Tools

AquaCache: The AquaCache tool is accessible through Belgian LifeWatch website at http://aquacache.lifewatch.be. The goal of this tool is to serve as an internal data management tool, helping the involved editors to search through and compare lists and identify possible overlaps and discrepancies between lists available in more than one species register, e.g. on the level of higher classification or the status of a name.

Links to other tools and web services developed within AquaRES will be posted here as they become available.

Products

Fields selection for exchange: To facilitate the exchange of checklist data between FADA, WoRMS and RAMS, both for integration in the AquaCache as for synchronising the content in the participating databases, we rely on the Darwin Core standard. This standard is a collection of terms which is rather extensive. In order to enable the exchange of date we need to ensure however that a minimal set of fields is provided, and we therefore agreed on a standard set of fields that is required and documented this in the worksheet which can be downloaded below.

• Darwin Core-Archive field selection for AquaRES (version 1)
• Data exchange agreement between Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
  
  

  The Operational Directorate Natural Environment (OD Nature) of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), the WoRMS steering committee and the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) have established a Memorandum of Understanding to organise the exchange of taxonomic checklist data between the aquatic species registers FADA (Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment) and WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species).

  Specialist curated taxonomic databases are essential tools for ensuring the quality of biological data from collection and generation to data curation and management. WoRMS and FADA are two major Global Species Directories (GSD) hosted in Belgium, that consist of authoritative taxonomic data, curated by international experts. These databases contribute to initiatives such as Catalogue of Life (CoL), and potentially to other regional and national species lists.

  The agreement aims to increase the efficiency of the management of taxonomic data and avoid duplication of effort, ensuring that taxonomic experts only have to provide their input through either FADA or WoRMS, upon which data can automatically be exchanged between the partner databases.

  Ensuring and enhancing the operability between WoRMS and FADA through the development of web services and tools to facilitate the data exchange and perform data quality control, was key in the BELSPO Brain project AquaRES (Aquatic species Register Exchange and Services). To continue the collaboration that was set up during this project in the long term, the FADA-WoRMS data exchange agreement was established. The partners have agreed to encourage the specialists in their network to document species as being marine, brackish, freshwater or terrestrial organisms when incorporating them in their checklists. They will also exchange data in an agreed standard format, while clearly acknowledging the contributions of the partner initiative.

  Furthermore, this agreement also contributes to the continued development of the LifeWatch Taxonomic Backbone (LW-TaxBB), that also aims at bringing together taxonomic and species-related data, at filling the gaps in our knowledge and at avoiding duplication of efforts.