Image collection in the Coral Reef Network WEB System: A snapshot of the fauna and flora around the coral reefs of the Ryukyu Islands from 2002 to 2013

The Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) collected pictures of marine organisms around the coral reefs in the Ryukyu Islands from citizen divers during 2002 to 2013. GODAC also collected videos through GODAC’s research activities using a small remotely-operated vehicle “Niraikanai 150”. These image collection of the pictures and videos had been published on the website of Coral Reef Network WEB System (http://www.godac.jp/coral/). The image collection can become a valuable snapshot to know a past fauna or flora in the Ryukyu Island. We generated biological occurrence records from the image collection and their metadata including locality information and vernacular name of the organisms. Latitude and longitude in a biological occurrence record was determined using locality information from the image metadata and gazetteers (Marine Regions and Google Maps). When detailed location information was available, geometries were generated in Well-known text format. Scientific names of the organisms were determined by referring with the vernacular name (Japanese name) in the metadata of the image and BISMaL (http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/bismal/). If specific literature was used for identification, its bibliographic title was added to each record.全球海洋数据中心（Global Oceanographic Data Center, GODAC）于2002年至2013年间，通过民间潜水员采集了琉球群岛珊瑚礁周边的海洋生物图片资料。此外，GODAC还依托自身研究活动，使用小型遥控潜水器“Niraikanai 150”获取了视频素材。上述图片与视频影像集已发布于珊瑚礁网络网站系统（Coral Reef Network WEB System，http://www.godac.jp/coral/）的官方平台。该影像集可作为了解琉球群岛过往动植物区系的珍贵快照。 研究团队从该影像集及其配套元数据中提取生成了生物出现记录，元数据涵盖采样地点信息与生物俗名。生物出现记录中的经纬度坐标，通过影像元数据中的地点信息结合地名词典（gazetteers，包含Marine Regions与Google Maps）确定。若具备详细的位置信息，则会采用熟知文本（Well-known text, WKT）格式生成空间几何数据。 生物的科学学名，则参照影像元数据中的俗名（日文名称）与BISMaL数据库（http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/bismal/）进行确定。若物种鉴定过程中引用了特定文献，则会将该文献的书目信息添加至每条生物出现记录中。