The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) as a scientific resource and outreach medium applied to the lichen family Parmeliaceae (Ascomycota: Lecanorales)

Abstract

A brief discussion of the Encyclopedia of Life and the LifeDesks websites as a means to assemble and publish species pages and taxonomic information on the internet, for both the scientific community and the public, is provided. The lichen family Parmeliaceae is the first large group of lichenized fungi for which a concerted effort is currently being undertaken to produce substantial content for the EOL.

Third world list of cetrarioid lichens: A databased tool for documentation of nomenclatural data—lessons learned

“…Nowadays numerous checklists of both types are replaced by digital databases (e.g., Nimis & Martellos, 2008;Søchting & Alstrup, 2008;Diederich & al., 2012) which have several advantages compared with the traditional, printed checklists. Among the advantages of electronic media are speed of publication and distribution, flexibility in format and display, low cost and broad accessibility (Lücking & al., 2011). Digital checklists, based on databases, allow the users to perform different operations, including search and sorting.…”

“…(5) The fifth of the scanned databases, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), attempts to centralize information on the biodiversity and to provide means of quality control, in order to present the compiled information in a concise form which appeals to a wide audience. Thus EOL has the ambitious goal to serve both the scientific community and the public (Lücking & al., 2011). When complete, EOL is supposed to provide trusted comprehensive information for every named species on Earth.…”

“…As one outcome of the first meeting, it was agreed to produce sample species pages for each accepted genus within Parmeliaceae, to be imported into the EOL. Once these sample pages have been created, groups of specialists will assume responsibility to add further species pages to all genera, to gradually extend and complete the dataset (Lücking & al., 2011). In this way, the system of EOL species pages will also serve for a worldwide checklist of the whole family in the future.…”