Placing barcodes with precision

against the Catalogue of Life

Frank Bisby

Executive Director: Species 2000Species 2000 SecretariatUniversity of Reading, UK

www.sp2000.org

1. Introduce the Catalogue of Life

2. Illustrate progress in giving full taxonomic precision and integrity

– and ask whether these same issues impact on the collation of barcodes for identification purposes?

Catalogue of Life on-line service and CD-ROM

Array of source databases for different higher taxa

Dynamic Checklist & Web-service

Annual Checklist

DB on the WebDB on CD-ROM

CoL Management Classification

ChiloBase Classification

CoL Management Classification

SysMyr Classification

1. Taxonomic institutions world-wide

e.g. MNHN Paris; NIES, Tsukuba, Japan; Zoological Inst., St. Petersburg Russia; RBG Sydney, Australia; Missouri Botanical Garden, USA; ITIS/Smithsonian Inst. USA; Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK; Naturalis Museum, The Netherlands; The Natural History Museum, UK; CONABIO/ ITIS Mexico;

2. Regional taxonomic databases

e.g. Fauna Europaea, ERMS, Euro+Med PlantBase, ITIS N.America, Species 2000 China Node, Species 2000 New Zealand, Australia Node (APNI, ABIF, AFD), etc.

Partners and contributors to the Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life

3. Specialist international networks

e.g. FishBase; AlgaeBase; TicksBase; ILDIS LegumeWeb; AnnonBase;CIPA Sandflies, Paris; UNESCO Register of Marine Organisms.

4. The ‘Life Work’ of individual specialists

e.g. TITAN-Cerambycidae (Tavakilian, Paris), Conifer Database (Farjon, London), Mite families (Moraes, Piricicaba), Ichneumonoidea (Yu, Canada)

Partners and contributors to the Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life

EuropeEurope

ChinaChinaAustraliaAustralia

ITISN. America

ITISN. America

GlobalChecklistGlobal

Checklist

1. Inspecting species from several hubs

Regio

Regional Checklist Hubs

EuropeEurope

ChinaChinaAustraliaAustralia

ITISN. America

ITISN. America

GlobalChecklistGlobal

Checklist

Catalogue of Life Architecture II

Regio

Regional Checklist Hubs

e.g. S.Africa e.g.Brazil

• 13 editions from 1735 to 1770

• 4,400 species of animals & 7,700 species of plants have been catalogued

Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus

Catalogue of Life 2007 Annual Checklist

2007 Annual Checklist

• 1,008,965 accepted species

79,393 accepted infraspecific taxa

538,364 synonyms

414,075 common names

7th edition

47 taxonomic databases

over 3,000 taxonomists around the world

a partnership between Species 2000 & ITIS

I need to remind you that as well as being publicly funded…….

……………………. this is the work of a very large network of people…..

Major users of the Catalogue of Life

Individual users on the Web (largest load from Google)Individual users of the 3,000 CDs (intended for developing countries)School Children (Jessica of Cape Cod)

GBIF data portal (provides the principal index)

CBD programmes Clearing House MechanismGlobal Taxonomy InitiativeGSPC Target 1: Working List of PlantsBiosafety Protocol Clearing House

uBio US Library InitiativeCoL Taxonomic Hierarchy & Checklist

CRIA Brazil BIOTA Sao Paulo project

Chinese Academy of Sciences National Biodiversity Hub

SpeciesBase & Encyclopedia of Life – newly announced global programmes

1. Introduce the Catalogue of Life

2. Illustrate progress in giving full taxonomic precision and integrity

– and ask whether these same issues impact on the collation of barcodes for identification purposes?

Examples 1 & 2: using a group of Vicia (Vetch) species:

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia johannis.

Ascherson & Graebner 1909including subsp. serratifolia

Ascherson & Schweinf. / Schafer

Plitmann 1967including subsp. johannis

Kupicha 1976including subsps. serratifolia & johannis

Maxted et al. 1991

Vicia narbonensis L.

Taxonomic Concept Precision

Ascherson & Graebner

Ascherson & Schweinf.

Plitmann 1967

Kupicha 1976

Maxted et al. 1991

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia johannis.

Taxonomic Treatment Precision or Integrity

Ascherson & Graebner

Ascherson & Schweinf.

Plitmann 1967

Kupicha 1976

Maxted et al. 1991

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia johannis.

Taxonomic Treatment Precision or Integrity

Wrong!

Checklist contains two duplications

- Discrimination unlikely

- Retrieval of comparative datainaccurate

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia johannis.

Taxonomic Treatment Precision or Integrity

Ascherson & Graebner

Ascherson & Schweinf.

Plitmann 1967

Kupicha 1976

Maxted et al. 1991

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia johannis.

Taxonomic Treatment Precision or Integrity

Vicia narbonensis L.

Vicia serratifolia.

Vicia johannis.

Wrong!

Checklist contains ‘four’ omissions

- Discrimination incomplete

- Retrieval of comparative dataincomplete

Taxonomic Treatment Precision or Integrity

Ascherson & Graebner

Ascherson & Schweinf.

Plitmann 1967

Kupicha 1976

Maxted et al. 1991

Conclusion:

- To achieve full coverage (each population or form in the checklist just one time) it is important for the checklist to follow accurately a single given taxonomic treatment or expert view

Example 3: The Genus Cytisus (Brooms) and segragates.

Cytisus(Cytisus tribracteolatus)

Cytisus, or a segregate genusSarothamnus(Cytisus striatus or Sarothamnus striatus)

Cytisus

Cytisus

Sarothamnus

Polhill 1991

Wimmer 1832

Generic Precision or Integrity(Segregate genera)

Cytisus scoparius

Sarothamnus scoparius

Generic Precision or Integrity(Segregate genera)

Forming the Species Checklist

Cytisus

Cytisus

Cytisus

Sarothamnus

Sarothamnus

OK! – Generic Integrity

OK! – Generic Integrity

Wrong! – Generic Integrity Lost

3. Generic Precision (or Integrity)- Segregate genera

2. Taxonomic Treatment Precision (or Integrity)

1. Taxonomic Concept Precision

Three types of taxonomic precision

- that contribute quality to the Catalogue of Life

- and that may impact the Barcode of Life?

Services:www.catalogueoflife .org

Species 2000 organisationwww.sp2000.org

ITIS organisationwww.itis.gov