Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus - FAO.org - Food and

335 Pages·2009·1.31 MB·English

ASFIS REFERENCE SERIES, No. 6 Revision 3 ASFIS-6 (Rev. 3)

AQUATIC SCIENCES AND FISHERIES INFORMATION SYSTEM
Aquatic Sciences

and Fisheries

Thesaurus

Descriptors Used in the
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Information System
ASFIS REFERENCE SERIES, No. 6 Revision 3 ASFIS-6 (Rev. 3)

AQUATIC SCIENCES AND FISHERIES INFORMATION SYSTEM
Aquatic Sciences

and Fisheries

Thesaurus

Descriptors Used in the
Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Information System
Originally compiled by
E. Fagetti
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries Department, Rome, Italy
D.W. Privett
Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, Godalming, Surrey, United Kingdom
J.R.L. Sears
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Bethesda, MD, United States of America

Published by
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2009
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© FAO 2009
ASFA THESAURUS

PREFACE

The publications comprising the ASFIS Reference Series define the rules, authority lists, formats, codes and
procedures on which the ASFIS system is based, and therefore they are intended to ensure the consistency
necessary for the computer processing and the uniformity within the resulting ASFIS information products. This
Thesaurus is the “authority list” which indexers use to choose subject descriptors while preparing references for
inclusion in the ASFA bibliographic database (the ASFA bibliographic database is the principal information module
or output of the ASFIS system).
The Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Information System (ASFIS) is an international, cooperative information
system dealing with the science, technology and management relating to marine, brackish water and freshwater
organisms and environments, including their socio-economic and legal aspects. The system is maintained jointly
by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission of Unesco (IOC), United Nations/Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (UN/DOALOS)
and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) with the collaboration of numerous international and
national institutes and organizations world-wide (i.e. the ASFIS/ASFA Partners). The ASFIS system's main output
is the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA) bibliographic database containing more than a 1 million
references with abstracts and indexing, accessioned since 1971 (and earlier for specific subjects, journals or
areas). Upwards of 4000 references are added to the database each month.
The references or input to the ASFA bibliographic database are prepared by a network of National, and
International ASFA Partners, including the ASFA Publisher (ProQuest). The bibliographic references are sent to
the Publisher where they are processed by computer and merged to create a master file (i.e. the ASFA database).
The ASFA database is made available to the ASFA Partners in various formats or media (e.g. Internet, CD/DVD
Rom, printed abstracts journals) for use as a source of data for local or national information services. The database
is also made commercially available by ProQuest to the general public.
The bibliographic reference for each document in the ASFA database contains: 1) a detailed bibliographic citation,
2) an abstract; and 3) a set of indexing terms. The identification of the data elements making up the bibliographic
citation, the writing of the abstract, and the choice of the indexing terms is the responsibility of the ASFA Partner.
Computer based information systems operate most successfully when the input (in this case bibliographic
references) is prepared with a high degree of consistency and accuracy. This is true for any computer based
system, but it is even more important in an international system like ASFA in which the preparation of input is highly
decentralized. In order to attain the desired level of consistency and accuracy, it is necessary that all of the persons
submitting references for inclusion in the ASFA database are trained in using a standardized: cataloguing,
abstracting and indexing procedure.
The purpose of this Thesaurus is to assist the indexers, in the participating ASFA Partner institutes, in
consistently choosing the most appropriate subject descriptors while preparing bibliographic references for
inclusion in the ASFA database. Of course, the Thesaurus is also of use to the “searcher” of the ASFA
database, and it is included as a tool or search aid in the interfaces to the computer searchable versions of the
ASFA database.
For further information on ASFA, see the ASFA Home page (http://www.fao.org/fi/asfa/asfa.asp) and, in particular,
the FAQ page http://www.fao.org/fi/asfa/faq/faq.asp
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ASFA THESAURUS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (1986 Edition)
Compilation of this extensive terminology would not have been possible without the willing support of all
personnel involved over many years in the development and production of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries
Abstracts (ASFA). This support by past and present members of the ASFA Advisory Board and indexing staff
whose names are listed on the editorial pages of ASFA is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are also due to
many specialists in the FAO Fisheries Department, in the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences at Wormley, UK
and in the Institute of Offshore Engineering, UK, who have suggested descriptors and defined concepts
relevant to their fields of speciality.
To the compilers of this edition of the Thesaurus goes the credit for their unique and valuable achievement.
The enormous task of structuring the terminology for the aquatic biology, biological oceanography, and living
resource aspects was undertaken by Dr. Elda Fagetti of the FAO Fisheries Department; her dedicated efforts
launched the development of this Thesaurus on a sound foundation. The entries relevant to the expanded
scope of ASFA into physical oceanography, ocean technology and non-living resource aspects were added by
Dr. D.W. Privett of the UK Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, Wormley, working under contract to FAO. To
Mr. J.R.L. Sears of Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, Bethesda, MD., USA, goes the credit for suggesting a large
number of descriptors and editing online the final print version of this Thesaurus. In addition to the compilers,
acknowledgement goes to Arnold Myers (Institute of Offshore En-gineering, IOE) who contributed to the
vocabulary in marine technology; to Cinda Yates Gainch (Division of the Unesco Libraries, Archives and
Documentation Services), who adapted the SPINES software to the ASFIS Thesaurus requirements and
carried out the initial computerisation process.
Last but not least in this list of names go acknowledgements to Mr. E.F. Akyüz, Chief, Fishery Information,
Data and Statistics Service, FAO, who made possible the realisation of this Thesaurus, to Mr. R. Needham,
head of the Research Information Unit which is responsible for development of all of the ASFIS Reference
Series, and to the ASFA staff of the same unit who in one way or another were involved in this lengthy task,
particularly Mrs. Giovanna Sebastiani-Corbellini and Mrs. Luciana Lombardi-Gianandrea, for their invaluable
and patient help at the keyboarding and proofreading stages of the Thesaurus.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (2000 Edition)
Adding to the difficult task of updating a Thesaurus, the compiler of this edition (Ms Julia. Hudson, IDC
Consultants, Ottawa, Canada) took up the task following many years in which the Thesaurus’s maintenance
was left pending. During this revision (which was never formally published), the Thesaurus maintenance was
moved to the OECD thesaurus management software (OECD's Multilingual Thesaurus Manager, MTM). Discussion
and voting on the terms was undertaken by the ASFA Thesaurus Working Group then comprised of: Richard.
Pepe (FAO, ASFA Secretariat, Italy), Angela Hitti (CSA, USA), Jacqueline Prod’homme (IFREMER, France)
and Wulf. Kirchner (BF, Germany).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (2009 Edition)
Periodic revisions to subject terminologies are required as the discipline continues to develop and mature.
The 2009 Edition (Revision 3) incorporates some 200 further entries compiled from two draft lists of amended
and new terms. The first list was the collation of the suggestions sent by ASFA Partners. The second was
drawn up by the FAO ASFA Secretariat from a review of the FAO Fisheries Glossary. The major work of
compiling, circulating and coordinating these lists was undertaken by Ms Linda Noble (National Marine
Biological Library, Plymouth, UK) and Ms Helen Wibley (ASFA Secretariat, Rome, Italy). Discussion and
voting on the terms was undertaken by the ASFA Thesaurus Working Group which was re-established at the
2006 ASFA Board meeting. The members of this Group were Richard Pepe and Helen Wibley (FAO, ASFA
Secretariat), Craig Emerson and Vicki Soto (ProQuest), Linda Noble (NMBL/UK), Jacqueline Prod’homme
(IFREMER) and Ian Pettman (FBA/UK).
The thesaurus revision was carried out by Ian Pettman (Freshwater Biological Association, The Ferry Landing,
Ambleside, Cumbria, U.K) using the MultiTes Pro thesaurus software. Acknowledgment goes to the efforts of
Ian Pettman, who, besides incorporating the revisions and making the necessary structural adjustments, also
provided outputs for the print version of the Thesaurus and for other computer formats (XML, OWL and
SKOS) for various other potential future applications (e.g. ontologies, GIS).
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ASFA THESAURUS
CONTENTS
PREFACE................................................................................................................. iii
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................
ix
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................
1. PURPOSE AND COVERAGE OF ASFIS THESAURUS....................................
ix
1.1 Purpose.............................................................................................................. ix
1.2 Status of Thesaurus Development ................................................................ x
1.3 Background....................................................................................................... x
1.4 Field coverage of the ASFIS Thesaurus......................................................... xi
2. RULES AND CONVENTIONS.............................................................................
xii
2.1 Standardization and control of terms............................................................. xii
2.1.1 Spelling rules................................................................................................. xii
2.1.2 Noun and adjective forms............................................................................. xii
2.1.3 Singular and plural forms............................................................................. xii
2.1.4 Abbreviations, initials and acronyms.......................................................... xiii
2.1.5 Alphabetisation.............................................................................................. xiii
2.2 Multiple-word entries........................................................................................ xiii
2.3 Use of characters.............................................................................................. xiii
2.3.1 Character sets................................................................................................ xiii
2.3.2 Punctuation.................................................................................................... xiv
3. SELECTION AND DEFINITION OF TERMS.......................................................
xiv
3.1 Term Selection.................................................................................................. xv
3.2 Term definition.................................................................................................. xv
4. SPECIFICITY AND PRE-COORDINATION........................................................
xv
5. COMPUTER LOADING, CHECKING AND DEVELOPMENT............................
xv
6. THESAURUS CLASSIFICATION, STRUCTURE AND NOTATION...................
xvi
6.1 Thesaurus structural relations........................................................................ xvi
6.2 Notation............................................................................................................. xvi
6.2.1 Scope notes.................................................................................................... xvi
6.2.2 Alternative relations and synonymy............................................................ xvi
6.2.3 Hierarchical relations.................................................................................... xvi
6.2.4 Associative or affinitive relations................................................................. xvi
7. GUIDELINES FOR TERM SELECTION BY USER.............................................
xvii
xix
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................
9. THESAURUS TERMS.........................................................................................
1
10. ASFA THESAURUS TERMINOLOGY CONTROL FORM.................................
313

vi i

ASFA THESAURUS
Introduction

by

Elda Fagetti, FAO
(Revised by Ian Pettman, FBA)

1. PURPOSE AND COVERAGE OF THE ASFIS THESAURUS

1.1 Purpose
The ASFIS Thesaurus has been conceived so as to correspond to the objectives of the ASFIS
system. It permits the subject indexing and retrieval of information on all aspects of aquatic sciences
and technology, exploitation of living and non-living resources, related policy, social and economic
aspects, processing and marketing of aquatic products, as recorded and stored in the Aquatic
Sciences and Fisheries Information System's ASFA database. So far as can be ascertained, this is
the only Thesaurus devoted to this broad field of knowledge. This Revision 3 supersedes the
'”Thesaurus of Terms for Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries" published in 1976 as FAO Fisheries
Circular number 344, the “Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus” published in 1986 as ASFA
Reference Series No.6, Revision 1, and “Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Thesaurus” published in
2000 as ASFA Reference Series No.6, Revision 2.

1.2 Status of Thesaurus Development
It is perhaps worthwhile to emphasize that a technical thesaurus is not concerned with "semantic
perfection" or exact hierarchy of scientific disciplines. Its structure is developed in accordance with the
pragmatic requirements of information retrieval. The terminology presented in this publication has
resulted from the experience gained in indexing over 1,300,000 records for inclusion in the Aquatic
Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts database during 1971-2008. Extensive reference has been made
to other related authority lists, thesauri, term glossaries and dictionaries. A list of these can be found
in the bibliography. Nevertheless, terminology relevant to any area of scientific/technological de-
velopment grows hand-in-hand with that development, and no thesaurus can ever be regarded as
final.
The effort of compiling a more comprehensive Thesaurus for ASFIS and its ASFA database will take
several more years. Rather than tolerate further delay in revising the now outdated 2000 edition, the
ASFA Advisory Board has chosen to publish this Thesaurus now. Users may find some topics within
the scope of ASFIS still not satisfactorily covered. To facilitate revision and up-dating, comments on
and/or criticisms of the Thesaurus are welcome. Such comments/criticisms as well as suggestions for
new terms to be added to the Thesaurus should be submitted on the forms found in this Thesaurus
to:

Fisheries and Aquaculture Information and Statistics Service (FIES)
Attention: ASFA
Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
00153 Rome, Italy
The Thesaurus covers only subject index terms and should be used in conjunction with the ASFIS
Guidelines for Subject Categorisation and Indexing - (ASFIS-5) - and the other ASFIS indexing tools,
namely ASFIS Geographic Authority List - (ASFIS-7) - for geographic indexing and the ASFIS List of
Species for Fishery Statistics Purposes (ASFIS -15), for taxonomic indexing.
ix