Species description pattern

1. Latin name, author of description and year
2. Taxonomy
   • Phylum (Division)
   • Class
   • Order
   • Family
   • Genus
   • Synonyms
   • Common names
     • Russian
     • Kazakh
     • Turkmenian
     • Azerbaijani
     • Iranian
     • English
3. General view of the organism (detailed if needed, in case of distinct sex dimorphism – separate images of male and female reflecting the most important diagnostic features)
4. Taxonomic description of species
   • Intraspecific forms: subspecies, varieties (Latin names and synonymy), diagnostic characters
   • Relatives, occurrence except for the Caspian Sea +LINK pages of these related species at the other sites
5. Distribution of species (subspecies, varieties, if needed) within the Caspian (maps format A4, handwritten isolines),  additional textual description is admitted
   • Status as per International  Red Data Book
   • Status as per National  Red Data Books
   • First record for the Caspian (date and reference)
   • Redescription of species (references)
6. General characteristics of species
   • Ecologo-taxonomic group (bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, zooplankton, nekton, neuston, bacteriobenthos, phytobenthos,  meiobenthos, macrozoobenthos, periphyton, fouling organisms, symbiotic species, parasites)
   • Origin: Caspian autochthons, Caspian Estuarine, freshwater, Black Sea immigrants, Mediterranean immigrants, Arctic immigrants, European immigrants, North American immigrants, Indo-Pacific immigrants)
   • World distribution (Caspian and Ponto-Caspian endemic species, ubiquists, cosmopolites, circumpolar species)
   • Habitat
   • Migrations
7. Relation to abiotic environmental factors (according to long-term data on distribution and experimental data necessarily with references or through internet links).
   • Relation to salinity (marine euryhaline, brackishwater euryhaline, brackishwater stenohaline, halophytes, mesohalobionts, oligohalobionts, indifferent – hyperlinks to distribution maps)
   • Relation to temperature (eurythermic, stenothermic (warm-water, cool-water) – internet links to maps, tables, textual descriptions
   • Vertical distribution (depth: euribathic, stenobathic – internet links to maps, tables, textual descriptions)
   • Relation to oxygen conditions (oxyphilic and resistant to hypoxia and anoxia)
   • Relation to fluctuations of the sea level
8. Feeding
   • Feeding type (autotrophic, chemotrophic, heterotrophic (osmotic and holozoic), mixotrophic
   • Feeding behavior
   • Food spectrum: euryphagous, stenophagous, oligophagous)
   • Species food supply
   • Quantitative characteristics of feeding (food consumption rate, diurnal (or the other time interval) diet, food assimilation, food selectivity indices)
9. Reproduction
   • Reproduction type (gamogenesis, agamogenesis (different types))
   • Reproduction areas (textual descriptions and/or maps)
   • Terms of reproduction (intervals, if not annual, and in case spring and autumn, even and uneven races exist) (hypelinks to “size-age population  structure”)
   • Fecundity (or division rate)
   • Limiting factors (environmental abiotic (if available, site figures for optimal ranges) and biotic factors)
10. Life history and development
    • Life history stages (their average duration, text or scheme)
    • Relation to environmental factors (foremost for the most vulnerable life history stages to abiotic and biotic factors, internet links to “relation to abiotic environmental factors” + “ interspecific relations”)
    • Age of maturity
    • Thermal conditions of development
    • Quantitative characteristics of growth (Growth equation or diagrams, tables)
11. Structural and functional population characteristics
    • Sexual structure
    • Age- size structure (LINK to “reproduction terms”) ( including average and maximum specimen age of the population, medium, minimum, and maximum size)
    • Quantitative characteristics (abundance and biomass – internet links to distribution maps)
    • Population trends
12. Interspecific relations (with regard to the new classification, especially concerning the term”symbiosis”, competitors (internet links to the other species included into the database), symbionts, mutualists (internet links to the other species included into the database), commensals (internet links to the other species included into the database), parasites (internet links to the other species included into the database), predators (internet links to the other species included into the database), species as food supply to other species, relation to exotic/alien  species)
13. Impact on the ecosystem (valid for exotic species)
14. Importance of species to bioresources production of the Caspian Sea
    • Economic significance of species
    • Commercial characteristics of species, catches
    • Fishing gears and fishing zones
    • Impact of fisheries on the population status
15. Human impact/threats (heavy metals, chlororganic pesticides, oil contamination, overexploitation, exotic/alien species)
16. Conservation measures (existing practices and required for future)
17. References
18. Compiled by
19. Acknowledgements