Online taxonomic information at the Belgian GBIF Node
Piette, D., Mergen, P., Duflost, J., Wautelet, F. and Herzog, R., Belgian Biodiversity Information Facility (BeBIF), ULB CP 257, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium (http://www.be.gbif.net)In the framework of the development of a Biodiversity Information Infrastructure at Belgian level, an online system has been set up to present taxonomical information including the phylogenic tree, scientific synonyms and common names. The designed schema has been applied on several databases provided by different sources and concerning different taxa ranging from microorganisms to higher vertebrates or plants. The original databases systems, the taxonomical ranks associated to the species and the nomenclature code applied were very different. The data are stored, shown and searchable in an unified environment, using a combination of XML, PostgreSQL and JAVA technologies. The talk will be an explanation of the technologies used, of the designed draft data structure and an online demonstration.