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AlgaeBase: An On-line Resource for Algae

Article  in  Cryptogamie Algologie · May 2014

DOI: 10.7872/crya.v35.iss2.2014.105

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Cryptogamie, Algologie, 2014, 35 (2): 105-115
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AlgaeBase: an on-line resource for Algae

Michael D. GUIRY a*, Gwendoline M. GUIRY a, Liam MORRISON a,
Fabio RINDI b, Salvador VALENZUELA MIRANDAc,
Arthur C. MATHIESON d, Bruce C. PARKER e, Anders LANGANGEN f,
David M. JOHN g, Ignacio BÁRBARAh, Christopher F. CARTER i,
Pier KUIPERS j & David J. GARBARY k
aAlgaeBase and Irish Seaweed Research Group, Ryan Institute,
National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
bDipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Università Politecnica delle
Marche, via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
c13, Calle de Guzmán el Bueno, 28015 Madrid, Spain
dJackson Estuarine Laboratory, University of New Hampshire,
85 Adams Point Rd, Durham , NH 03824 , U.S.A.
eDepartment of Biological Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061 U.S.A.
fHallagerbakken 82b, NO-1256 Oslo, Norway
gLife
Sciences Department, Genomics and Microbial Diversity,
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD,
United Kingdom
hCoastal Biology Research Group. Facultade de Ciencias, University of A Coruña.
Campus da Zapateira s/n. A Coruña, 15071, Spain
i6, Church View, Wootton, Northampton, NN4 7LJ, United Kingdom
jVisual ID, 3015 Lake Drive, Citywest, Dublin 24, Ireland
kDepartment of Biology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish,
Nova Scotia, Canada, B2G2W5

Abstract – In development since 1996, AlgaeBase (http://www.algaebase.org) is an on-line

database providing free access to authoritative taxonomic, distributional and nomenclatural
information of more than 135,000 names of species and infraspecific taxa of algae set in the
context of a taxonomic hierarchy. The project was initially funded by the Higher Education
Authority, Department of Education and Science (Ireland) and the European Union (the
SeaweedAfrica Project), and more recently by an industry sponsor in Ireland (Ocean
Harvest Technology) and various phycological societies and organisations. The database
currently includes more than 50,000 bibliographic references and incorporates the entire
contents of the main phycological journals in addition to taxonomic, ecological,
physiological and biochemical references in current and classical works. Nearly 10,000 PDFs
are included, many of them of 19th-century taxonomic works that are rare and difficult to

* Corresponding author: michael.guiry@algaebase.org

doi/10.7872/crya.v35.iss2.2014.105
106 M. D. Guiry et al.

obtain. The data are searchable at all taxonomic levels from kingdom to species (and
infraspecific names), and AlgaeBase strives to provide citations of the original publications
of all taxa. For any of the 145,000 taxa (names of genera and above included), all
subordinate taxa at the next lowest rank are indicated along with the number of species for
each. Within each genus the species and infraspecies taxa are listed along with the current
taxonomic status of each name. Nearly 17,000 images are provided for downloading and use
in teaching or research, with copyright and other rights being retained by the original
contributors or by AlgaeBase. This database is being used by 2,000-3,000 individual visitors
each day with nearly 100,000 requests a day and receives over 7 million “hits” each year,
increasing at about 20% per annum. A brief description of other main on-line algal
resources such as Index Nominum Algarum, the Catalogue of Diatoms Names, CyanoDB,
and AlgaTerra is provided.

On-line databases / algae / blue-green algae / Cyanobacteria / desmids / diatoms

Résumé – En développement, depuis 1996, AlgaeBase ( http://www.algaebase.org) est une

base de données en ligne offrant un accès libre à l’information taxonomique, la répartition
des taxons et leur nomenclature (en particulier, leur autorité). Actuellement, cette base
recense plus de 135 000 noms d’espèces et de taxons infraspécifiques d’algues qui sont
présentés dans le contexte d’une classification taxonomique. Le projet a été financé par la
Higher Education Authority, Ministère de l’Éducation et de la Science (Irlande), l’Union
Européenne (le projet SeaweedAfrica ), un commanditaire de l’industrie en Irlande (Ocean
Harvest Technology), et diverses sociétés et organisations phycologiques. La base de
données comprend actuellement plus de 50 000 références bibliographiques et intègre le
contenu des principales revues de phycologie en plus des références taxonomiques,
écologiques, physiologiques et biochimiques dans les travaux actuels et classiques. Près
de 10 000 fichiers PDF sont inclus beaucoup d’entre eux correspondant à des travaux
taxonomiques du XIXe siècle qui sont rares et difficiles à obtenir. Les données sont
consultables à tous les niveaux taxonomiques depuis les règnes jusqu’aux espèces (et
les noms intraspécifiques), de plus, la citation des publications originales de tous les taxons
est mentionnée dans la mesure du possible. Pour l’un des 145 000 taxons de rang générique
ou supra générique, tous les taxons subordonnés de rang inferieur sont indiqués avec
le nombre d’espèces pour chacun. Au sein de chaque genre, les espèces et les taxons
infraspécifiques sont répertoriés avec la taxonomie actuelle de chaque nom. Près de
17 000 images sont fournies et disponibles pour le téléchargement et l’utilisation dans
l’enseignement ou la recherche, les droits d’auteurs et autres droits étant conservés par les
contributeurs d’origine ou par AlgaeBase. Cette base de données est utilisée par 2 000-
3 000 visiteurs individuels chaque jour avec près de 100 000 demandes par jour et reçoit
plus de 7 millions de « hits » chaque année, avec un accroissement moyen d’environ 20 %
par an. Une brève description des autres principales ressources en ligne d’algues telles
que l’Index Nominum Algarum, le catalogue de noms de diatomées, CyanoDB, et
AlgaTerra est fourni.

Base de données en ligne / algues / algues bleues / Cyanobacteries / desmidiées / diatomées

INTRODUCTION

The starting point for the cataloguing of algal names, like fungal and
plant names (International Code of Nomenclature for algae fungi and plants
[ICNafp]; McNeill et al., 2012), is Carl Linnaeus’s Species plantarum (1753)1. This

1. Art. 13.1(e) of the ICNafp Code, however, specifies later-starting-point dates for certain algal groups.
 AlgaeBase: an on-line resource for Algae 107

monumental work included all known plants of the day, listing 61 algae in
the genera Chara, Fucus, Ulva and Conferva (see Spencer, Irvine & Jarvis, 2009).
This innovative summation was followed by a period of intensive description of
species and genera, culminating in the first encyclopedic treatment specifically for
algae compiled by Carl Adolph Agardh (1785-1859), Species algarum, published
in parts between 1820 and 1824, in which he listed and described most of the then-
known algae in two relatively small volumes.
As the 19th century progressed, an explosion of taxonomic studies, partly
fuelled by extensive extra-European explorations by colonial powers with
competing ambitions, resulted in exponential increases in species and other taxon
descriptions. C. Agardh’s Species plantarum was trumped by works of Friedrich
Traugott Kützing (1807-1893), notably Synopsis diatomearum (1833), Phycologia
generalis (1843), Species algarum (1849), and Tabulae phycologicae (1846-1866).
During this time, Jacob Georg Agardh (1813-1901), son of C. Agardh, published
Species, genera et ordines algarum from 1848-1901, amongst other monographs,
but the vast majority of the taxa were marine green, red and brown algae, and the
freshwater and terrestrial algae so meticulously described by Kützing were not on
J. Agardh’s agenda. The development of high-quality microscopes by the mid-19th
century led to a huge increase in descriptions of unicellular and colonial algae,
particularly by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795-1876), whose astonishing
meticulousness and productivity are exemplified by Die Infusionsthierchen
(Ehrenberg, 1838).
By the end of the 19th century the huge numbers of additional names and
a greater formalization of higher level taxonomy required a truly encyclopedic
treatment. This was achieved by Giovanni Batista De Toni (1864-1924) in a series
of comprehensive volumes entitled Sylloge algarum omnium hucusque cognitarum
[Gathering of all algae hitherto known] published from 1889 to 1924 [including an
account of the blue-green algae by Achille Italo Forti (1878-1937)]. Giuseppe De
Toni (1907-1950), son of Giovanni, published Bibliographia algologica universalis
in three fascicles (1931-1932), intended to supplement the Sylloge.
No publication comparable to De Toni’s Sylloge has since appeared
(Silva & Moe, 1999), with a few group-specific exceptions. Dawson (1962)
compiled a list of new taxa published subsequent to De Toni; however, his list
primarily treated marine algae and contained little information other than the new
name and its publication source.
For desmids, Carl Fredrik Otto Nordstedt (1838-1924) published an
Index desmidiacearum (1896, 1908), and Gerald Weber Prescott (1899-1988)
supplemented it with his Bibliographia desmidiacearum universalis (1984), a
comprehensive list of desmid publications.
For diatoms, Frederick William Mills (1868-1949) compiled An Index to
the Genera and Species of the Diatomaceae and their Synonyms (1932-1935). Sam
L. VanLandingham (1935-) published a Catalogue of the Fossil and Recent Genera
and Species of Diatoms and their Synonyms in 8 volumes (1969-1979), treating
diatom names known up to 1964. Intended as a revision of Mills’s Index,
VanLandingham’s Catalogue contains 44,000 entries (18,000 more than Mills),
including 4,000 entries published before 1935, which were omitted by Mills’s
Index.
For seaweeds, the Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian
Ocean by Silva, Basson & Moe (1996), was a work of global significance that
provided the most detailed and accurate nomenclatural and taxonomic account of
benthic marine blue-green, red, brown and green seaweeds of a major global
ocean in the 20th century.
108 M. D. Guiry et al.

The above is an extremely brief account of the work of centuries, and the
reader may wish to look elsewhere for a more comprehensive history.
The days of all-encompassing, paper-based works by dedicated authors
are probably over, especially as the cost of publishing books and maintaining
libraries to shelve them has soared. Our modern systems of employing
taxonomists and nomenclaturalists, and publishing, certainly militate against such
paper-based publication of large indices. Nonetheless, all is not lost as the
invention and current pervasiveness of the Internet have provided in the last
25 years an opportunity to make the detailed information required by
nomenclaturalists and taxonomists both instantly available and correctable.
Here we describe the history, programming, objectives and current status
of AlgaeBase, an on-line, searchable database for phycology established in 1996
to take advantage of the proliferation of the Internet. We describe AlgaeBase in
the context of other principal on-line resources for algae.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALGAEBASE

AlgaeBase was established by one of us (MDG) in March 1996, initially

as a personal aide-mémoire and later that same year as an on-line database for
users of the then-new world-wide-web. Data at first included only the seaweeds of
Britain, Ireland and the Atlantic coast of France based on lists compiled for The
Species Directory of the Marine Fauna and Flora of the British Isles and
Surrounding Seas (Guiry, 1997) published by the Ulster Museum in Belfast,
Northern Ireland and the Marine Conservation Society in Britain. Over the next
few years this initial compilation was expanded into a list of seaweeds of the
northeastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean for the European Register of Marine
Species (Guiry, 2001), initially on-line, but later as a book by Le Service du
Patrimoine Naturel, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. The response to
this initial compilation made it clear that an on-line taxonomic list of the world’s
benthic marine algae was urgently needed. Thus, a decision was made to expand
the list for world coverage, basing this expansion on national check-lists, definitive
regional treatments like the Catalogue of the Benthic Marine Algae of the Indian
Ocean, monographs and other taxonomic treatments, with all the entered data
traceable to a verifiable publication. To do this, a comprehensive bibliography was
required that was sourced initially from an unpublished computer database
compiled by one of us (DJG). This electronic bibliography was based on a private
reprint collection accumulated over 15 years and supplemented by additional
reprints kindly donated by Dr Janet Stein on her retirement from the University
of British Columbia. The initial database (then known as PHYKOS) of about
9,000 entries was imported into the bibliography, and supplemented by further
references from the books, reprint and journal collections at AlgaeBase.
Data entry and programming was funded from 2002-2009 by the Higher
Education Authority, Ireland, under the Priority Research for Third-level
Institutions Programme Cycles 3 and 4, and by the European Union as the
SeaweedAfrica project (2002-2005, INCO-DEV). The latter project allowed
the data on benthic marine algae to be first extended to Africa, then to the Indian
Ocean, and later to all seas of the world. By 2004, it was clear that the FileMaker
(http://www.filemaker.com) database used for data storage and dissemination
would be inadequate to handle the growing on-line demand, so the data were
transferred to MySQL (http://www.mysql.com) in one, integrated, relational
 AlgaeBase: an on-line resource for Algae 109

Literature
Page
ID ID
Family PDF
Taxonomy Order ...
Browser Class ID
Authors PDF
Phylum
... Year
Ref
Hierarchy
PDF ID Common Name
PDF Genus
ID
Species
Hierarchy ID Literature
Biblio ID
Biblio ID
Genus Type Species ID ID ...
Page Genus Genus ID
Common Names
Authorities Biblio ID
Year Common Name
Biblio ID Epithet
...
Genus Meaning
Genus Species Language
Subspecies Type
Genus Variety Gender
Species Formae ...
Use of Use
Compounds Authorities
Type of Use Etymology
Page Year
Compounds Distribution
... Etymology
Uses of Compounds Uses of Compounds Image ID
Reference Species ID
PDF Image
Geography ID ID
Image ID Location
Country/State Biblio ID
Images Date
Nation Species ID
Region Geography ID Photgraph
Geography Distribution ...
Geography Distribution Species Images
Page

Fig. 1. Data schema of a part of AlgaeBase showing database (named below each table). Some of
the page output to browsers is shown as large circles. Each of these pages is composed on request
by relationships (indicated by lines with an “equals” sign, mostly by means of sequential
identification numbers “IDs”) between data elements in the tables. Only some tables and some
fields are shown.

database (Fig. 1). The AlgaeBase name was registered for on-line access (http://
www.algaebase.org), giving the database a corporate identity. This version of the
database, the programming for which was organised by one of us (PK), came on-
line in September 2004. About this time, the benefits of including other algae
became clear, and while the database at that time emphasized marine benthic
algae (mainly seaweeds), freshwater and terrestrial algae, marine and freshwater
phytoplankton were added as time and funding allowed.

WHAT IS ALGAEBASE?

AlgaeBase aims to be an on-line source for taxonomic and distributional

information for all algae. In reality, as a resource it is best for those algae most
frequently cited in the literature, and at present is least useful for obscure and
110 M. D. Guiry et al.

rarely found or mentioned taxa. Whilst nomenclatural data are included,

AlgaeBase does not aim to be a definitive nomenclatural source; other resources
such as Index Nominum Algarum (INA) and the Catalogue of Diatom Names (see
p. 112) more than fulfill this need. AlgaeBase aims to excel in providing
taxonomic information that links to identify published works allowing taxonomists
to make an informed decision. And while it may not always be correct in its
taxonomic placements, we always encourage users to contact us when they find
errors or have different opinions. Unless these opinions are published, we may not
be able to make changes, although we may add taxonomic and nomenclatural
notes if appropriate.
AlgaeBase has led to significant improvement in the orthography of taxon
names, but one weakness is that when a misinterpretation or error in AlgaeBase
occurs, it tends to propagate throughout the system, mainly due to the efficiency
of Google’s search engines which index AlgaeBase daily. It has also helped
standardize names and spellings of taxon authors’ (authority) names. A decision
was made from the beginning not to abbreviate authority names but to allow
authors to make abbreviation decisions themselves or to follow one or other of the
prevailing systems. AlgaeBase also seems to have led to improvements of citations
in bibliographies of older phycological works, with many authors choosing to “cut-
and-paste” its references into their works, which again are clearly identifiable from
the style used by the database. The provision of PDFs of many of older works has
benefitted numerous workers with limited access to library resources, particularly
in “developing countries”. About 10,000 such PDFs have been uploaded to date,
although for copyright reasons many works after 1923 may not be visible or
downloadable or if they are still subject to copyright restrictions.
Additional “cut-and-paste” activity occurs in relation to the
distributional data, which was never intended for this purpose, and authors should
treat the 250,000 or so distributional entries as a guide; the data should be verified
and augmented prior to publication, particularly those for freshwater, terrestrial
and fossil algae, which currently are under-represented.
AlgaeBase includes formal descriptions of many current algal genera.
Many of these were initially prepared for the Encyclopedia of Algal Genera
(EAG) sponsored by the Phycological Society of America (http://www.
psaalgae.org). The EAG was under the editorial direction of one of us (BCP) and
a some hardworking subeditors, and authorities throughout the world contributed
the individual generic accounts2. While the EAG project did not come to fruition
as a paper or CD publication, the descriptions were a very valuable contribution
to AlgaeBase. We encourage authors to submit revisions to these generic
descriptions to keep the information up to date.
AlgaeBase also includes a comprehensive Glossary compiled by one of
us (ACM): some 28,160 terms are currently defined and each one has a
comprehensive explanation, and, where appropriate, detailed notes on the origin
of each.
Details of the numbers of species and other taxa in AlgaeBase and
estimates of the numbers of described taxa yet to be included are given in Guiry
(2012), together with estimated numbers of undescribed species; presently (May
2014), 40,000 species of algae are included. Reference is made by Guiry (2012)
to difficulties associated with morphospecies, biological species and molecular
species — a difficulty afflicting all systematics in biology.

2. These contributors are listed at http://www.algaebase.org/contributors/

 AlgaeBase: an on-line resource for Algae 111

THE STRUCTURE OF ALGAEBASE

As mentioned above, AlgaeBase was never intended to be a primary

source of nomenclatural information as Index Nominum Algarum admirably
performs this function, but is primarily a taxonomic database. It therefore was
designed with taxonomic data in mind. The primary unit of taxonomy is the
species, so the main table in the database is the species table (Fig. 1); however,
the primary unit of taxonomy is the genus and because quite a few generic
homonyms exist, the species table is connected to the genus table (Fig. 1) by genus
identification numbers (IDs) rather than by a relationship involving names. In
turn the genus is connected by its genus ID to a single hierarchy table containing
all the details of the higher taxonomy above the level of genus. The taxonomy
browser is controlled by a Hierarchy table and it and the Literature, Uses of
Compounds, Literature, Common Names, Etymology tables interact to produce
species pages on the fly (Fig. 1). Taxonomy Browser, Genus, Literature pages are
also produced on demand. Unlike the printed work, nothing is static in
AlgaeBase: each page is produced on demand and the data can be corrected
or augmented instantly.

OTHER MAJOR ALGAL ON-LINE RESOURCES

Index Nominum Algarum (INA) and the complementary Bibliographia

Phycologica Universalis (BPU) are extraordinary testaments to the life-long
commitment of Paul C. Silva (Jepson Herbarium, University of California at
Berkeley), presently in his 92nd year, and his collaborators (notably Richard
L. Moe and the late David E.G. Irvine) in assembling algal names and the
literature on algal nomenclature. INA began as a card index in 1949 “…to fill a
need for an up-to-date comprehensive index of algal names” (Silva & Moe, 1999).
It currently includes about 200,000 names of “algae (in the broad sense)” at
all taxonomic levels (see http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/INA.html for further
information). In the 1990s the cards were scanned and a TIFF image-file created
for each. These were stored on compact disks, essential “… in insuring the card
file against disaster” (Silva & Moe, 1999). Images were made available on-line in
1998 by the Center for Phycological Documentation (University and Jepson
Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley; http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/
INA.html) using PERL (http://www.perl.org) to serve the TIFF files and the
electronic cards from a hard-disk using a common index. The TIFF files are being
indexed progressively, and the indexing of cards is by volunteers at Berkeley, the
California Academy of Sciences, and the AlgaTerra team (see below), and is
presently nearly complete; about 40,000 cards have now (May 2014) been keyed
electronically (Moe, pers. comm.). The compilation is essentially a nomenclatural
one, and information on taxonomy is only provided incidentally. The “cards”
include the citations and associated nomenclatural commentary, including the
type locality. It should be emphasised that the TIFF images of the cards often
include the exact spelling used by the original author(s), while the indices
generally include the name corrected as specified by the International Code of
Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants (ICNafp; McNeill et al., 2012).
112 M. D. Guiry et al.

Index Nominum Algarum has from the beginning of the AlgaeBase

project in 1996 been of critical importance in the verification of names and taxon
authorship, and we are pleased to acknowledge the huge and continuing
contribution that INA makes to AlgaeBase. As we view the cards, we never fail
to be awed by the fruits of Paul Silva’s lifetime commitment. It might not be
entirely appreciated by the users of both databases that one can spend an entire
day ferreting out the truth of a single name from its taxonomic or nomenclatural
burrow. Enjoyable as this can be at times, it can be very frustrating.
AlgaTerra (http://www.algaterra.org) is an “information system for
terrestrial algal biodiversity: a synthesis of taxonomic, molecular and ecological
information” that has been on-line since 2004, thanks to the efforts of Regine
Jahn and Wolf-Hennig Kuber (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum,
Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität, Berlin). It incorporates taxonomic,
morphological, ecological and molecular information for the included taxa, and
is particularly strong on information on the oeuvre and collections of
C.G. Ehrenberg and Friedrich Hustedt (1886-1968), and Horst Lange-Bertalot
(1936-) and his co-workers and collaborators. Its objectives are to “…build a
comprehensive information system including a database on terrestrial micro-
algae, integrating taxon, type, name and collection data as well as ecological and
molecular information.” The AlgaTerra project has also a considerable input to
INA through the task of completing the on-line indices, and is a very important
resource for reliable information on terrestrial and freshwater algae.
Catalogue of Diatoms Names (CAS; http://researcharchive.calacademy.org)
is an on-line compilation of names of diatom genera, species and taxa at
infraspecific ranks and includes some 62,000 names. It has been assembled since
2000 by staff and former staff at the California Academy of Sciences, notably
Elisabeth Fourtanier and Patrick Kociolek. It includes all scientific names of
diatom genera, species, and taxa at infraspecific ranks. An initial set of
45,000 names was entered from the VanLandingham Catalogue (see above) and
compared with an unpublished “New Species File” of the Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia. The database was then compared with the Index
Nominum Algarum, resulting in the addition of 11,000 names from the “New
Species File”, and 4,600 names from INA, as well as identification of numerous
discrepancies. Like INA, CAS is essentially a nomenclatural database of similar
quality and great accuracy, and is also a valuable source for AlgaeBase.
CyanoDB (Komárek & Hauer, 2012) is an on-line database of
cyanobacterial (blue-green algal) genera compiled by Ji÷í Komárek (University
of South Bohemia, Ωeské Bud≥jovice, Czech Republic) and Tomá≠ Hauer
(Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, T÷ebo≈). Its aim (http://
www.cyanodb.cz) is “to provide as sufficient information about cyanobacteria as
possible to all people interested. Either from the scientific community or from
outside, e.g., schools, environment monitoring services, public health protecting
services, etc. The content of the database is based on work [of] Komárek 1992
and complemented with data from Geitler, Bourrelly, Desikachary, Drouet,
Kondrateva and many others. Newest works are also used”.
In using these internet and other resources, one should bear in mind that
in ancient Rome the nomenclator was a slave whose duty was to recall the names
of persons his master met during a political campaign; so, the function of all of
these databases, including AlgaeBase, is to help the nomenclaturist or taxonomist
to arrive at an informed decision, and not to arbitrate. The nomenclators did not
make the decisions.
 AlgaeBase: an on-line resource for Algae 113

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF ALGAEBASE?

The future of AlgaeBase, and many other databases, depends on the

energy and commitment of the data custodians, and on long-term funding. For
reasons not entirely clear, institutional, governmental and international funding
bodies seem not to comprehend that the databases they have supported require
maintenance to remain effective sources. Unlike books or papers, which have
clearly identifiable endpoints (the day they appear in print), databases lack the
wonderful luxury of such finality and require continuous, long-term support.
Book- or paper-writers (or paperback writers!) can walk away from their
creations, once published; the on-line database custodian has no such comfort or
feeling of finality.
Essentially, AlgaeBase has received no government funding since 2009,
and the pace of revision and addition of data has accordingly slowed considerably.
The service has been maintained from the original servers purchased from earlier
Irish grant support. The Ryan Institute and the National University of Ireland
Galway (NUIG), our home institution, have been very generous in providing a
home for the servers and an office for AlgaeBase since 2009. Over the long term,
however, this is not sustainable, as the university lacks the resources and the
strategic imperative to employ a permanent custodian or to pay for the necessary
programming.
The Copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) rights is in the process of
transfer to a non-profit company (“The AlgaeBase Foundation”) registered as a
charity in Ireland and are actively seeking sponsorship and funding to support
database maintenance and enhancement. To date, support has come from
industry sponsors Ocean Harvest Technology (http://www.oceanharvest.ie),
the British Phycological Society, the International Phycological Society, the
Phycological Society of America, and the Korean Phycological Society, for which
we are very grateful.
For more than 15 years AlgaeBase has supported and driven by the
authors of this account. Under its “umbrella”, information and data have been
updated and distributed to phycologists, students, and the general public as
free content in the context of our the new electronically-connected world. But,
if AlgaeBase is to maintain its current importance as a “living” source of
information, it needs to be continuously updated. As algae become increasingly
the focus of advances in biotechnology and applications in industry and human
affairs, there is a real need not only to maintain AlgaeBase in its current form,
but to expand it to meet the needs of new generations of phycologists around
the world.

Acknowledgements. Financial aid from the Higher Education Authority,

Department of Education and Science (Ireland) through the Priority Research for Third-
level Institutions Programme, and by the European Union through the SeaweedAfrica
Project (INCO-DEV Contract ICA4-CT2001-10030) was critical to the success of
AlgaeBase. Bernard Picton (Ulster Museum) and Professor Mark Costello (University of
Auckland), and Herr Professor Dr. rer. nat. Rainer Froese (FishBase) facilitated and
encouraged the early development of AlgaeBase, for which MDG is grateful. Our industry
sponsor Ocean Harvest Technology (Ireland and Canada) and a consortium of phycological
societies (British Phycological Society, International Phycological Society, Korean Society
of Phycology and Phycological Society of America) have now ensured its survival which
we warmly acknowledge, particularly Dr Stefan Kraan. Many people at NUI, Galway
contributed to AlgaeBase from 1996-2005: in particular, Eilís Nic Dhonncha, Sandy
114 M. D. Guiry et al.

Lawson, Robert Wilkes, Andy Taylor, Róisín Nash and Liz Moran, who spent many hours
organizing and entering data. We are particularly grateful to Professor Colin Brown,
Professor Mark Johnson and Dr Richard Fitzgerald of the Ryan Institute for their generous
support and encouragement over the past 5 years.

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