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Biodiversity Informatics at OSUC |
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Biodiversity Informatics at The Ohio State University Insect Collection By N. F. Johnson & L. Musetti December 09, 1998 Access to information is one of the keys to advances in our understanding of the world. Print publications have been the traditional means of communication, but today's information technologies offer new opportunities to facilitate information sharing around the world. The specimens deposited in biological collections form the physical documentation of much of our knowledge of biological diversity, both past and present, the geographic and temporal distribution of taxa, and ecological associations. The data associated with specimens may never be published in the scientific literature; hence their value and even existence is little appreciated. The development of tools for transparent electronic access to this information is important to a wide range of biodiversity information consumers: not only the systematics community and the curators of collections, but the general public, educators, and researchers in biological control and biodiversity issues. Accessibility means more than simple on-line lists of specimen label data: it implies organization, summarization, and visualization of the data to facilitate communication and understanding of the information. A database accessible through the Internet creates the possibility of integration of information from other taxa and other scientific domains , e.g., climate, soils, land-use, hydrology, and vegetative cover, which may lead to new and exciting discoveries on biodiversity. We have developed and implemented a relational database and World Wide Web interfaces based upon the information model developed by the Association of Systematics Collections. A prototype concentrated on a single group of wasps, the Pelecinidae, for which we sought to database all existing information, including the label data from every specimen in natural history collections worldwide. This effort, The Pelecinus Project, must represent the most complete on-line documentation of any single insect taxon. The same database structure was used to create the Web interface for The Beetles of the Virgin Islands, in cooperation with Dr. Michael A. Ivie (Montana State University). The focus there is on an area, rather than a taxon. The knowledge gathered while working on these two projects served as a solid base for the development of the Hymenoptera On-line, which provides access to data on the order Hymenoptera (the ants, bees, and wasps - an estimated 115,000 species). We created the structure upon which information on classification, phenology, literature, and biological associations can be provided, along with images, distribution maps, and graphs of flight periods. Hymenoptera On-Line already contains 96,356 names, 3,280 references, 24,304 specimens, 1,546 people, and is constantly being updated. The information on the superfamilies Proctotrupoidea and Platygastroidea is the most complete, reflecting our personal research interest. Sources of information are documented, even to the specification of individual specimens bearing relevant label data. Automated connections to other on-line data sources, including GenBank, the USDA Plants Database, and Orthoptera Species File On-Line, facilitates access to additional information. We envision Hymenoptera On-Line as a community resource, and see a tremendous potential for collaboration with fellow hymenopterists to further develop and enhance this database.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Norman F. Johnson Johnson.2@osu.edu
Department of Entomology |
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