Public online databases as a tool of collaborative taxonomy: a case study on subteranean amphipods
Public databases are a promising tool for collaborative taxonomy. A collaborative revision requires a number of decisions, which – unlike in individual work – need to be clarified in advance. The success of such initiatives depends on acceptable guidelines for possible-yet-unknown participants. The nature of morphological variation constrains the scope of this kind of taxonomy to a level of single genera or families. The database should contain information also on sub and infra-subspecific taxa in order to preserve their identity and retain full knowledge of morphological diversity. All information on morphological variation to be included in the open-access database needs to be subject to peer-review, e.g. in the form of species descriptions. We expect the Web-accessed morphological databases to centralize and unify scattered taxonomical efforts, to foster taxonomy of difficult taxa, to provide free identification aids, and to condense the publication-citation cycle in the notoriously undercited field of alpha taxonomy. Specific issues are illustrated by the case of the amphipod family Niphargidae (http://niphargus.info/).