Biodiversity of Antarctic Amphipod Crustaceans (BIANZO) [SCAR-MarBIN]

This centre includes specialised databases that record and organise the widely scattered information on taxonomy, geographic and bathymetric distribution, ecological and biological characteristics, and bibliography. It will host and develop extensive, and validated reference collections of Southern Ocean amphipod crustaceans, compiled from Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences collections and other contributions from diverse national and international Antarctic programmes.

The centre will contribute to the development, by the "Antartic Amphipodologist Network", of new conventional and computer-assisted identification tools (Amphipod volumes in the series "Synopses of the Antarctic Benthos") and a multimedia electronic monograph. These new tools would contribute to a better knowledge of the biodiversity of the Southern Ocean amphipod crustaceans and of its spatial and temporal variability.