"Pola" Expedition: Mollusks, in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea, 1890-1894

Study Extent

The whole report is separated into two parts. The first part deals with the threshing results in the eastern Mediterranean (Expeditions I-IV, 1890-1893), while the second those in the Adriatic (Expedition V, 1894).

Sampling

The equipment used, as described in the original paper, is: small trawl, dredge samples, large hanging trawl, rake sampler and trawl.

Method steps

1. The process started by volunteers using the Zooniverse platform, following a methodical workflow with simple tasks supported by tutorial, guidelines, and tips for transcribing the data and transforming it into the Darwin Core standards – a widely accepted, machine-readable format. This approach ensures that volunteers with various educational backgrounds can seamlessly participate in the transcription and FAIRification process of this historical marine biodiversity data. Volunteers managed to successfully complete all tasks of the CS project built in the Zooniverse platform, in a period of 76 days. Their responses were extracted in .csv format and with a specific-designed script (https://github.com/melinalou/Emodnet5/tree/main) and manual modification, the data were transformed into a human-readable .xlsx format. To ensure data quality, online tools such as the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) taxon match tool (https://www.marinespecies.org/tutorial_taxonmatch.php) were employed for cross-referencing taxonomic information, while Marine Regions (https://www.marineregions.org/) and Map Maker (https://maps.co/) were used to correct coordinate uncertainties

All taxa belong to Mollusca Phylum

1. Gastropoda
   rank: class
2. Bivalvia
   rank: class
3. Scaphopoda
   rank: class

Pola Expedition took place in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic Sea.