European Tracking Network for fish has reached over 500 million detections
In recent years, fish tracking technology has revolutionized our knowledge on fish migration and behaviour. Today, the European Tracking Network (ETN) integrates the European efforts of hundreds of users, dealing with thousands of tagged fish from a multitude of species. Within this LifeWatch initiative, 500 million detections so far have taught us a lot on fish species such as Atlantic bluefin tuna, European seabass and sturgeon.
WoRMS endorsed as a Project Action under the Ocean Decade
Last week, WoRMS received endorsement by the Ocean Decade as a Project Action, entitled “Above and Beyond – Completing the World Register of Marine Species (ABC WoRMS)”.
New versions of the Bio-Oracle dataset v2.2 and the R package sdmpredictors v2.10.0 are available
Bio-Oracle provides environmental data of the world ocean for present and future climate change scenarios. These data are mainly used by Lifewatch users to link biodiversity occurrence data to environmental conditions and predict the future distribution of marine species. Recently, this dataset is improved and offers better quality for the end users.
Porifera editors participated in the very first online organised WoRMS-LifeWatch editor workshop
In the week of June 7th 2021, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) – host of Aphia, the online platform behind WoRMS and its many sub-registered – organized the very first online editor workshop, in which 13 Porifera-editors enthusiastically participated.
Coordinating the observation of biodiversity in the sea: a new collaboration
The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR), and the SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal share a common vision on the building and coordination of a global ocean biodiversity observation system. The common goal is to systematically assess the state and trends in the ocean’s biodiversity, including biological resources and ecosystems, and how these will change in the future.
World Strepsiptera Database launched!
A world list of Strepsiptera – twisted-wing parasitoids – is now accessible through their very own portal, as part of Aphia, the platform behind the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). The World Strepsiptera Database currently contains 605 accepted species, and will be updated to catch up with newly described species in the last 5 years.
Awardees for the 2021 WoRMS Achievement & Early Career Researchers Award known
This year, the WoRMS Achievement Award goes to Chad Walter, and the WoRMS Early Career Researchers Award was granted to Ralf Cordeiro.
Big Five conservation measures for diadromous fish
Five years of fish tracking research using the LifeWatch fish acoustic receiver network has generated key insights in how to save diadromous fish species from historically low numbers.