species aiming to have some information on all marine species by 2009.
Minimum information is the correct name and classification. Some pages
contain extensive information on distribution, ecology, biology and
literature.; www.marinespecies.org
Ocean Biogeographic Information Facility; Allows discovery, exploration
and mapping of data on the distribution of marine species plus tools to
predict their environmental range. Includes over 200 interoperable
databases and 80,000 species, over 13 million location records. ;
www.iobis.org
OBIS-SEAMAP; An award winning portal “Spatial Ecological Analysis of
Megavertebrate Populations” to databases on the distribution of marine
mammals, birds and turtles; http://seamap.env.duke.edu/
Aquamaps; Maps the probable distribution range of species using
editable environmental data (e.g. from OBIS) that may be expert
validated; www.aquamaps.org
FishBase; The best developed and oldest online species information
system, with a wide range of applications for fisheries research and
management; www.fishbase.org
NABIS; Expert prepared maps of the distribution range of economically
important (e.g. commercially fished, invasive) marine species around New
Zealand; www.nabis.govt.nz
MarLIN; The Marine Life Information Network for Britain and Ireland
contains expert approved information on marine species and their
habitats, aimed at public and scientists; www.marlin.ac.uk/
AlgaeBase; A database on the names, key literature and images of
seaweeds and other algae; www.algaebase.org/
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ; Data on distribution of
species in all environments; www.gbif.net http://data.gbif.org
www.gbif.org
Encyclopedia of Life; Gathers information from other online resources
to produce information pages on species; www.eol.org
uBio; A more complex librarian-designed system “Universal Biological
Indexer and Organiser” that searches pre-determined electronic resources
for information on any species. Unlike iSpecies, it uses ‘taxonomic
intelligence’ to find related species names. www.ubio.org
iSpecies; The first ‘mashup’ page for species. It automatically
searches a pre-determined range of internet resources for information on
any species, including molecular, images, literature, etc. Very simple
interface. ; www.ispecies.org
Further reading could include the Open Access paper
Costello, M.J., Vanden Berghe E. 2006. “Ocean Biodiversity Informatics”
enabling a new era in marine biology research and management. Marine
Ecology Progress Series 316, 203-214.
http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v316/
