The Atlas of Australian Birds
The Atlas of Australian Birds
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DOI：
10.1080/03036758.1985.10416847
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发表时间：
1985-06
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
P. Gaze
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
P. Gaze
对于任何生物学家来说，了解动物的分布是至关重要的，因为他们希望了解动物的栖息地需求，或者为了控制或保护而评估种群变化。1977年，澳大利亚皇家鸟类学家联盟发起了一项为期五年的计划，绘制澳大利亚所有鸟类的分布图。在澳大利亚这样一个幅员辽阔、距离最近的鸟类学家有数百英里的国家，这是一种勇敢的行为。除了最有能力的鸟类学家外，要鉴定的鸟类种类众多，这对所有人来说都是一项艰巨的任务。澳大利亚有25种饶舌鸟，而我们只有2种；有50多种蜜水，而我们只有3种。《澳大利亚鸟类地图集》展示了来自澳大利亚大陆812个一度广场的3000多名贡献者收集的数据。最终的产品是对这些人、管理人员、研究人员和其他在财政上支持该计划的人的一个令人印象深刻的致敬。这本地图集必须列为对澳大利亚鸟类学的主要贡献之一。冗长的介绍对于描述地图集的背景和记录、审查和处理这些记录直至计算机存储和数据分析的方法是必不可少的。新西兰的科学组织特别感兴趣的是该计划从联邦和州政府组织获得的资金。因此，拉乌能够保留其自主权，并利用这种财政援助雇用自己的工作人员。要求观察员提供哪些数据以及他们如何记录这些数据的细节与新西兰的自然科学有关。可以与我们自己的鸟类分布地图集上应用的技术进行比较，我相信可以从中吸取教训，这将有利于未来在塔斯曼海峡两岸重复这项工作。我们生物资源中心可能计划的其他调查工作也将受益于对这些方法的研究。例如，我质疑允许观察员提交他们已经编码的打卡记录是否明智。在此操作过程中不可避免地会出现错误，并且由于原始的手写记录没有保留，因此无法评估其准确性。未来的研究人员也无法核实他们可能怀疑的记录。引言部分还包括对数据的分析，以帮助读者理解分布图。正如可以预料的那样，在更接近文明的地区，观察者做出了更大的努力（每平方记录卡）；但令人惊讶的是，冬季参观广场的人数比其他任何季节都多。
Knowledge of an animal's distribution is vital for any biologist who wishes to understand its habitat requirements or assess population changes with a view to management, either for control or conservation. In 1977 the Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union launched a five year scheme to map the distribution of all bird species in the country. This was a courageous act in a country the size of Australia, which has vast areas hundreds of miles from the nearest ornithologist. The large number of bird species to be identified would have provided a daunting task for all but the most competent ornithologist. Australia has 25 rap tors compared with our two, and more than 50 species of honeyeater where we have only three. The Atlas of Australian Birds presents the data gathered by over 3,000 contributors from the 812 one-degree squares on the Australian continent. The final product is an impressive tribute to these people and to the administrators, researchers and others who supported the scheme financially. This Atlas must rank as one of the major contributions to Australian ornithology.The lengthy introduction is essential to describe the background to the Atlas and the methods of recording, the vetting and processing of these records through to the computer storage and analyses of the data. Of particular interest to scientific organisations in New Zealand is the funding which the scheme obtained from federal and state government organisations. The RAOU was therefore able to retain its autonomy and use this financial assistance to employ its own staff. Details of what data were requested from observers and how they were to record it are relevant to the natural sciences in New Zealand. Comparisons may be drawn with the techniques applied to our own atlas of bird distribution, and I am sure lessons can be learnt that will benefit any future repeat of this exercise on either side of the Tasman. Other survey work which may be planned by our Biological Resources Centre would also benefit from a study of these methods. For example, I question the wisdom of allowing observers to submit their records already coded for punching. Errors will inevitably occur during this operation, and, because the original longhand records have not been retained, it has not been possible to assess the accuracy. Neither will researchers in the future be able to check on records that they may doubt. The Introduction also contains analyses of the data which assist the reader to interpret the distribution maps. As could be expected, a greater observer effort (record cards per square) was made in areas closer to civilisation; but, surprisingly, more squares were visited during the winter months than any other season.