PESI - a taxonomic backbone for Europe

Yde de Jong (1) , Juliana Kouwenberg (1) , Louis Boumans (2) , Charles Hussey (3) , Roger Hyam (4) , Nicola Nicolson (4) , Paul Kirk (5) , Alan Paton (6) , Ellinor Michel (3) , Michael Guiry (7) , Phillip Boegh (8) , Henrik Pedersen , Henrik Enghoff , Eckhard von Raab-Straube , Anton Güntsch , Marc Geoffroy , Andreas Müller , Andreas Kohlbecker , Walter Berendsohn , Ward Appeltans (9) , Christos Arvanitidis (10) , Bart Vanhoorne , Joram Declerck , Leen Vandepitte , Francisco Hernández , Róisín Nash , Mark Costello , David Ouvrard (3) , Pascale Bezard-Falgas , Thierry Bourgoin , Florian Wetzel , Falko Glöckler , Günther Korb , Caroline Ring , Gregor Hagedorn , Christoph Hauser , Nihat Aktaç , Ahmet Asan , Adorian Ardelean , Paul Borges , Dhimiter Dhora , Hasmik Khachatryan , Michael Malicky , Shaig Ibrahimov , Alexander V Tuzikov , Aaike de Wever (11) , Snejana Moncheva (12) , Nikolaï Spassov (13) , Karel Chobot , Alexi Popov , Igor Boršić , Spyros Sfenthourakis , Urmas Koljalg (14) , Pertti Uotila , Gargominy Olivier , Jean-Claude Dauvin (15) , David Tarkhnishvili , Giorgi Chaladze , Michael Tuerkay , Anastasios Legakis , László Peregovits , Gudmundur Gudmundsson , Erling Olafsson (16) , Liam Lysaght , Bella Galil (17) , Francesco Raimondo , Gianniantonio Domina , Fabio Stoch (18) , Alessandro Minelli (19) , Voldermars Spungis , Eduardas Budrys , Sergej Olenin (20) , Armand Turpel , Tania Walisch , Vladimir Krpach , Marie Gambin , Laurentia Ungureanu , Gordan Karaman , Roy Kleukers , Elisabeth Stur (21) , Kaare Aagaard , Nils Valland , Toril Moen , Wieslaw Bogdanowicz (22) , Piotr Tykarski , Jan Węsławski , Monika Kędra (23) , Anton M. de Frias Martins , António Abreu (24) , Ricardo Silva , Sergei Medvedev (25) , Alexander Ryss , Smiljka Šimić , Karol Marhold (26) , Eduard Stloukal , Davorin Tome , Marian Ramos , Benito Valdés , Francisco Pina , Sven Kullander , Anders Telenius , Yves Gonseth , Pascal Tschudin , Oleksandra Sergeyeva , Volodymyr Vladymyrov , Volodymyr Rizun , Chris Raper (27) , Dan Lear , Pavel Stoev , Lyubomir Penev , Ana Rubio , Thierry Backeljau (28) , Hannu Saarenmaa , Sandrine Ulenberg

1 UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam]
2 UiO - University of Oslo
3 NHM - The Natural History Museum [London]
4 Royal Botanic Garden [Edinburgh]
5 Royal Botanic Gardens
6 Herbarium
7 NUI Galway - National University of Ireland [Galway]
8 DMI - Danish Meteorological Institute
9 International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, Oostende
10 HCMR - Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
11 Aquatic and Terrestrial Ecology, Operational Directorate Natural Environment
12 IO-BAS - Institute of Oceanology of Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
13 National Museum of Natural History
14 University of Tartu
15 M2C - Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière
16 Icelandic Institute of Natural History
17 IOLR - Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
18 Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali
19 Department of Biology
20 KU - Klaipėda University [Lituanie]
21 Department of Natural History
22 Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauk
23 IO-PAN - Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences
24 ISEL - Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa
25 CEED - Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics [Oslo]
26 Institute of Botany
27 Tachinidae Recording Scheme
28 RBINS - Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences

Reliable taxonomy underpins communication in all of biology, not least nature conservation and sustainable use of ecosystem resources. The flexibility of taxonomic interpretations, however, presents a serious challenge for end-users of taxonomic concepts. Users need standardised and continuously harmonised taxonomic reference systems, as well as high-quality and complete taxonomic data sets, but these are generally lacking for non-specialists. The solution is in dynamic, expertly curated web-based taxonomic tools. The Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI) worked to solve this key issue by providing a taxonomic e-infrastructure for Europe. It strengthened the relevant social (expertise) and information (standards, data and technical) capacities of five major community networks on taxonomic indexing in Europe, which is essential for proper biodiversity assessment and monitoring activities. The key objectives of PESI were: 1) standardisation in taxonomic reference systems, 2) enhancement of the quality and completeness of taxonomic data sets and 3) creation of integrated access to taxonomic information. This paper describes the results of PESI and its future prospects, including the involvement in major European biodiversity informatics initiatives and programs.

Keywords: PESI; Euro+Med PlantBase; Fauna Europaea; European Register of Marine Species; Index Fungorum; International Plant Names Index (IPNI); AlgaeBase; ZooBank; European taxonomic backbone; EU-nomen; Taxonomic indexing; Authority File; Taxonomy; Nomenclature; Global Names Architecture; INSPIRE; LifeWatch; EUBON

Domains: Biodiversity and Ecology

Yde de Jong, Juliana Kouwenberg, Louis Boumans, Charles Hussey, Roger Hyam, et al.. PESI - a taxonomic backbone for Europe. Biodiversity Data Journal, 2015, 3, pp.e5848. ⟨10.3897/BDJ.3.e5848⟩. ⟨hal-02060422⟩