Assembling Biological Inventories for Analysis

1. Assembling Biological Inventories for Analysis Robert J. Meese, Ph.D. University of California, Davis rjmeese@ucdavis.edu (530) 752-1768 Presented by Andrea Grosse IABIN Joint IABIN/CHM Meeting: “Building Partnerships through Effective Networking”

2. Knowledge Gap: reliable species inventory data difficult to obtain • Requisite field work not yet performed • Data on species occurrences not available • Data “available”, but idiosyncratic • Multitude of storage media • Cards, variety of electronic media • Word processor, spreadsheet, database files • Multitude of data structures • Even if electronic, data structures incompatible • Multitude of species names • Conflicting species names prevent comparisons • Common names used exclusively, not cross-referenced to scientific name equivalents

3. Filling the knowledge gap: assembling distribution data • Standardize species inventories • Names standardized • Data structures standardized • Data documented • Associated data (abundance, origin, breeding and residence status, etc.) standardized • How may this be accomplished? • One way is to create “custom input device” • Specialized computer program specifically developed to create standardized databases of species occurrence and related information

4. Custom input device:Visual MABFlora/MABFauna • Core is database of species names • Names derived from published sources • Widely recognized • Users of software select names from lists displayed by program • Standardizes on names • Eliminates typing errors • Recently, use of standardized codes (e.g., ITIS TSNs) for species names essential for data sharing among agencies

5. Users select from a list (i.e. a catalog) of all validly-published names (cannot assume that all field personnel or those engaged in data entry are familiar with current taxonomic treatments) Program automatically reconciles alternative names (e.g., synonyms) to those currently recognized as valid (i.e. to a single nomenclature)

6. Document sources of information • Document data entry person(s) • Standardize associated data (e.g., abundance, origin, residence and breeding status, etc.) in vocabularies (e.g., abundance categories) and formats

7. Automatically create files of entered data and append these data on to other computers • Export data for use in other applications • Provide standard queries of data and produce preformatted output

8. Easy to learn and efficient to use • Most biologists cannot be expected to be expert database managers • Distributed at no cost • Most agencies cannot afford to deploy hundreds or thousands of copies of software if it is expensive • May be run over a network, so a single installation may serve many users

9. Current Status • ICE biological inventory databases contain over 413,000 records assembled through use of Visual MABFlora/MABFauna • 208,607 plant records • 204,565 animal records • 1035 sites from 129 countries represented • All records documented as to source(s) and standardized to single taxonomic treatments • Web site receives > 2,000 “hits” per month

10. 1. Windows Help file • Indexed • Searchable Three user support files provided • 2. QuickStart text file • English & Spanish • Gets you “up and running” quickly • 3. Tutorial: • PowerPoint-based • Interactive • Just sit and watch

11. Collaborators