About 30% of freshwater fish species belong to a group called cypriniforms, that includes the minnows, loaches, and suckers. Many of these fish have great economic value and are captured or raised for human consumption, the pet trade, or recreation. The top five fishes used for aquaculture worldwide are cypriniforms. Goals of the All Cypriniformes Species Inventory are to (1) accelerate the rate of discovery and description of cypriniform fishes, (2) improve the understanding of their evolutionary and ecological relationships, (3) make information on cypriniforms readily available via websites, (4) build capacity for research in other countries through student training and long-term collaborations, and (5) make available large numbers of specimens and tissues of freshwater fishes in collections of US and foreign institutions. Given the large numbers of specimens in museums to be examined and the tropical regions to be sampled, it is anticipated that 800-1,000 new species will be described.
This project will greatly improve the efficiency of species recognition by developing global collaborations, training US and foreign students, and providing images and databases on project websites. Websites will provide information on species diversity, photos of fishes,guides for identification, and links to related projects. Conservation biologists and fisheries managers depend on accurate identifications and distributional information for prioritizing areas for protection and for making informed management policies. The project is expected to greatly improve taxonomy and accuracy of records through expert identification and georeferencing new and existing data.
This project is part of a 10-year effort to digitize and mobilize the scientific information associated with biological specimens held in U.S. research collections. The images and digitized data from this project will be integrated into the online national resource as outlined in the community strategic plan available at http://digbiocol.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/digistratplanfinaldraft.pdf.
