Biogeoinformatics of sea anemones and other hexacorals Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; 3 April 2003 Photograph by George Miller

Large SEA ANEMONES (and their friends) Photograph by Louisa Preston Photograph by Jerry Allen

AN UNLIKELY-LOOKING ANEMONE (to learn more about it, come to the colloquium on 17 April) Photograph by Adorian Ardelean Photographs by Bernard Picton Anemones of more typical size (to 1 cm long)

WHAT ARE HEXACORALS? (to a biologist) 1. Cnidarians Of class Anthozoawhich comprises two subclasses HEXACORALLIA (Zoantharia) and OCTOCORALLIA (Alcyonaria) Photos by George Miller

SCLERACTINIA ANTIPATHARIA CERIANTHARIA Photos by George Miller CORALLIMORPHARIA ZOANTHIDEA

Biogeoinformatics of Hexacorals ( An on-line information resource system that consists of two interactive databases one dealing with taxonomy and biogeography of hexacorals (corals, sea anemones, and their allies) one dealing with environmental information for the marine environment both served and linked by front ends offering user support for searching, analyzing, and downloading the data

SOMETHING ABOUT THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS OF “HEXACORAL” SOMETHING ABOUT HOW MY COLLABORATORS AND I USE IT Technical details: Oracle, ColdFusion, ArcIMS Three instances – present, past, and future

973 genera and 7706 binomens and trinomens 2620 original descriptions 2772 valid species 2487 type specimen lots (on line; nearly as many to be entered) 5316 images Literature- derived, specimen- based taxonomic and distributional data Holdings are most complete for the soft- bodied taxa, but data on Scleractinia are expanding rapidly and in coordination with NMITA

SOURCES OF TAXONOMICALLY AND GEOGRAPHICALLY RESOLVED DATA Museum specimens Published literature Field work

SOURCES OF TAXONOMICALLY AND GEOGRAPHICALLY RESOLVED DATA Museum specimens Published literature Field work

INITIAL SEARCH PARAMETERS

TAXONOMIC SEARCH

* * * THE BASIC INFORMATION

Syngraph a synonymy tool with both graphical and tabular outputs developed by Adorian Ardelean fully implemented for actinians being applied to other groups as the database expands

Occurrence records displayed on a map use symbols of a different color for each synonymous name. This function can be used for investigating whether a synonymy is justified.

For taxa with georeferenced records, a query of the companion global 30’ environmental database produces summaries of general environmental conditions for individual entries or a summary for the taxon

A RESEARCH TOOL to predict habitats that might be vulnerable to invasion to know where to conduct field work

original photomicrographs of type material illustrations from original descriptions original photos of type specimens IMAGES

INITIAL SEARCH PARAMETERS

The combined search page yields an extended form of the “Hexacoral” species data link page

Joint search products Classification from Hexacoral Images from NMITA

Joint search products “Hexacoral” dynamic location maps of NMITA fossil occurrences NMITA stratigraphy

Interoperation allows users to o obtain and interrelate more data o analyze those data using more tools o formulate and address broad-scale questions avoids duplication of effort in database entry provides a double-check on data accuracy (aids in detecting errors, inconsistencies) and thereby improves data quality increases accessibility and reaches a broader community, bridging bio- and geo-informatics

An On-line Atlas of Marine Diversity Fish Net, and a growing inventory of others

A biogeographic tale of two taxa (in three databases) Peder Sandhei Jay Baker (DBI )

10 SPECIES OF HOST ANEMONES

Anemones of most host species seldom occur without fish symbionts Anemonefish never occur without a host anemone (in nature)

TEST FOR ACCURACY

“NOTHING YET”

University of Kansas Digital Library Initiative to DGF, R. W. Buddemeier, S. Goodwin Thiel, with collaboration of J. Wood

Sea anemones were collected from about 31 of 504 stations Other databases contain data for other stations -- and those without certainly could use them This prototype will become a tool to link OBIS data, and will be extended to other expeditions RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: REASSEMBLE NET CONTENTS

Stations will be searchable by number, date, location, and in two map forms – scanned and hot- linked images of original charts, and ArcIMS to provide data on environmental variables from point samples and other sources Prototype example

Data recorded for each station are being linked to user- selectable data on recent environmental conditions from the Hexacoral 30’ database (>200 variables) = 24.9 o C

To test for quality and consistency of both and provide temporal and spatial environmental connections RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: COMPARE EMPIRICAL WITH MODELED DATA -- Reynolds 2 o ( ) and Hadley Centre 1 o ( ) reconstructed monthly SST averages include the Challenger years

We know where animals live and have lived We know conditions characterizing those places We have forecasts of future conditions so we can predict what will (or will not) live in those places

Northern Hemisphere Average Surface Temperature Year Mann et al. (1999) GRL 26: °C 1998 In the space of 150 years, atmospheric temperatures have increased beyond the range of past natural variations and also beyond the range of uncertainty in those variations

Endosymbiotic dinoflagellates = Symbiosis break-down is a sign of stress (e.g. abnormally high or low temperature or salinity) BLEACHING

it would take A LOT of heat to warm the adjacent waters sufficiently for them to be hospitable to reef-forming corals No because shallow seas in the immediately adjacent higher latitudes have little suitable substrate And that’s not all…………

In 150 years, humans have driven atmospheric composition well outside the stable multi-million year range of oscillation Vostok ice core records

So, temperature is making equatorial latitudes inhospitable to reef-forming corals, but higher latitudes have too little calcium carbonate for them IN 50 YEARS

SCLERACTINIA CORALLIMORPHARIA

SCLERACTINIA CORALLIMORPHARIA

Photograph by George Miller Biogeoinformatics of Hexacorals

NMITAHexacorallia ApplicationOracle Front endSQL-Plus/HTMLColdFusion Model basisSpecies Source of dataSpecimensLiterature Geographic coverageTropical AmericaWorldwide Geological coverageNeogene to RecentRecent MapsStatic, using ARC/INFODynamic, using ESRI ArcIMS ToolsPolly-Clave (identification keys in Delta format); glossary linked to keys, taxon coverage Syngraph (synonymies); LOICZView (clusters environmental data) Neogene Marine Biota of Tropical America University of Iowa, contains taxonomic and stratigraphic information on neotropical fossils Including corals, mollusks, bryozoans, etc. Biogeoinformatics of Hexacorallia University of Kansas, contains data on taxonomy and biogeography of living corals and their allies, plus environmental parameters.

PREDICTED FURTHER DISTRIBUTION