Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative & Biodiversity Infrastructure

• Published in: Biodiversity Information Science and Standards
• Main Authors: Skarp, Liselott, Päivikki Kallioniemi, Eveliina, Ertshus Mathisen, Ingrid
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2019
• Subjects: Taxonomy; biodiversity infrastructure; species information; Norway; sami
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.35735

Norwegian Biodiversity Information centre (NBIC) shares information about Norwegian species, habitats and ecosystems. One of the key tasks is to maintain an updated taxonomical and nomenclatural backbone "Norwegian Taxonomic backbone" (Artsnavnebase) for species. Launched in 2009, the backbone contains more than 185 000 scientific names, as well as 45 000 names in Norwegian (two languages) and Northern Sami. "Norwegian Taxonomic backbone" delivers names and taxonomic information to scientific institutions and museums across the country and is used for both management and research purposes as well as by general public. Additionally, the database has contributed more than 33500 names to the construction of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) taxonomy. Another major task is the Norwegian Taxonomy Initiative (NTI) which was established in 2009 with the goal of improving knowledge about Norwegian biodiversity with special emphasis on poorly known species. In addition, the surveys provide information about distributions of species in Norway and their habitat requirements. NTI collaborates with Norwegian Barcode of Life (NorBOL) and contributes into building up a comprehensive library of standardized DNA sequences (DNA barcodes) and supports research school in biosystematics (ForBio). Swedish and Norwegian taxonomy initiatives work cooperatively to increase the collective knowledge on poorly known species, and as a result, more than 3 000 species new to the country in both Sweden and Norway has been found, of which about a third being new to science. NBIC is in a process of developing and collating a trait database "Trait bank" (Egenskapsbank) for Norwegian species and habitats. Trait bank will describe and combine information about species traits on morphology, physiology and ecology etc. The aim is to also store information about Norwegian habitat types described based on Nature in Norway -system and establish the connections between habitats and species using them. Species trait data relevant for ...