A.  Taxonomic Harmonization and Ostracode Databases - a Summary of Workshop Discussions

Taxonomic Harmonization is a necessary step towards the goal of identifying circumpolar/Holarctic species with high value in paleoclimatic and biogeographic research.  The focus here is on species with circumpolar or extensive northern hemisphere distributions, and that fall into either of two categories:

a)       Possibly the same species,  bearing different names in North America and Eurasia

b)       Possible different species, bearing the same names in North America and Eurasia

Any solution to this kind of taxonomic harmonization problem will involve collaborative research efforts, and an agreed-upon procedure, making use of free web services. 

Discussion in these workshops focused on the practical ways in which collaborative approaches to taxonomic harmonization could occur.  Consensus in these discussions involved the use of free web services as tools in collaborative community discussion.  Of primary importance in these discussions was the need to have relatively secure on-line space to discuss taxonomic characters.  Web services that were favorably discussed for this purpose included:

    1.  Wikispecies - Free and open access online discussion space for taxonomic discussion, hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.  Images (and discussion) posted to Wikispecies are part of the Wiki Commons and thus are public access, although contributing to the discussion page requires a log-in.  Learn more here.

    2.  Scratchpad - Free online research space for biodiversity related group discussion, hosted by the Natural History Museum of London.   Scientists can join and set up a scratchpad discussion space by registering on line.  Scratchpad allows for controlled access and editing rights, and is specifically designed to work with taxonomic data (e.g., uses Darwin Core standards (DwC).  Learn more here.

    3.  LifeDesk - Free online environment for taxonomic/biodiversity collaborative research, hosted by Encyclopedia of LIfe.  Scientists can join and set up discussion space with controlled access and editing rights.  Learn more here.

    4.  Google Hangout - a free online video conference tool that is operated through Google+, accessible through gmail accounts, and is not dependent on particular platforms.  Learn more here.

    5.  Skype with Whiteboard -Skype offers a collaborative application software package called whiteboard that allows photos or images to be altered with vector graphics by anyone in the discussion, and all participants can see the changes.  Learn more here.

B.  Recommended procedures for resolving taxonomic harmonization problems as described above included
1.  Direct comparison, where possible, of soft parts and shells, preferably from original material.
2.  If possible, make use of genetic analyses, including barcoding, to identify the presence of discrete populations.
3.  Making use of web services, such as posting of images for discussion through Scratchpad or Wikispecies (see caveats above).
4.  Following the ICZN procedures for determining precedent in nomenclature.
5.  Publication, co-authored by the cohort primarily involved in the harmonization discussion, of the outcome in an appropriate, widely accessible journal.



C.  A shortlist of species needing taxonomic harmonization and that also have potentially high value in paleoclimatic and biogeographic research was compiled, and includes the following:

Species

Significance

Candona acutula Delorme, 1967  vs

Candona levanderi Hirschmann, 1912

 

Paleoclimate indicator

Candona rectangulata Alm, 1914  vs

Candona willmani Staplin, 1963  vs

Fabaeformiscandona harmsworthi (Scott, 1899)

 

Arctic distribution

Candona candida (O.F. Muller, 1776)

 

Geographic parthenogen

Candona neglecta Sars, 1887

 

Common in Europe, rarely reported in N.A.

Candona obtusa Bronstein, 1947  vs

Fabaeformiscandona rawsoni (Tressler, 1957) Griffiths, 1995  vs

Candona arcina Liepin (yr not known) (China)

 

Paleohydrologic indicator

Cypria ophthalmica Jurine, 1820  vs

Cypria turneri  Hoff, 1942 vs European Cypria

 

Indicator of disoxia

Cyprideis torosa  (Jones, 1850)

 

Holarctic distribution, estuarine

Cytherissa lacustris Sars, 1863

 

Geographic parthenogen

Ilyocypris salebrosa Stepanaitys, 1960 vs

Pelocypris alatabulbosa Delorme, 1970 vs

Ilyocypris shawneetownensis Staplin, 1963

 

Paleoclimate indicator

Limnocythere camera Delorme, 1967 vs

Limnocythere falcata Diebel, 1968

 

Arctic

Limnocythere friabilis Benson & MacDonald, 1963 vs Limnocythere suessenbornensis Diebel, 1968

 

Interstitial

Limnocythere inopinata  (Baird), 1843 vs

Limnocythere sappaensis Staplin, 1963

 

Geographic parthenogen

Paleohydrology indicator


D. Ostracode Databases

     Recently, nonmarine ostracode databases have become available containing species biogeographic information and environmental data, and these provide new ways to test hypotheses about a range of important problems in paleoclimatology, biogeography and evolutionary ecology.  Workshop discussions concerning these databases focused on the kinds of data available, how these data could be accessed, and the problem of "dark data".  Dark data are data collected in the past for a particular project, perhaps published in "grey literature" or not published, and currently inaccessible to the scientific community.  Even small datasets can have a powerful impact on our knowledge, particularly regarding biogeographic ranges.

     NODE (Nonmarine Ostracod Distribution in Europe) (Horne et al.,1998; 2012) and the newly developing metadatabase OMEGA (Horne et al., 2011), NANODe (North American Nonmarine Ostracode Database), DOAD (Delorme Ostracode Autecological Database, housed at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa) and the North American Combined Ostracode Database (NACODE) (Curry et al., 2012) were discussed.  It is now possible to migrate these data to larger, searchable, databases that provide other kinds of ancillary data as well.  NANODe has already been migrated to Neotoma, and will soon be searchable and mappable with the Neotoma webtools.  Migrating existing databases to these larger, well funded databases ensures that the data will not be lost, and in some cases, the researcher still has "data steward" control.  Examples discussed include:

    1.  BioFresh - This EU funded database platform houses millions of records of modern freshwater species distributions in Europe.  It is searchable by occurrence and by species name.  Although there are no ostracod data in BioFresh yet, an OMEGA datataset incorporating metadata (for NODE, NANODe and DOAD) and mappable species records for Europe and North America, with harmonised nomenclature as far as possible at this stage, is planned to be made available via the BioFresh portal in late 2013.  Learn more here.

    2.  Neotoma - Named for the packrat Neotoma cinerea, this distributed database houses thousands of multi-proxy records of Pliocene through Recent age.  Mappable site data of pollen, plant macrofossils, ostracodes, diatoms, and vertebrate fossils are available for spatial and temporal analysis.  Webtools include TaxaMapper, Explore, and RNeotoma. It is funded by the National Science Foundation and hosted by Penn State University.  Learn more here.

    3.  Paleobiology Database - Paleodb, as it is known, is a public access resource using mirror servers, originally funded by the National Science Foundation and now funded by the Australian Research Council.  Paleodb provides global occurrence and taxonomic based fossil data from any time in the geologic record, as well as statistical tools for analysis.  It currently houses data on over one million fossil occurrences and about 260,000 species. Learn more here.


E.  Recommendations:
    1.  Bring to the attention of ostracode workers the available collaborative software, such as Scratchpad (a workshop on this topic is scheduled for the upcoming ISO meeting in Rome, 2013), Lifedesk, and/or Wikispecies pages.  Information should be distributed by website and journal articles.

    2.  Encourage the community to migrate their data to well supported databases (see list above), and avoid the problem of "dark data".

    3.  Select a few specific examples of species with suspected Holarctic distributions to work on right away (e.g., Candona candida, Cytherissa lacustris, Limnocythere inopinata...). Encourage collaborative efforts with geneticists in order to undertake comprehensive redescription of key species.

    4.  Make more use of genetic analyses (see discussion on genetics and phylogenetics) in hypothesis testing of ostracode evolutionary ecology and biogeography. 

    5. Encourage the publication of interim regional or trans-regional checklists annotated to highlight taxonomic confidence and uncertainty.  This will be a necessary step towards demonstrating progress, and provide useful resources while taxonomic publications make their way through the publication pipeline.
    6.  Explore more fully the ideas of machine identification of shells as an aid in morphology-based identifications.

F.  References cited

Curry, B. B., Delorme, L.D., Smith, A.J., Palmer, D.F., and Stiff, B.J., 2012. The biogeography and physiochemical characteristics of aquatic habitats of freshwater ostracodes in Canada and the United States IN (Horne, D., Holmes, J., Rodrigez-Lasaro, J., and Viehberg, F., Eds.) Ostracoda as Proxies for Quaternary Climate Change, vol. 17 in Developments in Quaternary Science series, Elsevier Science Publishing, pp. 85-115.


Horne, D.J., Holmes, J.A., Rodriguez-Lazaro, J. and Viehberg, F., 2012.  Ostracoda as proxies for Quaternary climate change: overview and future prospects, IN (Horne, D.J., Holmes, J.A., Rodriguez-Lazaro, J. and Viehberg, F.(eds.), Ostracoda as Proxies for Quaternary Climate Change, Developments in Quaternary Science, v. 17, Elsevier, 305-315.

Horne, D.J., Baltanas, A., & Paris, G., 1998.  Geographical distribution of reproductive modes in living non-marine ostracods, In Martens, K. (ed.): Sex and Parthenogenesis: Evolutionary Ecology of Reproductive Modes in Non-Marine Ostracods, Backhuys, Leiden, pp. 77-99. 

Horne, D.J., Curry, B.B., Delorme, L.D., Martens, K., Smith, A.J., & Smith, R.J., 2011.  OMEGA: the Ostracod metadatabase of Environmental and Geographical Attributes, Joannea. Geol. Paleont., 11, 80-84.

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