The Number of Species on Earth (?)

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In helping set up a database for some fisheries folks, a
need has cropped up for storing data (taxanomic names) about
aquatic insects found in the fisheries.

My first reaction to this would be to simply find an
existing database of aquatic insect species, so that my
clients can simply pick from a list.

Does anyone here know if such a database is freely
available, or is this something that researchers hold pretty
close to their chests?

That got me to wondering also: how many species exist on
our planet, roughly?
 
In helping set up a database for some fisheries folks, a
need has cropped up for storing data (taxanomic names) about
aquatic insects found in the fisheries.

My first reaction to this would be to simply find an
existing database of aquatic insect species, so that my
clients can simply pick from a list.

Does anyone here know if such a database is freely
available, or is this something that researchers hold pretty
close to their chests?

That got me to wondering also: how many species exist on
our planet, roughly?
Click to expand...

Well, they're finding more all the time: there was an article in last
week's _Science_ studying oceanic bacteria. 99.99% of them cannot be
cultured (using any known methods, surely there'd be some condition
that they could); the estimated number of species of Eubacteria alone
is estimated at between 1,000,000 and 100,000,000. There are certainly
hundreds of thousands of species of insects (most of them not aquatic
fortunately).

There are a variety of web-based taxonomic databases, most of the
pretty specialized. One ambitious project is the "Tree of Life Web"
http://www.tolweb.org/tree/, but it's far from a complete
species-level list.

The list of all species on Earth would be a REAL challenge to any
database management system! Just keeping up to date with extinctions
and speciations would be a full time job for multiple specialists.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
 
Well, they're finding more all the time: there was an article in last
week's _Science_ studying oceanic bacteria. 99.99% of them cannot be
cultured (using any known methods, surely there'd be some condition
that they could); the estimated number of species of Eubacteria alone
is estimated at between 1,000,000 and 100,000,000. There are certainly
hundreds of thousands of species of insects (most of them not aquatic
fortunately).
Click to expand...


Hmmmm. I think I'll just abandon the idea of an easy
download!

There are a variety of web-based taxonomic databases, most of the
pretty specialized. One ambitious project is the "Tree of Life Web"
http://www.tolweb.org/tree/, but it's far from a complete
species-level list.

The list of all species on Earth would be a REAL challenge to any
database management system! Just keeping up to date with extinctions
and speciations would be a full time job for multiple specialists.

John W. Vinson[MVP]
Click to expand...

Thanks, John. A good reality slap!
 
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