A new infrastructure for marine biology in Europe: Marine biodiversity informatics

Abstract

THE ADVENT OF COMPUTERS AND the internet has provided new opportunities to manage marine biological data, including data storage, analysis, archival, publication and exchange. This “marine biodiversity informatics” has parallels in non-marine areas of biodiversity, and gains addedvalue through interaction with nonbiological marine data. This article outlines how the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS) is being updated with MARBEF, and its relationships to (a) other European initiatives, namely the Society for the Management of European Biodiversity Data (SMEBD), Fauna Europaea, Euro+Med PlantBase, Species 2000 Europa (EuroCAT), BioCASE, and (b) global initiatives, including the Ocean Biogeographic Information System, Global Biodiversity Information Facility, International Ocean Data Information Exchange (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.