Mark J. Costello & Gerhard Pohle Atlantic Reference Centre Huntsman Marine Science Centre, St Andrews, Canada Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)

Why? 1.To provide access to data for new and historical data amassed by the CoML 2.To provide a portal to biological oceanography data at a global scale 1 st OBIS Workshop November st OBIS Workshop November 1999 USA NOPP 2000, 8 projects,15 countries, $3.7 million USA NOPP 2000, 8 projects,15 countries, $3.7 million 2 nd OBIS Workshop September nd OBIS Workshop September 2000 International Steering Committee formed May 2001 International Steering Committee formed May 2001 NSF, Rutgers hub funded June 2001 – 1 st website proves concept NSF, Rutgers hub funded June 2001 – 1 st website proves concept Joins GBIF as marine Associate Member July 2001 Joins GBIF as marine Associate Member July 2001 NOPP 2002, up to $6.0 million NOPP 2002, up to $6.0 million Ocean Biogeographic Information System

Ocean Biogeographic Information System International Steering Committee Mark J. Costello, Canada - Chair Neil Ashcroft, United Kingdom Geoff Boxshall, United Kingdom Daphne Fautin, USA Kim Finney, Australia Rainer Froese, Germany Dennis Gordon, New Zealand J. Fredrick Grassle, USA Yoshihisa Shirayama, Japan Website manager: Yunqing (Phoebe) Zhang Research Associates: Karen Stocks, James Wood

Present OBIS content: data l FishNet – fish in museums l FishBase – all about fish l CephBase – all about squid & octopus l Hexacorallia – anemones to corals l Indo-Pacific molluscs l Seamounts – species ecology l BATS zooplankton – Bermuda long-term monitoring l ZooGENE – calanoid copepods l GMBIS – Gulf of Maine l NODC plankton

The Illex Squid collapse from Gulf of Maine BIS - a part of OBIS

Data on the way to OBIS F Nemertea F Aplacophora F Mammals, birds, turtles F Hydroids F Southampton Oceanography Centre pelagic F HMAP F TIES (Chesapeake Bay) F + NEW MEMBERS ON THE WAY!!

Present OBIS content: tools Mapping F OBIS Dynamic Mapper (ARC-IMS) F EASy Netviewer F C-Squares System building F DODS, OPenDAP F Species Analyst / DiGIR Prediction /analysis  WhyWhere  GARP, LifeMapper  LOICZ view Species names  Names species and places  Name Servers  Syngraph

OBIS progress and future More 1.data being added to portal (400,000 records 2002) 2.ocean environment overlays 3.tools for GIS and data analysis Standards development GazetteersGlossary All open-access on website portal

An achievable vision  All valid marine species names on-line within 10 years  All known species listed in the Catalogue of Life  Global standards and protocols in species informatics  Species guides (descriptions and images) on-line  Species distributions on-line  Improved quality control in identification and taxonomy  Data archiving a standard ‘good’ practice  Electronic ‘publication’ integrated into science culture  Increased rate of species being described  New understandings of role of biodiversity in ecosystems