Informational Databases for Ichthyology

关于动植物(分布、生态、生物学)的信息是按种类分类组织的。鱼类大约有25,000个不同的物种(但有55,000个名字)。没有关于我们积累的鱼类知识的有效总结，尽管有关于知识增长的年度总结。但分类总是在变化，比如科学上的物种名称被更改，或者物种被移到新的属或新的物种被发现，从而使任务或跟踪信息变得复杂。关于科学名称和分类的信息大多发表在零星的小型科学论文中，并在世界范围内遵循一定的(命名)规则。计算机允许建立数据库来管理名称问题(分类学)和积累先验知识。该项目建立在前一笔赠款的基础上，该赠款成功地为13,500种鱼类建立了一个数据库，并引用了大约6,500条与这些属的描述或地位有关的文献。准备出版“鱼类属”是本项目的目标之一。该项目还允许扩大到涵盖科、种(将开始但尚未完成)和更多文献，并允许审查新的软件和其他技术(包括数据标准)，以更好地满足这些目标。该项目的重点将是设计一种既能满足科学界的需要，又能为许多需要当前生物信息的用户提供在线访问的系统。该项目可以作为其他生物学学科的典范，它在未来应该具有重大价值，以便能够更好地获得信息，包括更好地总结世界动物群的多样性。

Information about animals and plants (distribution, ecology, biology) is organized around species (kinds) in a classification. In fishes there are about 25,000 different species (but with 55,000 names). There is no effective summary about our accumulated knowledge of fishes, although yearly summaries of the increase in knowledge are available. But classifications are always changing, as when scientific species names are changed or species are moved to new genera or new species are found, thus complicating the task or keeping track of information. The information on scientific names and classifications is mostly published in scattered small scientific papers, and follows certain (nomenclatural) rules on a World basis. Computers allow the building of databases to manage both the problems of names (taxonomy) and the accumulation of prior knowledge. This project builds on a previous grant that allowed the successful preparation of a database for the 13,500 genera of fishes and about 6,500 literature citations having to do with the description or status of these genera. Preparing the "genera of fishes" for publication is one of the goals of the present project. The project also allows expansion to cover families, species (will be started but not completed), and more literature, and allows for an examination of new software and other techniques (including data standards) to better meet the objectives. The project will focus on designing a system that meets the needs of the scientific community but also can provide on-line access to the many users in need of current biological information. This project can serve as a model for other biological disciplines, and it should have significant value in the future, such that it will allow better availability of information, including better summaries of the World's faunal diversity.