Published March 5, 2026
| Version v1
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The Italian Taxonomic Backbone: exploiting taxonomic expertise in the country
Authors/Creators
- 1. Centro Interuniversitario per le Biodiversità Vegetale Big Data—PLANT DATA, Department of Biological, Geo-logical and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University, Bologna, Italy|University of Trieste, Department of Life Sciences, Trieste, Italy
- 2. Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET), National Research Council of Italy (CNR), c/o Università del Salento, Lecce, Italy|LifeWatch Italy, Lecce, Italy
- 3. Department of Earth and Marine Science (DiSTeM), University of Palermo, Via Archirafi, 22, Palermo, Italy|LifeWatch Italy, Lecce, Italy
- 4. Centro Interuniversitario per le Biodiversità Vegetale Big Data—PLANT DATA, Department of Biological, Geo-logical and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University, Bologna, Italy|BIOME Lab, Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- 5. Department of Biology and Biotechnologies Charles Darwin Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy|Comitato Scientifico per la Fauna d'Italia, c/o Department of Biology and Biotechnologies Charles Darwin Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Description
The role of checklists ranges from documenting biodiversity in an area to supporting conservation and decision-making and stimulating further investigation. Italy has (at least partly) updated checklists for animals, vascular plants, mosses and liverworts and lichens. Thanks to the Joint Research Unit of LifeWatch Italy, several checklists are integrated into an information system aiming at a national taxonomic backbone. The system aims at integrating and standardising the data and providing a unique access point to authoritative checklists curated by Italian taxonomists. The platform has been developed customising DSpace software, which is connected to a database that manages multiple taxonomic data sources. While information for vascular plants and lichens are retrieved via REST API calls in a JSON format and structured and harmonised according to Darwin Core data schema, data on fauna are integrated into the relational database through a Darwin core-structured dataset. The checklists are updated at regular intervals thanks to the contribution from the scientific community. The Italian taxonomic backbone counts about 86000 records and its continuity and sustainability is provided by Italy's long-term commitment to the LifeWatch ERIC. Its reliability, on the other hand, stems largely from the involvement of numerous expert taxonomists in creating and updating the checklist data. This manuscript aims at describing the Italian taxonomic backbone and the role of the scientific community which contributed to its development.
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References
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