Database organization
Cifonauta photos and videos can be searched by basic information (metadata), such as species, place, author, size, etc. These tags organized by categories like photographic technique, life stage, habitat, etc, provides a more informative and interesting navigation. For example, you might want to look for dark-field crustacean larvae photos, or just browse through the adult forms of planktonik organisms. Image categorization and a description for each tag (with a random example) is below.
Taxa
The taxonomic information in this site does not adopt any particular classification scheme and is built automatically from ITIS database. From the taxon name (contained in the image) we can retrieve its full taxonomic hierarchy and generate a simple tree for browsing. Therefore, the classification might not be in accordance with latest findings of each area; it reflects, almost strictly, the data from ITIS. Only in some cases we employ the phylogeny proposed by the author (or expert) that identified the species.
Size
We arbitrarily created 5 classes of sizes to provide an idea of organisms' dimensions. Benthic fauna received additional size information: macrofauna, meiofauna e microfauna (see item Life mode, below). Landscape/habitat photos do not hold size information, but if they are showing an specific organism (barnacles on rocky shore, for example) a size class is provided. Size classes are:
| Size | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1 - 1.0 mm | Embryos, larvae and planktonic creatures. | |
| <0.1 mm | Unicellular organisms and details of multicellular organisms. | |
| >100 mm | Even larger organisms. | |
| 10 - 100 mm | Macroscopic organisms. | |
| 1.0 - 10 mm | Tiny creatures but visible at the naked eye. |
Photographic techniques
Different techniques used to capture the dataase images were divided in 4 categories.: submarine, macrophotography, landscape/seascape e microscopy. To embrace the variety of microscopy techiniques the latter was subdivided. This is the list of tags related to photographic techniques:
| Technique | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| diving | Photographs taken under water. | |
| landscape | Depicts an environment. | |
| macrophotography | Detail shot with a hand-held digital camera, usually of an organism in aquarium. | |
| mev | Scanning electron microscopy. | |
| submarine |
| microscopy | ||
|---|---|---|
| bright field | transmitted light illumination in which the sample appears dark in a bright background | |
| confocal | Confocal microscopy. | |
| dark field | transmitted illumination in which the light beam scatters as it hits the specimen, so it appears bright against a dark background | |
| Differential interference contrast | Microscopy technique used to enhance contrast in unstained, transparent samples (DIC). | |
| polarized light | Polarized light microscopy reveals birefringent structures. | |
| protargol impregnation | Silver impregnation technique. |
Life stage
The organisms photographed are not always adults.
| Stage | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| adult | Sexually mature organism. | |
| embryo | Organism in its early stages of development. | |
| gamete | A mature sexual reproductive cell (sperm or egg) | |
| juvenile | Sexually immature organism that resembles an adult. | |
| larva | Post-embryonic stage that usually differs from the adult stage in morphology, behavior, habitat, and others. Does not reproduce sexually. | |
| metamorphosis | Change in shape and/or body structure that occurs between the larval and juvenile or adult. | |
| paratomy | ||
| progenesis |
Habitat
We also indicate the habitat of each organism whenever possible.
| Habitat | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| artificial substrate | ||
| baixio não vegetado | ||
| banco não vegetado | ||
| hard bottom | ||
| infralittoral | Coastal region permanently submerged. | |
| intertidal | Coastal region only exposed at low tide. | |
| mangrove | Transition zone between land and sea, dominated by a typical vegetation that grows in areas that are frequently inundated with salt and fresh water. | |
| mesolitoral | ||
| rocky-shore | Transition between marine and terrestrial environments formed by rocks. | |
| sand beach | Landform along the shoreline consisting sand, gravel, or pebbles. | |
| soft bottom |
Miscellaneous
Tags that do not fit into other categories. Could be common terms frequently searched.
| Others | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 3d | Image rendered in three dimensions. | |
| alga | Informal term for a diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms, including unicellular (microalgae) to multicellular forms, like kelps and sargassum. | |
| cebimar-usp | Images produced at the Center for Marine Biology of the University of São Paulo (CEBIMar/USP). | |
| cnidarian tree of life project | ||
| coral | Marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria, colonial or not, which secrete a hard, calcium carbonate skeleton. | |
| holotype | The type specimen used in the original description of a species. | |
| introduced species | A species living outside its native distributional range. | |
| invasive species | Non-indigenous species, or "non-native", plants or animals that adversely affect the habitats and regions they invade. | |
| jellyfish | Any of various gelatinous aquatic organisms, particularly the medusa stage of cnidarians. | |
| medusoid | a reduced or vestigial medusa | |
| neotype | ||
| paratype | The type specimen used in the original description of a species. | |
| recruitment plate | ||
| risk of extinction | A species that is likely to become extinct in the near future. | |
| seto marine biological laboratory | ||
| symbiosis | Organism living with, on, or in another, without injury to either. | |
| unicellular | Organism having or consisting of a single cell. |
