A Perfectly Archived, Continuously Updated Database System for Analysis of North American Vegetation

项目概要DBI：9905838，皮特，罗伯特，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山。一个完美存档的、不断更新的北美植被分析数据库系统。植物分类对于用于规划和清查的生物保护、用于监测和规划的资源管理以及作为组织和解释生态信息的工具的基础科学研究是至关重要的。所有这些活动都需要界定生态单位，并了解它们在景观上的分布。技术进步进行了实际的大规模分析，这些分析涉及跨机构司法管辖区或地理区域，并解决了全球变化、生态系统管理和养护规划等各种应用的生态问题。然而，所有这些努力都有赖于有一套定义明确、被广泛接受的共同分类单位。美国联邦政府通过联邦地理数据委员会的活动，批准了美国国家植被分类系统的标准。然而，在这样一个系统能够运作和被广泛接受之前，需要一个信息基础设施来管理预期的10*7个植被小区记录和10*4个植物协会。该奖项的重点是开发这样的信息基础设施，旨在使信息可以在网络上分发，同时不断更新和完善归档。该项目将设计、开发和测试支持美国国家植被分类所需的信息基础设施的核心组件的原型。一个工作组将定期在国家生态分析和综合中心开会，为PI和一名专门的博士后/程序员提供建议。第一个组成部分是独立的植被地块数据库。地块数据为任何可信的植被分类提供了基本信息。该数据库的设计将允许包括多种类型的地块，并将使用4个大型和不同的数据集进行测试。成分数据将是有用的，不仅可用于修订国家分类，而且可用于对植被组成、结构和动态的大量研究。第二个组件是保存植被分类的数据库。对从未被丢弃的记录的开始和停止日期的跟踪应允许在其历史上的任何时间重建被识别的社区和支持数据。第三个组成部分将仅在概念上开发，它是一个数据库，其中包含鉴定其他两个数据库中引用的物种所需的植物命名法。当前数据库中处理的植物命名法不足以在地块和分类数据库中使用，因为与植物名称相关的含义确实发生了变化，留下了旧用法的歧义。一旦开发和同行评审，原型将被TNC、USGS(NBI)、FGDC和ESA的某种组合采用和维护。美国地质调查局国家生物信息基础设施(NBII)预计将维护和服务地块数据库，TNC预计将维护和服务植被分类数据库，作为其新的遗产数据管理系统的一部分。待开发的植物命名数据库属性可能被纳入美国农业部植物数据库和美国地质调查局ITIS数据库。

Project SummaryDBI: 9905838, Peet, Robert, UNC Chapel Hill. A perfectly archived, continuously updated database system foranalysis of North American vegetation.Vegetation classification is of central importance to biological conservation for planning and inventory, to resource management for monitoring and planning, and to basic scientific research as a tool for organizing and interpreting ecological information. All of these activities require that ecological units be defined and that their distribution on the landscape be known and understood. Technological advances have made practical large-scale analyses that cross agency jurisdictions or geographic regions and address applied ecological issues as diverse as global change, ecosystem management, and conservation planning. However, all such efforts depend on having available a common set of well defined and broadly accepted classification units. The US federal government, through the activities of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, has approved standards for a US national vegetation classification system. However, before such a system can be operational and broadly accepted an information infrastructure is needed to manage the anticipated 10*7 vegetation plot records and 10*4 plant associations. The focus of this award is on the development of such an information infrastructure, designed so that the information can be distributed across the web while being both continually updated and perfectly archived.This project will design, develop and test prototypes of core components of the information infrastructure necessary to support the U.S. National Vegetation Classification. A working group will meet periodically at the National Ecological Analysis and Synthesis Center to advise the PIs and a dedicated postdoc/programer. The first component is a stand-alone vegetation plot database. Plot data provide the essential information that underlies any credible vegetation classification. This database will be designed to allow inclusion of a diversity of plot types, and will be tested using 4 large and divergent datasets. Component data will be useful, not only for revision of the national classification, but also for numerous studies of vegetation composition, structure and dynamics. The second component is a database that holds the vegetation classification. Tracking of start and stop dates for records that are never discarded should allow the communities recognized and the supporting data to be reconstructed for any time in its history. A third component, to be developed in concept only, is a database that contains the botanical nomenclature needed to identify the species referenced in the other two databases. Plant nomenclature as treated in current databases is inadequate for use in the plots and classification databases because the meanings associated with plant names do change, leaving old usage ambiguous.Once developed and peer reviewed, the prototypes will be adopted and maintained by some combination of TNC, USGS (NBI I), FGDC and ESA.. The USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) anticipates maintaining and serving the plots database, and TNC anticipates maintaining and serving the vegetation classification database as part of its new Heritage Data Management System. The plant nomenclature database attributes to be developed are likely to be incorporated within the USDA Plants Database and the USGS ITIS Database.