A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin

[Silurus]

Jézéquel, C, PA Tedesco, R Bigorne, et al., 2020. A database of freshwater fish species of the Amazon Basin. Scientific Data 7: 96.

Abstract

The Amazon Basin is an unquestionable biodiversity hotspot, containing the highest freshwater biodiversity on earth and facing off a recent increase in anthropogenic threats. The current knowledge on the spatial distribution of the freshwater fish species is greatly deficient in this basin, preventing a comprehensive understanding of this hyper-diverse ecosystem as a whole. Filling this gap was the priority of a transnational collaborative project, i.e. the AmazonFish project - https://www.amazon-fish.com/. Relying on the outputs of this project, we provide the most complete fish species distribution records covering the whole Amazon drainage. The database, including 2,406 validated freshwater native fish species, 232,936 georeferenced records, results from an extensive survey of species distribution including 590 different sources (e.g. published articles, grey literature, online biodiversity databases and scientific collections from museums and universities worldwide) and field expeditions conducted during the project. This database, delivered at both georeferenced localities (21,500 localities) and sub-drainages grains (144 units), represents a highly valuable source of information for further studies on freshwater fish biodiversity, biogeography and conservation.

[Jools]

Apologies if I have just plain missed it, but I had a good look around this project website and could not find a database to access. Did I miss it?

Jools

[bekateen]

Is this it?

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9923762 (look for links at top of page)

Cheers,
Eric

[Jools]

Yes, it is, thanks - I just plain missed it! On a quick first pass it looks like really good data in quite a messy state - I like the fact it has a "bad data" file for those weird or plain wrong lines you get when accumulating data as this scale. It also includes shapefile data which is a format I am familiar with but was also used in the IUCN data Silurus referenced recently. However, here I think there is a relational link between the flat data provided in CSV format and the maps. Between this and the IUCN data, it is maybe time I learn about shapefiles...

Jools