Biodiversity Informatics Sarah Faulwetter Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

biodiversity informatics ≠ bioinformatics organisms genes

capture storage retrieval analyses deals with individual organisms species populations interactions between them relationships between them of data & information about systematics evolutionary biology population biology ecology conservation biology coming from disciplines such as

e x a m p l e s...

specimen / museum data species occurrence data taxonomic character data taxonomy / classifications quality control procedures metadata standards exchange protocols data schemas and definitions taxonomy / classifications species occurrence data

what occurs where? why is it there? why does it not occur in some other places? has it been there before? will it be there in the future? are there other places it could occur?

taxonomy | classifications finding naming Cafeteria roenbergensis categorizing describing

n a m e s

scientific name: Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 genus namespecific epithetauthority year of publication

names are labels for species

Aa paleacea Limulus polyphemus Kiwa hirsuta Osedax frankpressi Kingia australis Pieris japponica Pieris rapae Trypanosoma brucei Homo sapiens

names annotate data objects

names form the basis for an index to search for and organize the totality of biological content

Streptosyllis

names are inconsistent labels for species

p r o b l e m s

1 one name has more than one meaning

Aotus trivirgatus Aotus Illiger 1811 Aotus Aotus Smith 1805 Aotus ericoides.

2 many names for the same organism

Koko Горилла Guerilla Eastern Lowland Gorilla Gorilla graueri Gorilla berengei Gorilla beringei Matschie Gorilla beringei mikenensis King kong Gorilla gorilla Virunga Gorila Gorille Mountain gorilla 大猩猩 ゴリラ

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE

... b u t w h a t a b o u t t h o s e p r o b l e m s ?

t a x o n o m i c i n t e l l i g e n c e

disambiguation & reconciliation

1 one name has more than one meaning disambiguation = distinguish between different organisms with the same name

Aotus monkey primate feet eyes vertebrate plant Fabaceae leaves flowers Australia

2 many names for the same organism reconciliation = group names with the same meaning together

VERNACULAR NAMES Gorilla English Mountain Gorilla English Eastern Gorilla English Eastern lowland gorilla English Gorille des plaines orientales French Grauer’s gorilla English Горилла Russian Gorila Spanish Bergsgorilla German Låglandsgorilla Swedish Bwindi Kinyarwanda Virunga Kinyarwanda 大猩猩 Chinese ゴリラ Japanese OBJECTIVE SYNONYMS Gorilla beringei Gorilla beringei Matschie, 1902 Gorilla beringei mikenensis Lönnberg, 1917 MISSPELLINGS, SPELLING VARIATIONS,… Gorilla ber e ngei Gorilla beringei Matschie, G ue rilla g ue rilla G. graueri Matschie G. graueri M SUBJECTIVE SYNONYMS Gorilla graueri Matschie, 1914 Gorilla beringei graueri (Matschie, 1914) Gorilla gorilla

NameBank over 10 million names ClassificationBank over 100 different classifications

b u t : no classification has all names many names are not placed yet into any classification

EOL needs all names to be able to index and show all content

U N I O N

collect ALL names use an existing classification provide editing & annotation tools insert all names involve experts

indexing and navigational core of EoL comprehensive – all names taxonomically intelligent access to multiple classifications communal always evolving, always current

names-based cyber-infrastructure

t h a n k y o u