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Rotifer World Catalog now available through the Aphia platform
Added on 2025-08-04 16:04:28 by Goharimanesh, Mona
Almost 20 years after the idea to „set up an individual page for every rotifer species” (2006), the Rotifer World Catalog finds a new home in Aphia, the data infrastructure behind the World Register of Marine Species. A dedicated portal was set up for these conspicuous micro-organisms, and their marine representatives are displayed through WoRMS as well.First conversations on the possibility of synchronizing or transferring the Rotifer World Catalog (RWC) to VLIZ, home of the Aphia infrastructure and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), date back to November 2019. Christian Jersabek, Rotifera taxonomist and manager of the Rotifer World Catalog, which was then hosted by the ‘Haus der Natur’ in Salzburg, Austria, wanted to know what a synchronization or integration action would entail. What was a mere idea and exploration of possibilities back then, gained momentum in October 2024, when conversations were picked up, with a sense of urgency, to be able to safeguard this valuable catalog.
Late 2024, Rotifera editors Christian Jersabek and Hendrik Segers visited the Data Management Team in Ostend, and a full plan for data rescue was developed. It was agreed that the upcoming International Rotifer Symposium (IRS - Rotifer XVII), taking place 4-8 August 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, would present an excellent opportunity to officially launch and showcase the new portal and all efforts behind it, as well as pursuing involvement of the entire “Rotifer Family”. Joint efforts between taxonomical and ecological experts will allow the Rotifer World Catalog to become even stronger, as the RWC endeavors to increase taxonomic efficiency, stabilize nomenclature, make rotifers more readily accessible for inclusion in biotic surveys, and stimulate descriptive and ecological research on them, for the benefit of both basic science and applied aquatic research. In parallel, these efforts will put a spotlight on these conspicuous micro-organisms, hopefully increasing their popularity and showcasing their value in biodiversity and conservation research.
The Rotifer World Catalog (RWC) includes a complete inventory of all ever published rotifer names, from genus level to infrasubspecific entities. It does not only cover nomenclaturally available and taxonomically valid names, but also rotifer names that were never available and names that are currently treated as invalid. In true Aphia and WoRMS tradition, the Catalog also contains an ever-growing amount of associated biological, distributional, bibliographical and image data on taxon level. On specimen level, it integrates the world’s major rotifer collections, with extensive, image-supported data on museum material and type specimens.
The work of the Data Management Team (DMT) to carry out this data rescue action is supported by LifeWatch Belgium, part of the E-Science European LifeWatch Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research. LifeWatch is a distributed virtual laboratory, used for different aspects of biodiversity research. The Species Information Backbone of LifeWatch aims at bringing together taxonomic and species-related data and at filling the gaps in our knowledge.
Link: https://rotifera.aphia.org/
Image: [Philodina citrina Ehrenberg, 1830]
Image credit: [photo by Michael Plewka, Germany]
Late 2024, Rotifera editors Christian Jersabek and Hendrik Segers visited the Data Management Team in Ostend, and a full plan for data rescue was developed. It was agreed that the upcoming International Rotifer Symposium (IRS - Rotifer XVII), taking place 4-8 August 2025 in Rio de Janeiro, would present an excellent opportunity to officially launch and showcase the new portal and all efforts behind it, as well as pursuing involvement of the entire “Rotifer Family”. Joint efforts between taxonomical and ecological experts will allow the Rotifer World Catalog to become even stronger, as the RWC endeavors to increase taxonomic efficiency, stabilize nomenclature, make rotifers more readily accessible for inclusion in biotic surveys, and stimulate descriptive and ecological research on them, for the benefit of both basic science and applied aquatic research. In parallel, these efforts will put a spotlight on these conspicuous micro-organisms, hopefully increasing their popularity and showcasing their value in biodiversity and conservation research.
The Rotifer World Catalog (RWC) includes a complete inventory of all ever published rotifer names, from genus level to infrasubspecific entities. It does not only cover nomenclaturally available and taxonomically valid names, but also rotifer names that were never available and names that are currently treated as invalid. In true Aphia and WoRMS tradition, the Catalog also contains an ever-growing amount of associated biological, distributional, bibliographical and image data on taxon level. On specimen level, it integrates the world’s major rotifer collections, with extensive, image-supported data on museum material and type specimens.
The work of the Data Management Team (DMT) to carry out this data rescue action is supported by LifeWatch Belgium, part of the E-Science European LifeWatch Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research. LifeWatch is a distributed virtual laboratory, used for different aspects of biodiversity research. The Species Information Backbone of LifeWatch aims at bringing together taxonomic and species-related data and at filling the gaps in our knowledge.
Link: https://rotifera.aphia.org/
Image: [Philodina citrina Ehrenberg, 1830]
Image credit: [photo by Michael Plewka, Germany]
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