Data on the conservation potential of fish and coral populations in aquariums

The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled “Assessing the Conservation Potential of Fish and Corals in Aquariums Globally”. This article unveils the number of fish and coral species held by members of the Species360 network, from records in the Zoological Information Management Systems (ZIMS). Furthermore, we provide data for species in ZIMS that are under the following global prioritization and conservation assessments: i) the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ii) the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, iii) Vulnerability to Climate Change, iv) Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) and v) the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE). The material in this Data in Brief comprises the curated data and species overlaps in the mentioned prioritization schemes. It aims to facilitate further critical and extended analysis and to highlight the importance of record keeping and management of aquatic species in zoological institutions across the globe for the conservation of these species.


Specifications
Value of the data This is the most comprehensive overlap of 3511 species of fish and corals with five global species conservation assessments and prioritization schemes. We aim to inform how many of the species in aquariums members of the Species360 global network registered in ZIMS align with those schemes.
These data will assist further research on ex situ populations for species of conservation concern. These data could support the decision-making process of aquariums and zoological institutions on captive management and collection planning.
The dataset may also assist in further assessments by identifying existing gaps and opportunities for conservation.

Data
The data incorporates 3511 species in aquariums with five conservation assessments and prioritization schemes.

Experimental design, materials, and methods
The creation of this dataset is based on an extensive analysis of six online datasets: i) species holdings from the Species360's Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) [2], a centralized real-time system that manages data of more than 21,000 species held in zoos and aquariums; ii) The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) [3] an agreement between 183 countries to regulate international trade in plants and animals and their products; iii) the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List [4], an assessment of species' global risk of extinction and its threat status; iv) species Vulnerability to Climate Change [5], an assessment of species' sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity to climate change; v) Evolutionary Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) [6] that attributes scores according to the species' evolutionary history and threat level and vi) species in the Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) [7], that prioritizes those species that are Critically Endangered or Endangered according to the IUCN Red List, with populations restricted to single sites.
The species names were standardized according to the accepted scientific name in Catalogue of Life (CoL) [8]. Species names and IUCN Red List status were automatically retrieved using the R package [9] taxize [10]. When accepted names across databases were not automatically standardized, we manually checked them. Based on the standardized species names, we cross-referenced databases using the merge function from R. We identified the species currently managed in a studbook in the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) [11] or in the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) [12].
In Table 1 we show the number of species in each taxonomic class currently held in aquariums members of the Species360 network divided in IUCN Red List categories. In the same table we give the percentages of the number of species in aquariums from the total assessed by the IUCN Red List. The analysis of the number of species described and in aquariums with an evolutionary distinct (ED) score is given in Table 2, divided in arbitrary score categories. Species listed in more than one prioritization schemes are shown in Table 3, with species-specific indication of the IUCN Red List status, vulnerability to climate change, ED score and CITES index. In Table 4 we compiled the list of all species with active studbooks in EAZA and AZA together with their population sizes in aquariums members of the Species360 network and their current CITES listing. Table 5 has information on all the species currently in Species360 aquariums and information on all the studied prioritization schemes and population sizes. Tables 4 and 5 have two sheets, one with the respective data and other with the definition of the data on each column.  CoL: Catalogue of Life [8].