17: Ocean Databases
- Page ID
- 164675
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Ocean Databases and Marine Data Research
Ocean science is extremely broad and literally covers the whole Earth. The amount of information and data science that has been collected over the centuries is overwhelming and often spread out and isolated in various labs, notebooks, and computers. How do we access all this data? Online biological databases to the rescue! They bring amazing amounts of information easily available to anyone with a computer. Many groups of marine animals have their own database, which are added to by scientists around the globe. FishBase was one of the first, but now there are many more, such as:
World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS)
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
The World Ocean Database (WOD)
NASA's Earthdata Ocean
and many more…including some databases which will tie into all the others, for example:
The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) has over 161 million records of marine life.
Your job will be to explore, have fun, and learn not only about a few species of animals, but about biological databases too.
For this lab, you will research 3 species of fishes. You’ll use FishBase to find out some reliable and scientifically correct information on their lifestyle, habits, etc. Then you’ll use OBIS to search out where these species are found in the world (or at least what has been put into the database so far).
- Go to Fishbase and look up the information available for three different fishes. If it is very rare, there might not be a lot put into the database yet, so try to use more common species. If you can’t think of any species to look up, you can try looking up some of the common species of fish on the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s website, or even use the Seafood Watch list (http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp).
- Now, go to Ocean Biogeographic Information System (www.iobis.org) and look up the same three species using their scientific names and find out where they have been reported worldwide. Sometimes you will need to close the search box to see the map behind it. Realize that this will only give you info from studies that have been put into the database so far, most are still not there since it is a big job!
- Once you have found and read about your three species, you will need to summarize, in your own words, the most interesting facts about each that you read, such as:
- In what habitat is it found?
- At what depths does it live?
- What does it eat?
- What are its main predators?
- What are two interesting adaptations that allow it to be so successful?
- Are there any ways in which humans are harming their population?
- Include at least two images of each fish (drawings or photographs).
You can present this as a document or a short slideshow.
Due at the beginning of the next lab.
Lab thumbnail image: “Collecting Multibeam Sonar Data” by NOAA's National Ocean Service, CC BY 2.0
Image at top of page: “OAWRSfinal1” by Census of Marine Life E&O, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0