Name of RON and Description

AR OBIS – Argentinean RON. Database which interoperates with OBIS and centralizes the information about the distribution of vertebrates from the coastal areas of Argentina and the continental shelf of the South-western Atlantic Ocean called the Patagonian Large Marine Ecosystem (PLME). It also integrates data about the distribution of resident vertebrates which emigrate to the Southern Ocean and the Pacific.

Web Page

http://arobis.cenpat.gov.ar/

Host Institution

Centro Nacional Patagónico. The regional server is located in the Computing Centralized Service of Centro Nacional Patagónico (CENPAT), a regional scientific institution of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) which depends on the Argentinean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The regional centre is located in Puerto Madryn, Chubut province, Argentina. It consists of five areas of research; two of them are directly related to marine sciences. It has taxonomic collections and data bases on marine species. The Ecology and Management of Marine Resources division and the Oceanography and Meteorology division, geographically cover all the South-west Atlantic. A constant updated flow of information to the databases is provided by consolidated and active groups of researchers.

Associated Institutions

Sea and Sky Project. It is carried out by CONICET and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). It aims at the sustainable conservation of the Patagonian sea. The project has organised a database formed by a series of different data about oceanography, biodiversity, legal issues and uses of the ecosystem. The distribution of many species of predators and charismatic species, mainly penguins, albatrosses, petrels and pinnipeds are known by satellite tracking. This information was generously sent by researchers from many countries. Most of them have been in contact and updated the data. Share with AROBIS the initiative of keeping an active net of researchers who contribute with data about biodiversity in the Patagonian Sea.

Forum for the conservation of the Patagonian Sea and its Areas of Influence. It is a coalition of Non Governmental Organizations which started in 2004 in New York. It aims at integrating the efforts of those organizations which have gathered plenty of data related to marine biodiversity of the Patagonian Sea. Among other tasks, the working groups suggest to include the existent data in a centralized database, to identify priorities and to consider the nature of the tasks relevant to the biodiversity control.

Administration

Fundación Playa Unión: It is an institution founded in January, 1997 which has the general objectives to support the activities carried out by the Playa Unión Photobiology Station, to offer administrative help and to make known the cultural, scientific and educational activities of the region.

Funding

Fundación Alfred P. Sloan through OBIS Secretariat.

Objectives

To contribute to a better knowledge of the Patagonian marine ecosystem through an accessible tool in the Web that facilitates the ocean observation and the analysis of distribution patterns of the species in it.

To increase the academic impact generated by regional projects by sending information to globalized databases.

Spatial Coverage

Southwest Atlantic, Argentinean continental shelf and South Pacific.

Temporal coverage

It includes collections of data from oceanographic field trips and the results of research programmes that have been developed for the last 20 years.

Taxonomic collections of fishes, cetaceans and invertebrates since 1960 to the present time.

Taxonomic coverage

Marine vertebrates (birds, mammals and fishes).

New data on invertebrates has been included due to the interest of the scientific community in advertising the knowledge on the regional biodiversity. This has expanded the coverage of new taxons.

Offered Services

Biological data with spatial-temporal distribution. It is regional presented as a functional precursor for database and maps utilitarian tools to build on a standardized model that can be enlarged and validated at a regional scale.

Coordinator

Mirtha Lewis lewis@cenpat.edu.ar

Data Administrator

Francisco Paez paez@cenpat.edu.ar

Work Team

Technical Manager: Lic. Renato Mazantti renato@cenpat.edu.ar

Maria Rosa Marín marin@cenpat.edu.ar