Name of the RON: IndOBIS

Website: http://www.indobis.org/

Host Organizations:

National Chemical Laboratory, Pune (http://www.ncl-india.org/) and National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India (http://www.nio.org/)

Partner Institutions:

National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India (http://www.ncl-india.org/)

NCL, India is a research, development and consulting organisation with a focus on chemistry and chemical engineering. It has a successful record of research partnership with industry. It has a program on biodiversity informatics. Its mission is “to develop tools and standards, and to help improve infrastructure and capacity building to accelerate national progress in collection, collation, analysis, prediction and dissemination of knowledge about Indian biotic resources and its environ to make their sustainable use”. (http://www.ncbi.org.in/)

National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, India (http://www,nio.org/)

The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) is one of the constituent laboratories of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). It was established on 1 January 1966 following the International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE) in 1960s.  NIO has grown today into a large oceanographic laboratory with focus on oceanography of the waters around India.

Funding Source:

National Chemical Laboratory; National Institute of Oceanography; and Sloan Foundation via OBIS project office.

Mission and Objectives:

IndOBIS will contribute to the understanding of the past and the present, in order to learn about the future of life in the Indian Ocean. IndOBIS will become a prime provider of biodiversity information on the Indian Ocean, and make this information available in a multidimensional geographic context; promote communication and awareness to user groups at all levels, using the appropriate information tools; and enable informed decision making process leading to sustainable use of natural resources.

Datasets included:

IndOBIS is a work in progress. IndOBIS would aim to develop and deliver catalogue of life that existed and exists within Indian Ocean region covering all eight Kingdoms viz. Animalia, Plantae, Protista, Chromista, Arachea, Bacteria and Viruses.

Spatial Coverage:

Latitude – 60 S to 25 N

Longitude – 20 E to 110 E

Seas, Gulf, and Channels covered: Gulf of Aden, Bab el Mandeb, Golfe de Tadjoura, Mozambique Channel, Kardiva Channel, Valmandu Channel, One and Half Degree Channel, Strait of Mallaca, South China Sea (East Mal), Richards Bay, Algoa Bay, St. Francis Bay, Sodwana Bay, Coffee Bay, Plettenberg Bay, Mossel Bay, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Bahrain, Gulf of Oman

Arabian Sea, Kuwait Bay, Palk Strait, Palk Bay, Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Martaban, Research Strait, Hunters Bay, Combermere Bay, Cheduba Strait, Andrew Bay, Gwa Bay, Danson Bay, Ngayok Bay, Forest Bay, Investigator Channel, Whale Bay, Auckland Bay

Loughborough Passage, Sundra Strait, Java Sea, Timor Sea, Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba, Gulf of Suez, Gulf of Kachchh, Gulf of Cambay, Lakshdweep Sea, Bay of Bangal, Andaman Sea

Temporal Coverage:

Early 1970 – till date (in first instance)

Taxonomic Coverage:

IndOBIS would aim to develop and deliver catalogue of life that existed and exists within Indian Ocean region covering all eight Kingdoms viz. Animalia, Plantae, Protista, Chromista, Arachea, Bacteria and Viruses.

Services offered:

DIOT – Database of Indian Ocean Taxonomists (http://www.indobis.org/)

IndOBIS CoL – IndOBIS Catalogue of Life (in development)

RON Manager:

Dr. Baba Ingole

E-mail: baban@nio.org

Technical Manager(s):

Mangesh Deshpande (mr.deshpande@ncl.res.in) and Siddharth Paralikar (sn.paralikar@ncl.res.in)

Team Composition:

Vishwas Chavan (Principal Investigator), C. T. Achuthankutty (Co Principal Investigator), S. Krishnan, M. P. Tapaswi, MVM Wafar, Baban Ingole, Devanand Kavlekar, Mangesh Deshpande, Siddharth Paralikar and Sujyot Talaulicar.