The journal Plant Ecology and Evolution has recently published a paper on the ‘Mangrove Reference Database and Herbarium’, which is an integral part of the World Register of Marine Species, hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute.

The database aims to give a current and historic overview of the global, regional and particularly the local distribution of true mangrove species and displays a fact sheet for each mangrove plant species. The database also provides images and details of herbarium reference specimens and will provide an automated determination key to identify mangroves world-wide.

The database is online at www.vliz.be/vmdcdata/mangroves.

The project is led by Prof. Dr Farid Dahdouh-Guebas (Université Libre de Bruxelles-ULB) and is a joined collaboration between the ULB, the Free University of Brussels, the Belgian Biodiversity Platform and the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. The Flanders Marine Institute has a cooperation agreement with the ULB to provide data management support for this mangrove species project.

A copy of the paper can be downloaded from the Open Marine Archive, see link below.

Link: http://www.vliz.be/imis/imis.php?module=ref&refid=198365