U.S. Federal Government Taxonomy Standard RFC

Tue Aug 25 13:20:47 CDT 1998

U.S. Taxacom Readers:

The U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee is soliciting public comment on
the taxonomy standard proposed below.  The standard is an outgrowth of the
ITIS project (referenced below) and is intended to be the basis (i.e. the
database) of scientific names used by U.S. federal agencies.  The ITIS
project grew out of a need to coordinate and reconcile many different U.S.
government species databases which were using different coding and
classification schemes.  This standard and ITIS are not intended to be the
definitive, single classification of U.S. organisms, but rather the
reference classification and nomenclature for federal agency use.  ITIS and
this FGDC effort have repeatedly offered collaboration and engagement to
the U.S. taxonomic research community, but for ITIS and this standard to be
fully relevant to taxonomic researchers, new informatics and data content
collaborations with scientists will be necessary---and they are being
encouraged by the U.S. federal agencies involved.  Your response to this
proposal would be a helpful step in that direction.  Please direct you
comments to the response address given below, with copies to Taxacom if you
care to share your thoughts with the list.

The material below comes from:
http://www.fgdc.gov/Standards/Status/sub5_8.html

-- Jim Beach

           BIOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE and TAXONOMY DATA STANDARD

The US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is soliciting public
comments on the proposal to develop a "Biological Nomenclature and Taxonomy
Data Standard."  If the proposal is approved, the standard will be
developed following the FGDC standards development and approval process.

PROPOSAL SUMMARY:

OBJECTIVES:  To provide a standardized, comprehensive, and consistent
reference of scientific names (nomenclature) and associated classification
(taxonomy) for
biological species.  This comprehensive standard will thus support the
coordination, discovery, comparison, exchange, organization and integration
of biological data among different government and non-government agencies,
organizations, and individuals.

SCOPE:  This standard will focus on providing a standardized and consistent
reference for
scientific names (including scientific synonyms and common names) and
taxonomy for plant,
animal, fungal, moneran and protist species.  The standard should be used
to support the
discovery, comparison, exchange, organization and integration of any
biological data (or related information product) that includes scientific
names of species (or higher taxonomic groups) as part of its data structure.

Comments may be submitted via Internet mail or by submitting an electronic
copy on diskette.

Send comments via Internet to: gdc-taxpro at www.fgdc.gov.

Comments e-mailed as attachments must be in ASCII format.

A soft copy version may be submitted on a 3.5 x 3.5 diskette in WordPerfect
5.0 or 6.0/6.1 format, along with one hardcopy version of the comments, to
the FGDC Secretariat (attn: Jennifer Fox) at U.S. Geological  Survey, 590
National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston, Virginia, 20192.
Comments must be received on or before October 15, 1998.

Download the standard
http://www.fgdc.gov/Standards/Documents/Proposals/taxpro.html

(Attached immediately below)

-----------------------------------
Project Title: Development of a Biological Nomenclature and Taxonomy Data
Standard

Date of Proposal: June 3, 1998

Submitting Organization: FGDC Biological Data Working Group

Point of Contact: Barbara Lamborne, Environmental Protection Agency,
Washington, D.C. (202) 260-3643 lamborne.barbara at epa.gov

Objectives: The objectives are to provide a standardized, comprehensive,
and consistent reference of scientific names (nomenclature) and associated
classification (taxonomy) for biological species. This comprehensive
standard will thus support the coordination, discovery, comparison,
exchange, organization and integration of biological data among different
government and non-government agencies, organizations, and individuals. The
standard will be based on the cooperative activities of many groups
(including several federal agencies) that are maintaining active programs
in developing standardized credible nomenclatures and taxonomies for
specific biological groups of interest to meet their respective missions.
This data standard will also link to and support the implementation of the
existing FGDC Vegetation Classification Standard, FGDC Wetlands
Classification Standard, and the proposed Biological Profile of the FGDC
Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata, as well other
biologically oriented standards, by serving as the accepted standard
reference for biological nomenclature and taxonomy for these standards.

Scope: This standard will focus on providing a standardized and consistent
reference for scientific names (including scientific synonyms and common
names) and taxonomy for plant, animal, fungal, moneran and protist species.
The standard should be used to support the discovery, comparison, exchange,
organization and integration of any biological data (or related information
product) that includes scientific names of species (or higher taxonomic
groups) as part of its data structure.

Justification/Benefits: Most biological data sets include some data on the
scientific names (nomenclature) and/or common (vernacular) names and
associated classification (taxonomy) of the species and/or higher taxonomic
groups (genera, families, etc.) which are the focus of the data set. Due to
the long scientific history and inherent complexity of the science of
systematics, many species have been assigned two or more different
scientific names and associated classifications by different specialists.
The application of common names to organisms is even less consistent and
thus more complex. This relatively common situation obviously makes it
difficult to locate, compare, share, exchange, and integrate biological
data among different agencies and organizations in an accurate and
efficient manner. Therefore, a key element in fostering development of a
distributed federation of biological data and information through the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (and the complementary National
Biological Information Infrastructure) is the availability of a
comprehensive, standardized reference for biological nomenclature and
taxonomy that can be used by anyone interested in locating, comparing,
exchanging, and integrating two or more biological data sets. This proposed
standard will provide a consistent reference of the "accepted" scientific
names for biological species, together with synonyms and common names.
Users will thus be able to rely upon this standard reference to determine
the accepted scientific name which then can be used to compare, relate,
exchange and/or integrate biological data that may use different scientific
or common names for the same species.

The proposed standard will also serve as the source of scientific
nomenclature and taxonomy for the existing FGDC Vegetation Classification
Standard, FGDC Wetlands Classification Standard, and for the proposed
Biological Profile of the FGDC geospatial metadata content standard. It
will thus support the further implementation of these FGDC standards efforts.

Development Approach: Currently, six Federal agencies (Environmental
Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Agricultural Research Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, the
United States Geological Survey, and the Smithsonian Institution National
Museum of Natural History) are participating in the development and
operation of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), a
WWW-accessible database of scientific names and taxonomy for biota
(http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis).

ITIS relies on the continuance of independently-funded, scientific
activities of various agencies, organizations, and institutions to
contribute reliable data that are compliant with ITIS standards. Through
this federation of scientific entities agreeing to work together through
common standards, the creation and maintenance of a standardized,
comprehensive taxonomic reference for the Nation is possible. It is
inherent in the adoption of ITIS as the biological nomenclatural and
taxonomic standard that the FGDC and its members recognize the data
contributors to ITIS, particularly supporting U.S. Federal projects such as
the PLANTS database of USDA, which has previously been recognized as an
FGDC standard.

ITIS was endorsed as a national-level standard in the National Performance
Review/Government Information Technology Services Board recent report
"Access America - Reengineering Through Information Technology". The report
recommends "Implementing the national-level standards that are needed to
support greater sharing and use of biological information" and broadening
the ITIS community of partners.

The FGDC Biological Data Working Group will work with an interagency
project team representing the ITIS Federal partner agencies to develop a
draft FGDC data standard, based on the consideration of the existing ITIS
system as the possible "foundation" for this standard. The draft standard
then will be submitted by the Biological Data Working Group to the FGDC
Standards Working Group for review and approval prior to being distributed
for full public review.

Development and Completion Schedule: The Biological Data Working Group will
ask the ITIS Federal agency partners to form an ad hoc standards project
team to begin development of the draft data standard as soon as the initial
public review of the standards proposal is completed. It is expected that
development of a draft data standard will take the standards project team
approximately 3 full months, with another 2 months for the FGDC Biological
Data Working Group to review and revise the work of the standards project
team as needed. The Biological Data Working Group will then submit the
draft standard to the Standards Working Group for review and approval
before release of the standard for the requisite 90-day public review
period. Following public review, the standards project team will evaluate
and summarize all comments received, make the necessary revisions to the
standard, and prepare the final draft for submission to the Standards
Working Group, via the Biological Data Working Group. It is expected that
the standard could be completed and approved by the FGDC Steering Committee
within approximately 10-12 months from the time the Standards Working Group
approves this standards proposal.

Resources Required: The members of the FGDC Biological Data Working Group,
working with the standards project team comprised of representatives of the
ITIS Federal agency partners, have adequate resources (primarily staff
time) available to support development of the standard. If there is
interest on the part of NSGIC and/or the National Association of Counties
(or other FGDC collaborating groups or organizations) in attending and
participating in meetings of the FGDC Biological Data Working Group focused
on development of the proposed data standard, it is possible that FGDC
funds may be needed to help defray travel costs for these non-Federal
participants.

Potential Participants: The FGDC Biological Data Working Group includes
representatives of eight different Federal agencies, plus The Nature
Conservancy. The ITIS partnership includes six different U.S. Federal
agencies, plus biological scientists from other government agencies,
natural history museums, universities, and international organizations.
ITIS has recently expanded its partnership to include the Canadian
government This diverse group of existing participants will be enhanced
during the standards development process by an aggressive "outreach"
campaign to enlist the participation and input of other agencies,
organizations, and individuals with expertise, responsibilities, and/or
interests in the area of biological nomenclature and taxonomy and
biological data exchange.

Related Standards: The proposed standard relates directly to and will
support full implementation of the FGDC Vegetation Classification Standard
and the proposed Biological Profile of the FGDC metadata content standard.
It also relates to the FGDC Wetlands Classification Standard.

Other Targeted Authorization Bodies: This proposed standard is not
currently targeted for consideration by any other authorizing bodies.
Because of its direct linkage to the FGDC Vegetation Classification
Standard and FGDC metadata content standard (through the proposed
Biological Profile), it is anticipated that this proposed standard (once
approved by the FGDC) potentially could be "linked" with either or both of
these FGDC standards in any subsequent review and authorization of these
standards by ANSI, ISO, or other group.

____________________________________________________

James H. Beach
Assistant Director for Informatics
Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center
Dyche Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045
E-mail: jbeach at eagle.cc.ukans.edu
Tel: (785) 864-4645, Fax (785) 864-5335