Catalog of Life
 |
|
|---|---|
| Biodiversity database | |
| languages | English |
| operator | Species 2000 Secretariat Naturalis Biodiversity Center |
| user | about 3000 |
| Registration | No |
| On-line | 2000 (currently active) |
| http://www.catalogueoflife.org/ | |
The Catalog of Life (CoL) is a project to record all known types of living beings on earth. It was launched in June 2001. The catalogs Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) and Species 2000 will be merged. As of November 29, 2018, it contains 1,763,326 recent and 62,482 extinct species from 171 databases.
construction
Catalog of Life is not a stand-alone database. It is a standardized output in the form of a user interface , the data content of which is based on the data from the databases involved in the project. This can be seen as a checklist of all scientific names used. In the output, a rank-based system based on the classical (Linné's) taxonomy was given preference over alternative, rank-free classifications such as the system according to Adl et al. given, since a rank-based system, especially for non-taxonomists, is much easier to understand and use intuitively. It is not a question of two essentially different systems, but rather of an alternative preparation and presentation based on the same data.
A major problem in preparing taxonomic data in bioinformatics is the dynamic nature of scientific names. The biological nomenclature should give each unit exactly one unique name. In practice, however, several names ( synonyms ) are often used for the same unit , and it is not infrequently disputed among taxonomists which of them is the valid name. Different taxonomists may have the same unit in different rank, for example as a species or as a subspecies, variety, form, etc. In addition, units with the same name can be circumscribed differently. For example, if a taxonomist considers a certain taxon , such as a plant clan, to be a subspecies, and another as a species, the species name for the first would also include the individuals of the second clan, for the second the unit designated by the same name would be more narrowly defined. In order to avoid this difficulty, new identifiers were introduced for the data management for the purpose of data management , each of which is intended to enable a clear assignment. The organization of the database is based on these, called Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs). For example, the plant species Callistemon linearifolius (Link) DC. the LSID urn: lsid: catalogueoflife.org: taxon: ea5f0312-a39d-11e7-8cee-bc764e092680: col20170927 assigned. Some taxonomists consider this name invalid and call the same species Melaleuca linearifolia (Link) Craven. Since the same LSID has been assigned to this, both are merged into one object in the database. This would remain clear even if the name were changed.
The information in the Catalog of Life is published in two versions, a monthly edition and an annual checklist. The first of these is updated continuously, with a different cycle depending on the database being supplied, usually quarterly. The second shows a snapshot from the first, which is generated once a year at a fixed point in time and is not changed afterwards. The reason for this duplication, which at first seems incomprehensible, is that a stable version is made available that can be cited in a scientific publication , for example. A citation from a dynamic database, on the other hand, is not clear, as the content may have changed after publication.
In line with its function as a checklist, the information on each taxon in the Catalog of Life is extremely abbreviated. The following are given: the scientific name with the information required depending on the relevant nomenclature code (author, possibly year of publication, etc.), the respective rank (species, genus, family, etc.), the status of the name (accepted as a valid name, or synonym), the basic group (one of seven realms ) and the database from which the respective information was taken (for taxa taken from ITIS a list of vernacular or trivial names is also given). In addition, the position in the taxonomic tree is always indicated, i.e. the respective subspecies for species.
Database and number of species
For all living beings, the Catalog of Life only reaches the coverage that the databases involved can provide. For some poorly researched groups there are no evaluable databases, for some there are not even printed catalogs available. These groups are not included in the Catalog of Life. In 2017, the Catalog of Life provides information on a good 1.7 million species. The number of actually described , valid species is unknown, but it is currently estimated at just over two million.
| year | Number of species |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 220,000 |
| 2002 | 260,000 |
| 2003 | 304,000 |
| 2004 | 323,000 |
| 2005 | 527,000 |
| 2006 | 884,000 |
| 2007 | 1,008,965 |
| 2008 | 1,105,589 |
| 2009 | 1,160,711 |
| 2010 | 1,257,735 |
| 2011 | 1,347,224 |
| 2012 | 1,404,038 |
| 2013 | 1,352,112 |
| 2014 | 1,578,063 |
| 2015 | 1,606,554 |
| 2016 | 1,640,969 |
| 2017 | 1,713,852 |
| 2018 | 1,803,488 |
Individual evidence
- ↑ Project information
- ↑ Michael A. Ruggiero, Dennis P. Gordon, Thomas M. Orrell, Nicolas Bailly, Thierry Bourgoin, Richard C. Brusca, Thomas Cavalier-Smith, Michael D. Guiry, Paul M. Kirk (2015): A Higher Level Classification of All Living Organisms. PLOS ONE 10 (6): e0130114. doi: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0130114 .
- ↑ Andrew C. Jones, Richard J. White, Ewen R Orme (2011): Identifying and relating biological concepts in the Catalog of Life. Journal of Biomedical Semantics 20112: 7 doi: 10.1186 / 2041-1480-2-7
- ↑ Number of species in the Catalog of Life