Plankton taxonomy in the computer age

TitlePlankton taxonomy in the computer age
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2008
AuthorsJouenne F, Probert I, Vaulot D
JournalCahiers de Biologie Marine
Volume49
Pagination355–367
Keywords2008, ? No DOI found, rcc, SBR$_\textrmP$hyto$_\textrmD$PO, sbr?hyto$_\textrmd$ipo
Abstract

Preservation of biodiversity starts with knowledge of biodiversity. Based on this principle, numerous projects combining taxonomy and web-based technologies have developed over the last fifteen years, often with the aim of listing all living organisms described to date. Individual lists have been progressively incorporated into federative projects, such as Species 2000 or the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Nowadays, modern taxonomy is splited up between traditionalism and pragmatism. The Internet can provide new advantages to taxonomy (accessibility and efficiency) without reducing quality. In the future, it would be highly desirable to ba able to publish species descriptions and revisions on permanent web-sites on the model of GENBANK. Biodiversity inventory projects should converge to a very limited number of portals (e.g. Encyclopedia of Life). We illustrate these concepts by presenting Plankton*Net an interactive web site dedicated to the taxonomy and images of plankton.