CSIRO Marine Research Data Centre linked databases - CAAB, MarLIN and Divisional Data Warehouse

CAAB - Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota Holds names and codes for Aquatic organisms of interest to our Division, plus selected other agencies, for use in data storage Adopted by a variety of other agencies as “de facto” standard for coding fisheries data in the Australian region Recently (1999) upgraded to hold codes for many other types of organisms Can hold cross-references to ITIS numbers and other codes Allows maintenance of the names to be decoupled from maintenance of the data Searchable via web interface by scientific name, common name or taxon code (or parts thereof) Can function as a live look-up table for other CMR databases which use codes as internal taxon idendifiers

example CAAB search result (search for “tuna”)

CAAB “meaningful” codes hierarchy (and “telephone” analogy) CAAB has 2-digit “major categories” - e.g. 10=Porifera, 37=Pisces, 63=Angiosperms … (country code) Has up to 999 family codes in each category, in a recognised systematic sequence (e.g to are all sharks) … (area code) Holds up to 999 taxa in each family, assigned as next available number (allows for generic or species reassignment without needing to change the code) … (user number) “Split” families catered for without changing the code; “lumped” families or taxon transfers may require re-coding Allows for rapid automated filtering or sorting of data by codes alone

MarLIN - Marine Laboratories Information Network Divisional metadatabase - holds descriptions of datasets Uses regional standard (“ANZLIC”) metadata elements, plus agency-level extensions e.g. projects, surveys, vessels, taxonomic groups and CAAB species Searchable via www (intranet and internet) Includes structured result sets, sorted by keyword, etc. (similar to GCMD) All externally accessible records also retrievable via ASDD (Australian gateway for distributed searching) Records contain on-line links to further resources and actual data wherever appropriate

MarLIN “user-defined search” interface

Using “species” option to search MarLIN...

Example MarLIN search results Lists of titles Dataset “thumbnail + links” pages

example full metadata record

ASDD metadata gateway - distributed searching

New Divisional Data Warehouse (under development) Builds on a prototype (“SQuID”) developed in Designed to hold variety of data types - biological, physical and chemical oceanographic data; photographic data; ships’ tracks; etc. etc. Uses CAAB taxon codes for internal biological data handling Will be hyperlinked to “MarLIN” for access to relevant metadata record/s All records geo- and time- referenced using Oracle spatial options and date fields, interface will use MapInfo tools to display and query the data Concept is for one DB at present, upgradeable to multiple databases if needed in future

SQuID Data Model (under ongoing development)

Example SQuID search result - data types and locations

sample SQuID “atomic” level data

Summary - our system overview CMR Web-based search and display of metadata (via MarLIN) Dispersed resources Taxonomic database Web-based search and display of Australia-wide metadata (via ASDD gateway) Other Organisations’ metadatabases MarLIN- ASDD connection

future options & plans... Build “live” links to data in our data warehouse from MarLIN metadata records Possibly link multiple DBs / agencies’ data under a single search/display application Link “MarLIN” to international metadata clearinghouses e.g. FGDC (USA) Possibly link our agency’s data into a global OBIS Adopt emerging global standards for taxonomic IDs, keyword thesauri, etc. Additional population of metadata, data, and taxon definitions into our systems, as source material and resources are available

CSIRO Marine Research Data Centre linked databases - CAAB, MarLIN and Divisional Data Warehouse Data Centre website: MarLIN: CAAB: