WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species

Towards a World Register of Marine Species

The aim of a World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) is to provide an authoritative and comprehensive list of names of marine organisms, including information on synonymy. While highest priority goes to valid names, other names in use are included so that this register can serve as a guide to interpret taxonomic literature.

The content of WoRMS is controlled by taxonomic experts, not by database managers. WoRMS has an editorial management system where each taxonomic group is represented by an expert who has the authority over the content, and is responsible to control the quality of the information. Each of these main taxonomic editors can invite several specialists of smaller groups within their area of responsibility.

This register of marine species grew from the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS), and its combination with several other species registers maintained at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Rather than building separate registers for all projects, and to make sure taxonomy used in these different projects is consistent, we developed a consolidated database called ‘Aphia’. A list of marine species registers included in Aphia is available below. MarineSpecies.org is the web interface to this database. The WoRMS is an idea that is being developed, and will combine information from Aphia with other authoritative marine species lists which are maintained by others (e.g. AlgaeBase, FishBase, Hexacorallia, NeMys).

Resources to build MarineSpecies.org and Aphia were provided mainly by the EU Network of Excellence ‘Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning’ (MarBEF), and also by the EU funded Species 2000 Europe and ERMS projects. Intellectual property rights of the European part of the register is managed through the Society for the Management of European Biodiversity Data (SMEBD). Similar solutions are now being investigated for the other parts of the register.

Aphia contains valid species names, synonym and vernacular names, and extra information such as literature and biogeographic data. Besides species names, Aphia also contains the higher classification in which each scientific name is linked to its parent taxon. The classification used is a ‘compromise’ between established systems and recent changes. Its aim is to aid data management, rather than suggest any taxonomic or phylogenetic opinion on species relationships.

Keeping WoRMS up-to-date is a continuous process. New information is entered daily by the taxonomic editors and by our members of the data management team. Often data also come in from contributions of large datasets, such as global or regional species lists. No database of this size is without errors and omissions. We don’t promise to make no errors, but we do promise to follow up and give feedback on any communications pointing out errors. Feedback is very welcome!

WoRMS integrates:
Global species lists

World list of Porifera
World list of Proseriata and Kalyptorhynchia - Rhabditophora
World list of Mysids – Nemys
World list of Nematodes – Nemys
World list of Cumacea
World list of Brachiopoda
World list of Phoronida
World list of Pycnogonida
World list of Ophiuroidea
World list of Isopoda
World list of Copepoda
World list of Euphausiacea
World list of Nemertina
World list of Tanaidacea
World list of Marine Pisces
World list of Polychaeta
Unesco Register of Marine Organisms
To come: Amphipoda, Trematoda, Echiura, Chaetognatha

Regional species lists

European Register of Marine Species (ERMS)
Register of Antarctic Marine Species (RAMS)
North Atlantic Register for Marine Species (NARMS)
Taxonomic Information System for the Belgian Coastal Area (TISBE)
Marine Species Database for Eastern Africa (MASDEA)
North Sea Benthos Project (NSBP)
North Sea Benthos Survey (NSBS)

Board of Editors

The list of taxonomic experts can be found on editors.
Please contact us at info@marinespecies.org if you have any questions or want to contribute to this initiative.

Steering Committee

Mark J. Costello (co-chair)
University of Auckland, New Zealand
Edward Vanden Berghe (co-chair)
Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences; The State University of New Jersey, USA
Ward Appeltans (data manager)
Flanders Marine Institute, Belgium
Nicolas Bailly
WorldFish Center, Philippines
Philippe Bouchet
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, France
Charles Griffiths
Zoology Department; University of Cape Town, South Africa
Michael D. Guiry
Martin Ryan Institute; National University of Ireland, Ireland
Maria Lourdes (Deng) Palomares
SeaLifeBase, Canada
David (Paddy) J. Patterson
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, USA
Gary C.B. Poore
Museum Victoria, Australia
Sabine Stöhr
Swedish Museum of Natural History; Department of Invertebrate Zoology, Sweden
Tony Rees
Divisional Data Centre; CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia
Gary Rosenberg
Center for Systematic Biology and Evolution; Academy of Natural Sciences, USA
Dennis Gordon
Aquatic Biodiversity & Biosecurity National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, New Zealand

IT Developments

Bart Vanhoorne
Flanders Marine Institute, Belgium

WoRMS has a unique referencing system, so each record has a unique ID (called AphiaID). Existing records may be updated, but never overwritten with a complete new record. To retrieve these IDs you can match your species names (also higher ranks) with the Aphia database via the WoRMS Taxon match tool. WoRMS also has a webservice to dynamically link your systems to our database. WoRMS is back-upped every month and you may request a copy in compliance with the terms and conditions as outlined the request form (see below). If you are interested in the structure of the database, we created a view at WoRMS structure. The structure of the module to store voucher specimen data is available here (best viewed on Internet Explorer).

Download database

We see the web interface as the main means of access to information in the Aphia database. However, in some cases this web interface might be too limited, especially for those building off-line applications. If you want to get an electronic copy of the Aphia database, please fill in and send us the request form.

Download logo

You can download high-resolution images of our logo here (zip file).

Supporters

Citation

We encourage to cite the individual global or regional species lists that are often the source of the data, but you can also refer to us as follows:
WoRMS (2007). The World Register of Marine Species. Available online at http://www.marinespecies.org. Accessed on [date].

Disclaimer

The editorial board maintains this register, but is aware that it is not complete and undoubtedly contains errors. The board cannot be made responsible for any errors or misuse of data contained in this register. Comments from our users are more than welcome, so if you come across any error or incomplete information or you are willing to contribute to this initiative please contact us at info@marinespecies.org.