Visotheary UNG
Ingénieur(e) de Recherche
Affiliation entity
Homologies
Interdisplinary research theme
Biogeography, Comparative Biogeography, Ontology, Biodiversity informatics
Speciality
Southeast asia biogeography, Melanesian biogeography, Bioregionalisation, Ontology for biogeographical areas
Contact
Social networks
E-mail
visotheary.ung [at] mnhn.fr
Phone
01 40 79 80 67
Address(es)
12-16 rue Buffon
CP39
75005 Paris
Responsibilities inside unit
- Head of Cell BIRD (Biodiversity, Informatics, Resources and Developments)
- Safety and security group coordinator (8 people)
- Elected member of lab council (ISYEB)
- Technology transfert liaison officer CNRS-Paris B Delegation
- Technology transfert liaison officer MNHN
Responsibilities outside unit
- Elected member council UFR 918
- Elected member research comitee UFR 918
- Contact person for “Equality-Parity-Fight against discrimination” at UFR 918
- Nominated member department “Origin and Evolution” council MNHN
- Member of the MNHN working group “Eco-responsability of research”
- MNHN representative in “Technical” and “Communication” groups of the World Flora Online consortium
- Secretary of TDWG
- Co-convenor of TDWG Interest Group Geographical Schemes
Presentation
As the head of BIRD, my role is to assist our researchers in their developments projects in Biodiversity Informatics. It covers various activities like overseeing potential fundings opportunities, helping in defining and writing their specifications, hiring personnel and managing their projects on a daily basis.
My research is focussed on applying comparative biogeography methods to different regions of the globe with a special interest in Southeast Asia and the West Pacific region. Since I’m very much interested in standardisation and interoperability, I’m developing an ontology for biogeographic areas which will facilitate their use.
I also have a role of technical support to our webmaster, Françoise Lopez.
Grants and awards
- 2017 AAP “OPUS, soutien à manifestations scientifiques” Sorbonne Universités (1930€), organising and hosting of the autumn World Flora online meeting
- 2017 AAP “Séminaires internationaux” Sorbonne Universités (6240€), organising and hosting of the autumn World Flora online meeting, funds supported the invitation of 3 international participants
- 2014 Sorbonne University Special Call “Decision, process and dynamics”, RESCU-ME (Reaching a new Ecological State for Conservation Using Modelling of Evolutionary biogeographic areas)(98760€)(2 years project). Using comparative biogeography and develop an analytical decision tool to help delimiting areas for conservation issues.
- 2011 Student Award (registration fee, hosting and travel offered) “Southeast Asia biogeography: new insights with a new methodological approach”, Biosystematics meeting, Berlin
- 2011 « Women in Science » Fellowship EDIT Gender Action Plan 1500€
- 2009 “Innovative projects call“ French Foundation for Research in Biodiversity (FRB) 12000€ (2 years project)
Publications list
- Ducasse J., Ung V., Lecointre G. and Miralles A. (2019) Bioinformatics, btz911, https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btz911.
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Daniel J. Murphy Malte C. Ebach Joseph T. Miller Shawn W. Laffan Gerasimos Cassis Visotheary Ung Andrew H. Thornhill Nunzio Kerr Melinda L. Tursky (2019). Cladistics, 10.1111/cla.12381.
- Ung Visotheary (2018) The need for standard protocols in bioregionalisation: Comments on “The spectre of biogeographical regionalization” by Morrone (2018). Zootaxa, 4532(2):296-300.
- Ung V., Michaux B. & Leschen R.A.B (2017) — A Comprehensive Vicariant Model for Southwest Pacific Biotas. Australian Systematic Botany. Vol. 29, n° 6, dir. CSIRO Publishing, p. 424-439. ISSN: 1030-1887. https://dx.doi.org/10.1071/SB16032
- Ung Visotheary, Zaragueta-Bagils René & Williams David M., 2016 — Comparative Biogeography of Southeast Asia and the West Pacific Region. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. Vol. 117, n° 2, p. 372-385. ISSN: 00244066. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bij.12670
- Grand A., Zaragueta i Bagils R., Velez L.M. and Ung V. (2014). A cladistic re-analysis of the Gadiformes (Teleostei, Paracanthopterygii) using three-item analysis. Zootaxa 4(4):525-552. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3889.4.3
- Hoagstrom C. W., Ung V., Taylor K. (2013) Comparative biogeography and Geographic Speciation of North American highland fishes from the Mesa Central to the Canadian Shield . Journal of Biogeography, Vol. 41, p. 644-658. ISSN: 13652699. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12244
- Ung V. (2013) Biotic evolution and environmental change in Southeast Asia. Book review, Systematic Biology, 62(6):913–915 ;
- Burguiere T., Causse F., Ung V. et Vignes-Lebbe R. (2013) IKey+: A New Single-Access Key Generation Web Service. Systematic Biology, 62(1): 157-161
- Zaragüeta-Bagils R., Ung V., Grand A., Vignes-Lebbe R., Cao N., Ducasse J. (2012) LisBeth : New cladistics for phylogenetics and biogeography. C.R Palevol 11(8):563-566
- Bruno M., Cêtre-Sossah C., Garros C., Chavernac D., Balenghien T., Carpenter S., Setier-Rio ML., Vignes-Lebbe R., Ung V., Candolfi E. and Delécolle JC. (2012) Development and validation of IIKC: an interactive identification key for Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) females from the Western Palaearctic region. Parasites & Vectors, 5:137
- Ung V., Dubus G., Zaragüeta-Bagils R. & Vignes-Lebbe R. (2010) Xper²: introducing e-Taxonomy. Bioinformatics, 26 (5) : 703-704
- Zaragüeta-Bagils R., Bourdon E., Ung V., Vignes-Lebbe R. et Malécot V. (2009) On the International Code of Area Nomenclature. Journal of Biogeography, 38 : 1617-161
Projects
BioRealm
BioRealm is an ontology for biogeographic areas.
Collaboration: Pier Luigi Buttigieg (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany)
Comparative biogeography of Sulawesi
Comparative biogeography study of Sulawesi.
Collaboration: Bernard Michaux (Kawakapaka, New-Zealand) et Richard Leschen (Manaali Whenua Landscare research, New-Zealand)
Comparative biogeography of North american turtles
Comparative biogeography study of North American turtles.
Collaboration: Christopher Hoagstrom (Weber State University, United States)
Geographical Schemes IG TDWG
Convenors
- Francisco Pando - Real Jardín Botánico-CSIC, Madrid
- Nicolas Bailly - FishBase/SeaLifeBase, Q‑quatics, Philippines; Beaty Biodiversity Museum and Sea Around Us, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
- Visotheary Ung - ISYEB, CNRS, Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Motivation
Knowledge of species’ geographical distributions is critical to understanding evolutionary processes, changes in ecological communities, and now most importantly the conservation of biodiversity. Ultimately, our knowledge of species distributions comes from assembling records of specimens and observations made by many individuals over many years. Tasks required to compile occurrence data include documenting locations when specimens or observations are collected, extracting and harmonizing data from many sources, georeferencing collecting localities without geocoordinates, applying quality control, and analyzing occurrence data against other geospatial phenomena. Almost all of these tasks can be facilitated if the biological records are connected to a common scheme of hierarchically organized named areas or geospatial entities.
The most commonly used spatial hierarchies are based on administrative entities, such as countries, states, provinces, counties, etc., but typically these entities have only moderate correspondence with natural features that influence species distributions. For these reasons one of the earliest standards created and ratified by TDWG was the World Geographic Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD, Hollis & Brummit 1992; Brummit 2001), which provided a hierarchical system of terrestrial entities that better reflect biogeographic regions while also specifying their relationships to administrative entities. Despite the increasing prevalence of georeferenced species occurrence data, an area-based scheme to present, retrieve and communicate species spatial distribution and associate information remains relevant and needed. The approach of WGSRPD, combining adminstrative limits and biogeographical concepts in a hierarchical scheme, has been a success, as the hundreds of papers citing this standard prove. And its utility is not diminishing; in just 2020, Google Scholar identifies 43 papers that cite the WGSRPD.
Since publication of the version 2, full or partial representations of the WGSRPD have been offered as an Access database (mdb), ESRI shape files (shp), and GeoJSON. TDWG typically receives several inquiries every year about updating WGSRPD, even offers of assistance, but without an active interest group, the expressions of interest have never been coordinated into an actual update. This interest group will provide that coordination.
Purpose and Scope
The purpose of this interest group is to coordinate the development of one or more geographical schemes, including standard names, abbreviations, and boundaries, that are practically useful for managing occurrence data and species distributions. This interest group will update the WGSRPD, will apply the same approach to marine areas to make the coverage global, and will maintain the standard(s) going forward. In addition to the text, areas will be provided under various digital formats (database, GeoJSON, shapefiles, …).
Australian Comparative biogeography
Study of australian comparative biogeography
Collaboration: Daniel Murphy (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Australia), Malte Ebach (University of New South Wales, Australia)
World Flora Online
World Flora is an international consortium of 42 partners which aims to provide an online flor of the plants of the world.
Publications
2024
- , 2024 — eDNA-based survey of the marine vertebrate biodiversity off the west coast of Guadeloupe (French West Indies). Biodiversity Data Journal vol. 12, , e125348ISSN1314-2828, 1314-2836
2023
- , September 2023 — < span style="font-variant:small-caps;">BIOREALM</span> —An ontology of comparative biogeography: New insights into the semantics of biodiversity conservation. Abstract Aim We aimed to apply ontological techniques to address semantic ambiguities in protected area and conservation… JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY vol. 50, n° 9, p. 1576-1586ISSN0305-0270
2022
- , December 2022 — Comparative biogeography of North American turtle faunas: Neogene regionalization. Frontiers of Biogeography vol. 14, n° 4, Publisher: International Biogeography Society. tex.hal_id: hal-03934749 tex.hal_version: v1ISSN1948-6596
- , October 2022 — « The sociological history of transforming TDWG to the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) » in TDWG annual conference.. , ,
- , August 2022 — « Biotectonics of Sulawesi: principles, methodology and area relationships » in 4th Southeast Asia Gateway.. , ,
- , 2022 — Honing the Visibility of TDWG: Communications expertise required. All organizations need clear and succinct mission and vision statements to communicate the purpose and overall goals of the… Biodiversity Information Science and Standards vol. 6, , ISBN: 2535-0897 Publisher: Sofia : Pensoft Publishers, 2017- Type: 10.3897/biss.6.93644
- , 2022 — The Sociological History of Transforming TDWG to Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG). Thirty-seven years—why celebrate this prime number anniversary of the founding of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG)… vol. 6, , Publication Title: Biodiversity Information Science and Standards Type: 10.3897/biss.6.93866ISBN2535-0897
2021
- , 2021 — Biotectonics of Sulawesi: Principles, methodology, and area relationships. Zootaxa vol. 5068, n° 4, p. 451-484ISSN1175-5334, 1175-5326
2020
- , April 2020 — LIMES: a tool for comparing species partition. Bioinformatics vol. 36, n° 7, p. 2282-2283 ISBN: 1367-4803 Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP) Type: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btz911
- , 2020 — World Flora Online: Placing taxonomists at the heart of a definitive and comprehensive global resource on the world’s plants. TAXON vol. 69, n° 6, p. 1311-1341ISSN0040-0262, 1996-8175