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- Regional OBIS Node
- AfrOBIS
The sub-Saharan Africa OBIS node (AfrOBIS) will collate marine biodiversity
information from many sub-Saharan African countries. Data will be
reformatted, loaded onto AfrOBIS and uploaded to the international OBIS
portal at Rutgers
- Host Organisation
- Southern African Data Centre for
Oceanography (SADCO)
SADCO is hosted by the CSIR, a South
African parastatal organisation delivering a wide range of scientific and
technological services to industry and government departments.The SADCO
stakeholders and sponsors are the CSIR,
the South African Department of
Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the South
African Navy, the South African National
Research Foundation and the Namibian
Ministry for Fisheries and Marine Resources. These organisations provide
SADCO with funding as well as advice and data, and as such contribute
directly to the success of the Data Centre.
- Partner Institutions
- Apart from the SADCO stakeholders mentioned above, the organisations
providing large data sets and advice to AfrOBIS are considered
"partners" or stakeholders in the AfrOBIS network. These partner
institutions include:
- University of Cape Town: Prof. Charles Griffiths of the Department of
Marine Biology will be providing advice and guidance on data types, data
sets and data providers on an on-going basis. He is a member of the SADCO
Steering Committee.
- The Iziko Museum, Cape Town: Invertebrate and fish data will be checked,
digitised, and uploaded to AfrOBIS.
- The South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Grahamstown, with an
extensive collection of marine fish data.
- The Natal Museum, providing data on marine molluscs.
- Funding Source:
- AfrOBIS is funded by a contract between the Rutgers University and the
South African CSIR. Indirect support is also provided via the SADCO sponsors
(see above).
- Datasets that will be included (Approximate 310 000 records in total):
- Invertebrates and Fish, iziko South African Museum
Fish, SA Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)
Marine molluscs, Natal Museum
Seaweeds, Bolus Herbarium
Fish (Pelagic and Demersal), Copepods, Seals from Department of Environmental
Affairs & Tourism: Marine and Coastal Management (MCM)
Marine biodiversity data from sub-Saharan African countries (not yet
identified)
- Datasets already included (3193343 records):
- INSTM (Tunisia): Trawl (7664)
iziko: Fish (15048), Marine Mammals (1184), Molluscs (6078), Sharks (14484)
MCM: Copepods (91705), Demersal (201741), Linefish (2759599), Seals (2440)
Natal Museum: Molluscs (27386) (Bivalves, Gastropoda)
SAIAB: Fish (56390)
UCT Bolus Herbarium: Algae (9665)
- Spatial Coverage:
- The target area extends roughly from 10? N to 70? S, and from 30? W to
70? East. This includes:
South-east Atlantic
Ocean
South-west Indian
Ocean
African sector of the
Southern Ocean
- Temporal Coverage:
- 1800's till present
- Taxonomic Coverage:
- All marine species: about 17500 species at present
- Services offered:
- SADCO maintains an inventory of surveys within its target area. Other data
and services are explained on its web site (sadco.csir.co.za)
AfrOBIS will upload marine biodiversity data to the main OBIS portal, as
well as provide a "local" portal for submission and servicing of
data requests.
SADCO publishes a quarterly newsletter, through which users are informed
about new data, software, etc.
- RON Manager:
- Dr Marten Grundlingh
E-mail: mgrundli@csir.co.za
- Technical Manager:
- Ursula von St Ange
E-mail: uvstange@csir.co.za
- Team Composition:
- Dr Marten Grundlingh (SADCO/CSIR)
Prof Charles Griffiths (University of Cape Town)
Ursula von St Ange (SADCO/CSIR)
SADCO Steering committee members
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