Species and distribution databases are incorporated in the Freshwater Biodiversity Data Portal/BioFresh data portal through a central species registry, which allows to check the validity of names and resolve synonyms. As a taxonomic backbone for this species registry, we rely primarily on the Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) database.
The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (fada.biodiversity.be) is an informal network of scientists specialized in freshwater biodiversity. One of the outcomes of the project is a database with authoritative species lists and their distribution at the level of faunistic regions.
Since the version of the data portal released on 19/12/2011, we include Catalogue of Life data on the species integrated in the taxonomic backbone of the portal. This will allow us to resolve synonyms for groups where synonym info is lacking in FADA and show additional information such as vernacular names. We acknowledge that this data has not been updated yet and are working on a mechanism to do so.
In the furure we also aim to link other data sources to our central species register, notably FaunaEuropaea and the Pan-European Species directories Infrastructure PESI.
Since the data portal update of 06/11/2012, the conservation status from the IUCN Red List is shown on the species results page where available. This information is retrieved through web services and links to the IUCN website for more information. In a next step we will also show any species distribution ranges available through IUCN on the occurrence results page.
