aphelochaeta: Animalia – Annelida – Polychaeta – Terebellida – Cirratulidae Chaetozone: Chaetoceros socialis/radians => Chaetoceros Pterosperma/Pachysphaera Pterosperma: Plantae – Chlorophyta – Prasinophyceae – Halosphaerales - Pterospermataceae Pachysphaera: Plantae – Chlorophyta – Prasinophyceae – Chlorodendrales - Halosphaeraceae Classification: Biota > Plantae (Kingdom) > Chlorophyta (Phylum) > Prasinophyceae (Class) > Halosphaerales (Order) > Pterospermataceae (Family)

Avoid abbreviated names: Calanus finmarchicus 15 C. affinis 20 C. pacificus 1 Caligulus sp. 48 C. affinis 9 Acartia tonsa 7 A. danae 8 Balanus balanus 156 B. crenatus 54 Balanetta baylii 2 Abarenicola devia 8 A. affinis 518 Achnanthes subaffinis 5 A. affinis 2 A. affinis 2 A. affinis 518 A. danae 8 Abarenicola devia 8 Acartia tonsa 7 Achnanthes subaffinis 5 B. crenatus 54 Balanetta baylii 2 Balanus balanus 156 C. affinis 20 C. pacificus 1 C. affinis 9 Calanus finmarchicus 15 Caligulus sp. 48

How to deal with “common names”? “translate” the common name to a scientific name When doubt => consult your data provider! Provided common name Scientific name Knobby brain coral Diploria clivosa Lobster Homarus americanus Homarus gammarus Seaweeds ? Shark World Register of Marine Species Contains lots of common names => search option DarwinCore / IPT Move common name to field “VernacularName” Add corresponding scientific name to field “ScientificName”

How to deal with unaccepted names? Dataset name = Ameira ambigua Scott, 1903 According to WoRMS: Ameira ambigua = unaccepted, synonym of Ameira minuta Boeck, 1865 Protocol as manager: Keep originally provided name as scientific name (Ameira ambigua) Link with LSID of this name: urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:348659 Inform data provider on fact that this name is currently unaccepted => provider decides whether to keep or change the name => manager follows decision of the provider If your name matches an ‘unaccepted’ name in WoRMS: Choice to populate with the WoRMS info assocaited with the original name OR populate the fields with the accepted name info…WHICH IS RECOMMENDED? What if one populates the classification fields using the accepted name info but populates the scientificname, authority and LSID with the provided name WoRMS content?

Taxonomy & DarwinCore fields 33 fields related to partim “taxon” in DwC… Most important ones: ScientificNameID (=LSID) ScientificName ScientificNameAuthorship (VernacularName) => check with provider to link to a scientific name Lots of other fields can be derived by the link to WoRMS and do not need to be completed ALWAYS keep originally provided name as ScientificName! When name not in WoRMS => check other registers (QC) => send email with name + source to info@marinespecies.org

Taxonomic QC – in summary Taxon name matches with WoRMS? No Yes Spelling errors/common names of WoRMS name? Uncertain identification? Yes Reduce taxonomy to first common higher classification level No Contact provider Yes Need to comply with a certain taxonomic standard, to be able to compare data from different datasets

Questions?