WG1 Meeting - Online Identification Tools

On 8th May 2012, a meeting was held at the Natural History Museum, London to discuss the latest INDEEP WG1 projects now underway - the production of deep-sea online identificaiton tools.       The World Register of Deep-Sea Species, is being compiled and will be the most authoritative and up-to-date source of online taxonomy for marine species. On each taxon page there will be a field for keys and guides, providing direct links to these resources where available. 

It is envisaged that the portal, ID guides and keys will be used by consultant taxonomists working up deep-sea samples to research students and even taxonomic experts (working outside their expert group).

 A deep-sea app is also being developed alongside the portal and this will be aimed more towards public engagement and will be image based with an emphasis on high quality pictures.

The ultimate aim is to provide ID tools covering the full spectrum of deep-sea species, but initially the team will concentrate efforts on areas that will be most beneficial for their intended users.Initial efforts to provideID guides and keys will focus on macrofauna groups, followed by megafauna and meiofauna.

The World Register of Deep-Sea Species portal should be up and running by September 2012, comprising initial species inventory and images (led by N Higgs). The app development will follow (leb by A Glover) shortly after. ID guides and Keys will be added as they are sourced (led by T Horton) up until December 2013.

Link to full meeting minutes