Biological Resources

The CSIRO NCMI Information and Data Centre hosts numerous biological datasets. Our main sources of biological data are the surveys performed by the CSIRO Marine National Facility (RV Franklin, RV Southern Surveyor, RV Investigator). We also maintain datasets that were entrusted to us by other institutions (e.g., Bureau of Rural Sciences, Soviet Fisheries, and Western Australian Museum).

In addition, we actively participate in major national and international projects aiming at ensuring a smooth flow of biological data for research purposes. Among other activities in this area we maintain the “Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota” database (CAAB) and the Australian node (OBIS Australia, OBISAU) for the International Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS).

Resources –

• CAAB – Codes for Australian Aquatic Biota – master taxonomic database for Australian marine species. Contains over 44,000 records with links to catch data, images and expert distributions for fish
• Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera (IRMNG) – searchable database of over 440,000 records of genera developed at the Data Centre and now in production and managed by Flanders Marine Institute.
• IDC Biodiversity Informatics – pdf with additional details
• OBIS Australia node – serving the international community with Australian datasets of marine biogeographic information

External –

• OBIS – Ocean Biodiversity Information System – Data Centre staff have an ongoing association with this project since 1999 and are the managers of the the Australian node of OBIS.
• Atlas of Living Australia – CSIRO O&A and Data Centre collaborative activities commencing July 2010. In particular the production of Australian National Fish Expert Distributions maps covering fish and shark taxa.
• GBIF – Global Biodiversity Facility – all marine species occurrence data is published to GBIF