THE ATLAS OF EUROPEAN AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES

The current Atlas of European Amphibians and Reptiles is based on data collected in the 80’s and early 90’s and it was published in 1997.

Those data were presented on a 50 × 50 km grid scheme, but in the last years several national atlases at higher resolution and based on most recent datasets became available.

Several threats to European herpetological diversity, such as land-use changes, diseases or global warming, could have reshaped the distribution of many European species in the last decades.

This situation claims for an update of the European Atlas, for which a new mapping committee has been created within the Societas Europaea Herpetologica. The project of the Atlas of Amphibians and Reptiles of Europe is based on the consideration that the most important part of the project is to create an updated and accurate database for species locality data. Consequently, maps are products which can be constantly updated, whereas the database should be a lasting and permanent product.

Therefore, the Atlas of European Amphibians and Reptiles is envisioned as a virtual database on a website connected to a network of distributed on-line national databases, allowing communication among them and data sharing. When a user connects to the European Atlas Website and asks for a specific species map, the website will connect to all the on-line national databases and search for that particular species, creating virtually a database, and a map will be displayed. This methodology can easily update the records, as well as the taxonomy and systematics. Under this approach, duplication of databases is avoided and control of the national databases will remain under the supervision of each country.

Neftalí Sillero (Chair): Centro de Investigação em Ciências Geo-Espaciais (CICGE), Universidade do Porto, Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, Rua do Campo Alegre, 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; neftali.pablos@fc.up.pt

Pierre-André Crochet: CNRS-UMR 5175 Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, 1919, route de Mende 34293 Montpellier cedex 5, France; pierre-andre.crochet@cefe.cnrs.fr

Roberto Sindaco: Istituto per le Piante da Legno e l'Ambiente, corso Casale, 476 I-10132 Torino, Italia; rsindaco@gmail.com

Bert Toxopeus: International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), P.O. Box 6 7500 AA Enschede, The Netherlands; toxopeus@itc.nl

David R. Vieites: Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Department of Integrative Biology, 3101 Valley Life Sciences Bldg, University of California at Berkeley, CA 94720-3140, USA; vieites@berkeley.edu

Raymond Creemers: RAVON, Postbus 1413, 6501 BK Nijmegen (The Netherlands); r.creemers@ravon.nl