Chair: Leen Vandepitte (EurOBIS)
OBIS-TaxTT Membership.
The Taxonomy Task Team wants to maximise the taxonomic precision, reliability and usability of OBIS data via a strategic approach to address problems with legacy data and for present and future, provision of self-service tools, workflows and on-demand help to data providers and OBIS Nodes for continuous improvement in taxonomic data quality.
Taxonomic cleaning: general approach
- Use of WoRMS & IRMNG as main taxonomic QC sources
- Contact data providers (incl. node managers) with non-matching, unsolvable names
- Process feedback from WoRMS taxonomic editors on names possibly missing from WoRMS
- Provide regular feedback to iOBIS on the matching process and feedback from providers & node managers
- Aim to repeat the matching/cleaning protocol after every harvest
The OBIS Taxonomy Task Team (TaxTT) has the following Terms of Reference:
Terms of Reference of the OBIS-TaxTT
- To maintain and enhance ongoing linkages with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as the primary provider of a reference database for correctly spelled taxonomic names and known synonyms of marine species and to maintain and enhance ongoing linkages with the Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG).
- To enhance the range of available taxonomic name checking web services and tools at VLIZ with the aim of one-stop names resolution against WoRMS and IRMNG plus additional lists of value in the case that correctly spelled names may not be available from WoRMS (for a range of reasons). Checks against several other taxonomic registers are already available through the LifeWatch web-services.
- To advise on procedures and tools which can be used by either data providers or OBIS nodes to detect and resolve problems with taxonomic names as close to the source as possible. These procedures and tools are described in the OBIS node manual. If new tools and procedures arise, these will be communicated.
- To create and make available an annotated list of “non-match” names currently in OBIS with the aim of avoiding them to end up in the non-matching list in the future. Examples of annotations can be: undocumented or unpublished genus-species combination, non-marine taxon, non-taxonomic term & impossible to link to a taxon etc.
- To monitor the status of “no match” names in OBIS datasets on a periodic process and adjust names resolution techniques as required to address currently unresolved problems.
- To communicate with data providers on the non-matching names, helping them to solve issues and improve their level of cleaning and linkage with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS).
- To maintain liaison with other teams addressing similar issues in related projects including EMODnet, Global Names, GBIF and Catalogue of Life (CoL) names cleaning, iPlant and OTOL Taxonomic Names Resolution Services, etc. to maximise re-use of tools and approaches developed elsewhere and also promote tools developed in the present OBIS/VLIZ/WoRMS axis.
