ORAL - Sergeyeva

Monitoring and conservation of biological diversity, analysis of its trends over various temporal scales have become a global concern. However, variety in methods and sampling techniques, small amount of observational data and lack of unified species check lists lead to controversy in estimation of the marine ecosystem evolution tendency. Moreover, in compassion with other fields of oceanography there is a lack of the specialized information or database management systems that give a possibility to upload, quality check, analyze and present trends in biodiversity and related data. Within the frameworks of the GEF Caspian Environment Program, the specialized Caspian Sea Biodiversity Information System dedicated to solve this task has been developed. The general objectives of the information system are: biological and environmental data storage; on-line data access and input; spatial and temporal data visualization; changes and trends estimation. A distinctive feature of the system is interdisciplinary approach. It brings together biological and oceanographic data with special attention to biodiversity data. The main component of the system is the searchable taxonomy tree of the Caspian Sea organisms that serves as reliable reference for all biological data records and authoritative taxonomic list of species occurring in the Caspian Sea marine environment. All necessary metadata records are included, such as methods (observing, analytical and processing), instruments, calibrations, quality control information, as well as any available additional documents. In addition to raw data the system provides on fly some calculated variables and estimates: population structure, average yearly and monthly values, biodiversity indices, and species age/size distribution. Data queries can be presented as tables, graphs or spatial distributions and grouped by different taxonomic groups, geographic areas, time period, etc. The system is web-based with user-friendly interface including embedded basic GIS features that gives a possibility to the scientists and data managers enter data remotely to the system and undertake joint basin wide analyses. The system was tested on the historical datasets provided by regional scientists and organizations and it will be used to collect and analyze data obtained during future Caspian Sea ecosystem monitoring programs. Some examples of data analyzes results undertaken based on the historical Caspian Sea datasets are presented. The system is flexible and can be used in any other regions of the World Ocean after the region specific species check list is created and the map file is replaced.