Convention on biological diversity
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Lagenorhynchus australisGrampus griseus (North and Baltic Seas only) Tursiops truncatus (North and Baltic Seas, western Mediterranean and Black Sea only) Tursiops aduncus (Timor and Arafura Seas only) Stenella attenuata (eastern tropical Pacific and Southeast Asia only) Stenella longirostris (eastern tropical Pacific and Southeast Asia only) Stenella coeruleoalba (eastern tropical Pacific and western Mediterranean only) Lagenodelphis hosei (Southeast Asia only) Delphinus delphis (North and Baltic Seas, western Mediterranean, Black Sea, and eastern tropical Pacific only) Orcaella brevirostris Cephalorhynchus commersonii (South America only) Cephalorhynchus eutropia Cephalorhynchus heavisidii Orcinus orca (North and Baltic Seas only) Globicephala melas (North and Baltic Seas only) Ziphiidae Berardius bairdii Hyperoodon ampullatus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1Formerly listed as Platanista gangetica THE GLOBAL REGISTER OF MIGRATORY SPECIES (GROMS) OverviewDepending on the taxonomic group, the knowledge about animal migration is heterogeneous and often insufficient. Migrations of most bird species are comparatively well known, while for mammals, fishes and insects, sufficient information is only available for economically important species. Most of this information is only available in printed format, and -if digitised at all - in different formats. The aim of GROMS is to summarise our knowledge on migratory species in digital format within a database in combination with a geographical information system (GIS). Thereby, GROMS will reveal deficiencies of information and support the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals and the Convention on Biological Diversity. It will be available on CD-ROM and on the WWW in the near future. GROMS is co-operating with the Zoological Museum at Bonn, Germany, and is supported by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with funds from the German Federal Environment Ministry. The GROMS liases with or even uses data extracts from several other bioinformatics initiatives, such as the CHM, GBIF, Species 2000 (in particular "Fishbase"), IUCN/SSC (2000 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species), UNEP-WCMC, BCIS, Wetlands International and the AMD (African Mammal Database). However, the idiosyncrasies of migratory species made it necessary to design a completely new information system from the ground up. For representing movements of migratory species in space and time maps are important tools. GROMS contains GIS maps for 545 species, which can be exported into any other GIS, covering further aspects relevant to conservation (e.g., land use). In addition, important aggregation areas have been linked with species lists. Where possible, geo-information has been provided with a time-code, to reflect the tremendous seasonal variation of migrants within certain areas. Time-codes and meta-information about maps are administered within the database. The database provides basic information for 2880 migratory vertebrate species. It contains scientific names with authority and synonyms, common names (English, French, German, and Spanish), threat status according to the international Red List, and protection status as by listing through CMS with its agreements, and CITES appendices. The GROMS data model differentiates between "populations" of species, which are either defined taxonomically (subspecies) or geographically. This is necessary because of considerable differences in migration behaviour within a single species. All information is fully referenced by a literature module with more than 2000 entries, including a considerable number of full-text digital documents. Additional features include references to web sites and projects, addresses of organisations and experts, and species lists for countries or specific sites. A JAVA-based interface connects the GIS maps with the database and allows searching for species within an area, or generation of species reports. Simple dropdown-menus for information retrieval are specially adapted to the needs of conservationists and policy makers. This completely new Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been designed for an inexpensive, user-friendly visualisation of interactive maps on the World-wide Web. The open-source software can easily be modified, and complies with the Open-GIS standard. The Geography Department of Bonn University developed GROMS; a pilot version can be tested under http://www.groms.de. ResultsThough the first phase of the GROMS project had to concentrate on the development and functionality of the Geo-database, thus far several preliminary results have emerged.
Considerable knowledge gaps with respect to migratory behaviour were discovered for bats, Asian antelopes, small whales, tropical migratory fishes and insects.
A surprisingly high number of 880 migratory fish species was identified in co-operation with Fishbase (www.fishbase.org). A total of 86 migratory fish species are red-listed, and the expansion of the CMS Appendices to include these is proposed. This list will probably increase after the evaluation of the scattered literature on fish migrations within tropical river systems. However, it is already evident that there are considerable knowledge gaps with respect to tropical fish migrations, and severe threats to all freshwater migrants must be expected from the high number of river dam projects in tropical and subtropical rivers.
To guarantee the future compatibility of GROMS with the biodiversity initiatives mentioned above harmonised terminologies were needed. In particular for birds, major nomenclature differences between different species lists in use complicate co-operation between different database projects, as they require management of parallel taxonomies. To ensure future compatibility of digital data sets it is very important to agree on generally accepted taxonomic authority files.
Huge species data sets exist, but digital access and analysis is difficult. Examples are bird and bat ringing data, or museum specimens, which could provide high-quality point data to improve maps. Bird lists for certain sites such as wetlands or Important Bird Areas (IBAs) are maintained by various agencies. This wealth of information could be integrated easily within a common GIS database. Satellite tracking data are published in many formats, but there is no custody for organised storage of these valuable data sets. Data holders should rapidly agree on common protocols if they are disposed to share their data, and digital data publication should be a pre-requisite for public funding (with the exception of sensitive data).
In spite of the great potential, GIS analysis of species ranges is still in its infancy. Most distribution maps are still published in analogue format, thereby wasting chances of future analysis. Among the few examples for major GIS data sets are African mammals (AMD: http://www.gisbau.uniroma1.it/amd/homepage.html), arctic birds and turtles by WCMC (http://www.wcmc.org.uk/). These data were integrated into the GROMS without difficulties. For all other species, maps on a global scale were geo-referenced by GROMS. They allow a variety of analyses when intersected with other GIS data sets. For example, an intersection with political borders produced species lists for each country or even province, which can be queried by the database. This facilitates maintenance of range state lists, and allows comparison of different data sources. In case of contradictory results, clear research questions can be asked. There are numerous additional applications for biodiversity maps in GIS-format, among them:
One interesting result of a calculation of migratory birds and mammals for each administrative unit revealed a high species number in temperate regions (see map, figure 1). This simple analysis, based on available information, suggests that a great deal of responsibility for conserving migratory species lies with the range of industrialised and transition economy countries. One major implication of this analysis is that the present concentration of biodiversity conservation plans within tropical “hotspot areas“ will be completely insufficient to conserve most intercontinental migrants. Many migratory species cover huge ranges, but sometimes concentrate temporarily within certain areas. This is a challenge for conservation policy, as it has to combine local approaches (e.g., protection of aggregation sites) with landscape approaches, protecting whole areas including different ecosystems, including vast areas of agroscapes. Many migrants have adapted successfully to extensively or sustainably managed agro-ecosystems, but suffer tremendously from agriculture intensification and industrialisation. Sometimes, even slight changes in management practice can have detrimental effects on migrants (e.g., change of shadow coffee/cacao practices to more intense, "pure" plantations). The results outlined above are now published as an extensive report. The database will be available on CD-ROM and via the World-wide Web (www.groms.de). Beta-versions are available on request from the author (k.riede.zfmk@uni-bonn.de). 
Figure 1: Number of migratory bird and mammal species per administrative unit (provinces). This map was produced by intersecting GIS range maps of 530 species with political boundaries. ENDANGERED FLAMINGOS OF THE NEO-TROPICS: AN INTEGRATED PROJECT TO SAVE AND MAINTAIN THE SPECIES AND THEIR HIGH ANDES WETLAND ECOSYSTEM |