Improving nomenclatural consistency: a decade of experience in the World Register of Marine Species

Nicole Boury-Esnault,Sofie Vranken,Leen Vandepitte,Geoffrey Read,Stefanie Dekeyzer,Bart Vanhoorne,Mark J. Costello,Gary C.B. Poore,Nicolas Bailly,Jan Mees,Serge Gofas,Tammy Horton,Francisco Hernandez,Wim Decock,Gary Rosenberg,Sabine Stöhr,Gustav Paulay,Andreas Kroh,Simone N. Brandão

doi:10.5852/ejt.2017.389

Abstract

The World Register of Marine species (WoRMS) has been established for a decade. The early history of the database involved compilation of existing global and regional species registers. This aggregation, combined with changes to data types and the changing needs of WoRMS users, has resulted in an evolution of data-entry consistency over time. With the task of aggregating the accepted species names for all marine species approaching completion, our focus has shifted to improving the consistency and quality of data held while keeping pace with the addition of > 2000 new marine species described annually. This paper defines priorities and longer-term aims that promote standardisation within and interoperability among biodiversity databases, provides editors with further information on how to input nomenclatural data in a standardised way and clarifies for users of WoRMS how and why names are represented as they are. We 1) explain the categories of names included; 2) list standard reasons used to explain why a name is considered ‘unaccepted’ or ‘uncertain’; 3) present and explain the more difficult situations encountered; 4) describe categories of sources and notes linked to a taxon; and 5) recommend how type material, type locality and environmental information should be entered.

Highlights

The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a biodiversity information system designed as a global open-access inventory of the names of marine taxa
How should an editor decide on the accepted name? How can we provide consistency in this decision-making for the users of WoRMS? Editors may decide to represent the most up-to-date revision in WoRMS, or they may choose to represent one that is perhaps a few years older, but which is considered by that editor to have stronger support
WoRMS has existed for a decade and has been edited by more than 300 taxonomic experts during this period

Summary

Introduction

The World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is a biodiversity information system designed as a global open-access inventory of the names of marine taxa. With the task of aggregating the accepted species names for all marine species approaching completion, a list of new priorities was drawn up by the Steering Committee (a group of 12 editors elected for three-year terms to govern current and future development of WoRMS, http://www.marinespecies.org/about.php#governance). The minimum requirements for an entry in WoRMS is the full scientific name (i.e., combination of genus and specific epithet, author, year) placed in an accepted taxonomic hierarchy, annotated with an environment flag (e.g., marine/brackish/terrestrial/freshwater, see section on environment later) and supported by a reference Further information is both possible and recommended to be included, and the addition of the following has been agreed by the WoRMS Steering Committee according to a priority list: original name, original description, type locality, and type species of genera. The options for these in WoRMS are: 1. accepted name 2. unaccepted name 3. temporary name 4. uncertain name 5. alternate representation

Accepted name

Unaccepted name

Temporary name

Uncertain name

Findings

Conclusion