EchinoMAP: Atlas of African Echinoderma
This data-set comprises validated species occurrence records of the Echinoderms (starfish, sea-urchins, brittle-stars and their kin) occurring in the seas and coasts of the African continent. It is a collection of data from citizen science contributions, museum collections, and published literature records. Records range from 1938 to present.
EchinoMAP is a Virtual Museum and citizen science project which aims to determine the distribution and conservation priorities of Echinoderms on the African continent. It aims to serve as a repository of all existing distribution data for this group in the African continent.
Echinoderms (starfish, sea-urchins, brittle-stars and their kin) are conspicuous and attractive marine animals, frequently photographed by divers. Although many can be identified from photographs, no comprehensive guide to South African species exists, making it difficult to accurately identify images. The fauna is also poorly know, making it very likely that divers will encounter species new to the region, or even to science. This site aims to collate all available images of echinoderms from South Africa, thus building up a comprehensive identification guide, as well as mapping the ranges of each species. Images of all South African echinoderms are welcomed and all contribute equally towards a better understanding of the distribution patterns of these fascinating creatures.
Identification of citizen science records, based on the photos uploaded, is done by a panel of experts in the relevant taxa. The taxonomy is kept up-to-date by the project coordinator.
The complete data-set is available to the public. Records are provided at the recorded precision, usually point coordinates. However, historical records were assigned to a 15x15 minute grid (or QDS) based on the locality description when no coordinates were provided. The coverage is moderate for the South African coast, but very sparse for the rest of Africa.
Simple
- Date (Creation)
- 2018-08-28
- Edition
-
1.0
- Citation identifier
- http://metadata.sanbi.org/geonetwork/srv/metadata/cdb35cf3-2c54-45b0-a7fd-a9dbd437dfa7
- Purpose
-
The information consolidated within the project will build up a comprehensive identification guide, as well as mapping the ranges of each species.
- Status
- On going
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
- Keywords
-
- Theme
-
-
African Echinoderms picture archive
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Distribution maps
-
Coastal and Marine
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Animalia: Echinodermata
-
- Access constraints
- Copyright
- Use constraints
- Copyright
- Spatial representation type
- Vector
- Denominator
- 50000
- Language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Topic category
-
- Environment
- Begin date
- 2012-04-10
))
- Reference system identifier
- WGS 1984
Distributor
- OnLine resource
-
A list of services published are available at this URL.
(
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
)
Virtual Museum System
- OnLine resource
-
VMUS_to_DwC_20181005.xlsx
(
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
)
Virtual Museum field description and Darwin Core mapping
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Statement
-
The project was initiated in October 2012 by Professor Charles L. Griffiths at the Department of Biological Science, University of Cape Town.
EchinoMAP data sources and number of records in brackets: (as of 2019-07-18):
ADU-UCT (Virtual Museum) (2,073).
All records are shareable.
- File identifier
- cdb35cf3-2c54-45b0-a7fd-a9dbd437dfa7 XML
- Metadata language
- English
- Character set
- UTF8
- Date stamp
- 2019-07-18T09:31:17
- Metadata standard name
-
SANS 1878
- Metadata standard version
-
FGDC-STD-001-1998
Overviews
Spatial extent
))
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