Planktonic Foraminifera@Nannotax: A web resource for foraminifera taxonomy and biostratigraphy

浮游有孔虫是一种微小的单细胞海洋微生物，漂浮在开放海洋的上层，产生有腔的钙质贝壳。它们是现代海洋生态系统的重要组成部分，死后它们的壳会下沉，成为深海沉积物(微型化石)的主要组成部分之一。这些化石的地质记录可以追溯到近2亿年前，它们提供了一种简单而快速的方法来确定它们所在岩石的年代。因此，它们对于包括工业生物地层学家在内的广泛的地球科学家来说是非常重要的。利用来自地下钻孔的小样本，生物地层学家能够识别特定年龄的油气储集层和源岩，并能够准确地引导钻井，以最大限度地提高碳氢化合物产量。然而，有效地利用有孔虫微型化石进行年代测定取决于是否有关于它们分类(分类学--哪些物种是哪些，为什么？)、它们的生态(哪些物种生活在哪里，何时生活，为什么生活？)的最新和可靠的信息。以及它们的地质历史(哪些物种生活在何时何地？)这种类型的分类技能供不应求，由于基本数据被锁定在可获得的学术文本中--特别是外部研究机构--因此很难获得。越来越多的终端用户希望能够通过互联网找到这样的数据，但目前的系统对他们的服务很差。为了扩大对这一关键信息的获取，我们将开发一个名为浮游有孔虫@NannoTax或PF@N的网络资源，我们希望它将成为任何需要获得浮游有孔虫基本到专业信息的人的在线参考来源。该项目将建立在名为NannoTax的在线资源的基础上，该资源是我们之前使用NERC知识交换基金为另一个微化石组--钙质纳米化石开发的。这个资源被证明是非常成功的，正如使用统计和个人反馈所显示的那样。有孔虫信息将来自最近3000万年(从渐新世到现在)的新汇编数据和以前白垩纪到始新世的汇编，来自一个名为Chronos的旧的、现在已经过时的数据库。这一Chronos内容的提供将大大有助于数据库内容的开发。完成后，PF@N将提供一份超过1.2亿年进化历史的现存和化石浮游有孔虫分类群的全面清单。每个物种都有简短的描述、年龄数据、多幅插图、参考书目和原始描述。将有识别码和提供学习方法信息的链接页面。我们的首席调查员和项目合作伙伴将确保专家信息，其中大部分来自NERC资助的英国研究，将被纳入资源，我们的行业合作伙伴将‘测试’该系统，并提供反馈和应用专业知识。我们认为，这一系统的开发对于碳氢化合物工业中有效利用有孔虫至关重要，而且对于其更广泛的应用也是至关重要的，例如，古海洋学家、地球化学家、古生物学家、浮游生物生物学家和海洋学家使用有孔虫。通过消除学习有孔虫分类学、鉴定标本和获得有关物种的准确信息的障碍，我们认为现有用户将能够扩大他们的专业知识，这也将为一系列新用户打开道路。

Planktonic foraminifera are minute, single-celled, marine microorganisms that float in the upper layers of the open ocean, producing chambered calcareous shells. They are an important part of the modern marine ecosystem and after death their shells sink to become one of the principal components of deep-sea deposits (microfossils). These fossils have a geological record stretching back almost 200 million years and they provide a simple and quick means of age-dating the rocks in which they are found. For this reason they are of great importance to a wide range of earth scientists, including industrial biostratigraphers. Using the small samples that come from subsurface boreholes, biostratigraphers are able to identify the oil and gas reservoir and source rocks of specific ages and can precisely steer while drilling to maximise hydrocarbon production. However, the effective use of foraminifera microfossils for age dating is dependent upon the availability of up-to-date and reliable information concerning their classification (taxonomy - which species is which, and why?), their ecology (which species live where, when and why?) and their geological history (which species lived when and where?). This type of taxonomic skill is in short supply and is difficult to acquire owing to the essential data being locked up in academic texts of limited availability - especially outside research institutions. Increasingly, end-users expect to be able to find such data via the internet but they are poorly served by current systems. In order to widen access to this crucial information we will develop a web resource called Planktonic Foraminfera@Nannotax or PF@N that we hope will become the online reference source for anyone needing to obtain basic to specialist information on planktonic foraminifera. The project will build on an online resource called Nannotax that we previously developed for another microfossil group, calcareous nannofossils, using NERC knowledge exchange funding. This resource has proved highly successful as shown by usage statistics and personal feedback. The foraminifera information will come from a combination of newly compiled data for the last 30 million years (Oligocene to Present) and a previous Cretaceous to Eocene compilation from an older and now out-of-date database called Chronos. The availability of this Chronos content will considerably aid the development of the database content. When completed, PF@N will provide a comprehensive listing of living and fossil planktonic foraminifera taxa ranging over 120 million years of evolutionary history. Each species will have a short description, age data, multiple illustrations, bibliographic references and original descriptions. There will be identification keys and linked pages providing information on study methods. Our Principal Investigators and Project Partners will ensure that expert information, much of it derived from NERC-funded UK research, will be incorporated into the resource and our industrial partners will 'test-drive' the system and provide feedback and applied expertise. We think that the development of this system is essential to the effective use of foraminifera in the hydrocarbon industry, but also to their application more broadly, for example, as used by palaeoceanographers, geochemists, palaeobiologists, plankton biologists and oceanographers. By removing the barriers to learning foraminifera taxonomy, identifying specimens and obtaining accurate information about species, we think that existing users will be able to expand their expertise and that this will also open the way to a range of new users.