Services

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Belgian LifeWatch eLab Services

Several data services are available in the Belgian LifeWatch E-Lab:

  • Data validation and QC services
  • Marine Regions gazetteer services
  • Taxon match services
  • Taxon match services WoRMS Regional Species Databases
  • Taxon match services WoRMS Thematic Species Databases
  • Other taxon services
  • Taxon observations
  • Tidal services
  • Geographical services – Administrative boundaries
  • Geographical services – Bathymetry
  • Geographical services – Biogeographical classification
  • Geographical services – Environmental data
  • Geographical services – Features
  • Geographical services – Protected areas
  • Geographical services – Total biological valuation

Belgian LifeWatch e-Lab

logo lifewatch belgium

The ultimate goal of LifeWatch ERIC is to set up a network for data exchange and data analysis through web services. Web services are systems that allow communication between two computers over the web, and allow the user to access the most recent and up-to-date information directly from within other applications.

Within LifeWatch Belgium, several web services are available to standardise, analyse and visualise your data, and to extract additional data from several sources. The user can select several data services (taxonomic, geographic, thematic, etc.) and run them successively through a straightforward online user interface.

You can also use the LifeWatch.be web services in a concatenated way, i.e. the output of one web service is the input for the next web service. Establishing such workflows helps solving (complicated) biological questions. Several use cases demonstrate the use of the LifeWatch web services.

Ecological Modeling

This vLab is composed of two online coupled models, which are parameterised and initialised for the specific conditions at a few specifically identified areas for which the required datasets exist. In an attempt to make the tool user friendly a graphic user interface (GUI) developed in the course of previous projects will be used. The GUI allows the user to view model results dynamically through any internet browser. Model results will be stored at the HCMR servers and the user will be able to select the area, scenario, and parameter required, which will then be returned as results in the form of plots. All model parameters and options will be available to the user online. The ultimate operation, therefore, of this vLab will be to allow the user to submit a request for the model to run under a different scenario than those already available.

Click here to access the vLab.

Point of contact: Emmanouela Panteri (emmipan[at]hcmr.gr) – LifeWatchGreece, HCMR

RShiny Data Explorer

Several thematic portals have been set up as part of the Data Explorer:

Within the RShiny LifeWatch Data Explorer, five general sections are available to explore, plot, visualize and download data.

Some of the more recent data is temporarily under moratorium and therefore protected by password access.

An online manual gives a detailed overview of all functionalities.

The LifeWatch Data Explorer is built using RShiny server, Leaflet, ggplot2, PLotly, Dygraph and DataTables. The system is able to query MSSQL, PostgreSQL, Geoserver (WFS) and MongoDB servers.

Publications

MicroCTvLab Publications

Keklikoglou, K., Faulwetter, S., Chatzinikolaou, E., Michalakis, N., Filiopoulou, I., Minadakis, N., Panteri, E., Perantinos, G., Gougousis, A., & Arvanitidis, C. (2016). MicroCTvlab: A web based virtual gallery of biological specimens using X-ray microtomography (microCT). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e8740. doi: 10.3897/BDJ.4.e8740