Amazon Fish/ Ictio
The Amazon Fish consortium integrates its database of freshwater fish to the Ictio platform. Along with records from other sources, the data will be available as part of the Ictio database.
With over 200,000 records of fish occurrences spanning nearly two hundred years, Amazon Fish is teaming up with Ictio to better understand patterns in fish migrations. Within the framework of the Citizen Science Network for the Amazon, this information contributes to compiling a database at the scale of the entire Amazon Basin.
The Amazon Fish database gathers data from 1834 to 2019, covering 2,406 species of freshwater fish. In order to address the entire Amazon Basin, the consortium integrated the information available in the scientific literature, consulted 590 different sources covering 21,500 sampling sites (see map below), and contributed 11,358 observation lists to the Ictio database. Researchers from institutions from Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, France and Peru participate in the consortium. A detailed account of the methods and sources used to compile the database was recently published in Scientific Data, of the Nature group.
Distribution of the sampling sites registered in the Amazon Fish database. Source and elaboration: Amazon Fish.
Ictio is a platform and an application to record observations of fish in the Amazon to reveal their migratory patterns through an open database. Since 2018, Ictio has been collecting information on the migratory fish with the highest number of catches, through its mobile application and through its web platform, which allows adding information from other databases. The goal is to compile a collective database with reliable information on the distribution, occurrence and abundance of fish. So far, the Amazon Fish database has been added to those provided by WCS, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Faunagua, and the Sinchi Institute.
We are looking at thousands of fish data entries that will help sharpen the landscape of migratory fish research. This information is expected to contribute to the sustainability of fisheries in the Amazon and informed decision-making at different scales in the basin. The collaboration between Ictio and Amazon Fish takes place as part of the Citizen Science Network for the Amazon.