ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e157676
A FAIR and User-Friendly Web Application for Democratizing Research on Zoosporic Parasites in Aquatic Systems
expand article infoDavide Raho‡, Andrea Tarallo‡, Ilaria Rosati‡§
‡ National Research Council (CNR), Research Institute on Terrestrial Ecosystems (IRET), Lecce, Italy§ LifeWatch Italy, Lecce, Italy

Corresponding author: Davide Raho ( davide.raho@cnr.it )

Corresponding author: Andrea Tarallo ( andrea.tarallo@cnr.it )

© Davide Raho, Andrea Tarallo, Ilaria Rosati.
This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Raho D, Tarallo A, Rosati I (2025) A FAIR and User-Friendly Web Application for Democratizing Research on Zoosporic Parasites in Aquatic Systems. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e157676
Open Access
Abstract
This poster presents the ParAqua database, the first structured initiative aimed at centralising and harmonising data on zoosporic parasites of algae by integrating in situ observations, genetic data from NCBI, and literature sources. The database includes standardised information on parasite and host taxonomy, observation variables, genetic identifiers, and bibliographic metadata. Built with controlled vocabularies (Darwin Core, LifeWatch Traits Thesaurus, Dublin Core), the platform features a user-friendly web application offering structured query tools, a navigable data table, CSV downloads, and a stateless RESTful API for programmatic access. This resource supports researchers in identifying knowledge gaps and advancing parasitological and ecological studies. This work was presented as a poster at the CNR-IRET Conference held in Rome, February 18–19, 2025.
Keywords
zoosporic parasites, algae, host-parasite interactions, data harmonisation