Transcript Development of an Atlantic Canada Marine Biodiversity

Development of an Atlantic Canada
Marine Biodiversity Information
System Based on a Museum
Collection: A Case Study
Angela J. Martin, Lou Van Guelpen,
Gerhard Pohle, and Mark J. Costello
Atlantic Reference Centre
(Huntsman Marine Science Centre)
St. Andrews, Canada
This talk
• Atlantic Reference Centre
– establishment/joining of two collections
• Process of creating an Canadian Atlantic
Biodiversity Information System
• Future goals of linking to other bioinitiatives and
providing an accessible on-line version
Atlantic Reference Centre
• Division of the Huntsman Marine Science Centre
• Established in 1984
• Joint program between Department of Fisheries
and Oceans and Huntsman Marine Science Centre
Establishment of the ARC
• ID Centre
• Department of
Fisheries and Oceans
• Established in 1960’s
• Collection:
Invertebrates and
Fishes
• Database: MINISIS
• Ichthyoplankton Lab
• Huntsman Marine
Science Centre
• Established in 1977
• Collection: Fishes
• Database: dBase,
Revelation, Advanced
Revelation
ARC collections
• Represent marine fauna of the Bay of Fundy &
Gulf of Maine, Scotian Shelf, Gulf of St.
Lawrence, and Newfoundland-Labrador
• Premier research museum for Marine life in
Atlantic Canada
• Many lots were collected on surveys
• Valuable for ecological, population, and
biogeographic as well as systematic studies
ARC Museum
• Fish - 23254 lots
• Invertebrates - 13358 lots
• Larval Fish Collection - 88610 lots
• Collection also includes type species and
osteological preparations.
• Larval Fish Collection 88610 lots
– largest collection in North America
– documented in Copeia 1995(1):48-70
Atlantic Reference Centre Research
• Involved in major research programs:
– U.S. GLOBEC (Georges Bank)
• In house expertise include:
– ontogeny, taxonomy, systematics, and evolutioncrustaceans and fishes
– marine benthic biodiversity and ecology
– environmental baseline research, monitoring and impact
assessment
– procedures for biological sample processing and
museum curation
ARC museum database: Beginning
• HMSC fishes remained in Advance Revelation
• DFO fishes - remained MINISIS
• DFO invertebrates - money & effort brought
database from MINISIS to Advanced Revelation
ARC database restructuring
• 2nd ARC director adopted MUSE
– Efforts to change from Adv. Rev failed
– fish were entered manually
– inverts lanquished, eventually entered manually
• In 2001, database updated to SPECIFY
• Data management and biodiversity funding
programs brought completion of computerizing
catalogued specimens.
– DFO (government internships, summer
programs)
– U.S. (GMBIS, funded by NOPP & CoML)
• Database – online through GeoConnections
• Through several biodiversity initiatives the ARC
database, together with other sources, has been
used to create species list, complemented by
standardized taxonomy (ITIS & FishBase)
– AC CDC: Habitat classification
– CDC: images
– GMBIS: distribution mapping/analyses
– ETF: Biological and ecological info
Atlantic Canada Conservation Data
Center (AC CDC)
• Funded by GOMCME.
• Is there a link between geographic seascapes and
their biological communities?
• Focus on Bay of Fundy rare, endangered and
keystone vertebrate species.
• Project provided preliminary fish list.
Figure ##. Total number of Atlantic Halibut per groundfish trawl station from groundfish surveys conducted from 1970 to 2001. Map
dots are scaled according to the total number of fish caught at each trawl station. Seascapes are coloured according to the percent of
the total number of fish caught within their boundaries, with percent total catch per seascape indicated.
Fishes of Atlantic Canada: A
Photographic Compendium
• Sponsored by Industry Canada, Canada’s Digital
Collections and hosted there
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/compendium
• Rescued hundreds of photographs, slides, and
illustrations of fishes from Canadian Atlantic
waters.
• Each species was accompanied by common name,
scientific name, status, and basic biological and
ecological traits.
Bay of Fundy Component
(Phase I)
• Sponsored by the Province of New Brunswick
Environmental Trust Fund
• List of all annelids, crustaceans, echinoderms and
fishes of the Bay of Fundy
- Classification (Based on ITIS), Synonyms and common
names, Author & year of description, Identification and
ecological, publications, Habitat description,
Abundance (on a 1-3 rating system), Geographic range,
Importance (e.g. Commercial, conservation), Other
(reproduction, maximum size)
Bay of Fundy Component
(Phase II)
An expansion of Phase I – additional taxa:
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Seaweeds
Molluscs
Remaining minor invertebrate phyla
Birds
Mammals
Phytoplankton
Canada’s Digital Collections II
• Sponsored by Industry Canada, Canada’s Digital
Collections
• Canadian Atlantic fishes in ARC museum specific locality records.
• Each species - a map of distribution within these
waters.
• Online via CDC web site.
http://collections.ic.gc.ca/
Gulf of Maine Biogeographic
Information System (GMBIS)
• Funded by NOPP and CoML
• Objective: development of a prototype
information system for integration, visualization,
and analysis of biogeographical and oceangraphic
information using the internet as a medium as
tools such as GIS for modeling of marine
populations
• Partners include USC, DFO, and ARC
• http://cephbase.biology.dal.ca/gmbis
GMBIS rational purpose uses
• To create:
– support tool that facilitates the integrated
approach to fisheries management in the Gulf
of Maine
– a model for OBIS by providing a generic
framework for development of biogeographical
systems in other regions
GMBIS
BIO & ARC Database Servers
Online Data Sources
Allelic Ecosystem Specimen/Species Fishbase Genbank RDP
Flow of unprocessed
Core Data & Metadata
Gulf of Maine Information System Server
Homepage
Metadata Viewer
Specimen/Species Interface
Genetics Links
EASy Netviewer
EASy Project Files
& Algorithms
Flow of integrated
Biogeographic Information
GMBIS Client PC
External Client PC
EASy Desktop
Data Translator
Personal Database
Web Browser
Personal Database
Web browser
eASY Software
• Function:
– principal data integration, viewing & analysis
software of GMBIS
• Designed for the
– storage
– integration
– analysis
– and dynamic display of spatially referenced
series of diverse oceanographic data, including
satellite imagery
Biological Structure – Gulf of Maine
Seasonal climatologies & BIO groundfish database
Overlay: [Chl-A] imagery, flow fields, bathymetry
Spring, S.GOM/Georges Bank
• links b/w areas [phytoplankton], local circulation
& topography
• phytoplankton concentrated at Georges Bank &
along coast
Bottom Temp, Avg.Cod abundance[20yr]
Summer, NE.GOM
• distribution of cod generally constrained to rel.
narrow bottom temperature range
• within this spatial autocorrelation/local structure
observed that is not explained by Temperature
• note: considerable temporal variability in spatial
abundance distributions of cod
Future Funding: GeoConnections
• Sponsored by Natural Resources Canada
• program to coordinate Canada’s numerous
databases of geographic information and make
them accessible via a common internet web site
• Proposal on behalf of the Centre for Marine
Biodiversity. CMB members include DFO
laboratories, Universities, NGOs and personnel.
• CMB Goal:
- Promote scientific activity in support of the
protection of marine biodiversity in NW
Atlantic.
- To expand CMB membership to a more
national basis thus expanding biodiversity
datasets and computerized museum catalogues.
Proposal Objectives
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For CMB members to:
- Consolidate computerized museum catalogues
and biodiversity datasets into an integrated
database at BIO.
- Provide Internet access to this database
For ARC museum:
- One online source to disseminate data
• Proposal partners include:
-DFO
-ARC
-AC CDC
-Nova Scotia Museum
-Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative (MIDI)
-Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN)
Ultimately..
• Species Information System:
– Linked to complementary biodiversity
initiatives both nationally and internationally.
– Nationally: Centre for Marine Biodiversity,
Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility)
– Internationally: (CoML, Global Biodiversity
Information Facilty, OBIS, FishBase,
LarvalBase, The North Atlantic Project)
– Link to environmental data and tools such as
GMBIS and Virtual Museum of Canada to
analyze these records.
– Provide a comprehensive and easily accessible
biodiversity information system, allowing
researchers and managers to better protect the
natural environment and promote sustainable
use of natural resources.