Annual Checklist of Life, China, 2018

Since 2008, Chinese Academy of Sciences has organized more than 100 taxonomic experts to catalogue and study known species in China based on existing literature and specimens. It is updated annually in the form of annual list and released to the public. It provides free classification and distribution information of animals, plants, fungi and other taxonomic groups for global users, making China the only country in the world to publish the annual list of species every year. The list collects and sorts out taxonomic information of species in strict accordance with the international standards of Species 2000. In the published list, each species contains Latin name, synonym, Chinese name, alias, distribution area, classification system and related literature information. Each data is validated by taxonomists and shared with the global list of biological species. A total of 98317 species and infraspecific units were included in the 2018 CoL-China, including 86203 species and 12114 infraspecific units. The included taxonomic groups include: Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Bacteria, Chromista, Protozoa and Virus, etc., which were jointly released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of ecological environment at the major event to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the biodiversity conservation action. The establishment of the list has laid a solid foundation for the development of biodiversity in China. The compilation of the directory in 2018 was supported by the strategic leading science and technology project of Chinese Academy of Sciences (a) (task number: XDA19050202).