The 49th European Marine Biology Symposium was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, from September 8-12. Three representatives of the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) attended the symposium to spread the word about the Belgian LifeWatch infrastructure, and all its component aspects. The LifeWatch taxonomic backbone (TB) was presented during the plenary session on Tuesday September 9. During this presentation it was explained how the TB is being constructed and how the TB can support the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning research community. During the round table session on Tuesday September 9, two more presentations were given, which were the basis for a constructive discussion:

• The LifeWatch.be data services were demonstrated: it was shown how these online data processing tools can assist biodiversity researchers in standardizing and analyzing their data.


• The European Ocean Biogeographic Information System (EurOBIS) was presented as an online source for marine quality controlled biogeographic data.

More information about the EMBS49 and the conference program you can find on the link below: