Using Biological Databases to Improve Biodiversity Assessments: New Methods For Geographic-Based Analysis

确定生物多样性丰富的地区是保护生物资源的关键一步。这项研究将评估传统的、基于地理的生物多样性评估方法，并开发和评估使用生物收集数据的改进方法。首先将研究基于物种范围图的传统方法，然后是使用生物收集数据来创建发生的趋势表面地图的两种替代方法。将提供基于所有方法的软件工具。这项研究将有三个主要用途。首先，它将确定传统的生物多样性评估方法是否会受到物种范围图中错误传播的影响，以及错误可能如何以及在哪里表现出来。其次，使用趋势面的新技术应该会减少预测中的估计误差。第三，该软件将为使用收集数据库进行生物多样性评估提供便利。

Identifying areas rich in biological diversity is a critical step towards the conservation of biological resources. This research will evaluate traditional, geographic-based biodiversity assessment methods and develop and evaluate improved methods that use biological collection data. The traditional methods based on species range maps will be the first investigated, followed by two alternative methods using biological collection data for creating tend surface maps of occurrence. Software tools based on all of the methods will be made available. The study will have three main uses. First, it will determine whether traditional methods of biodiversity assessment are subject to error propagation from species range maps, and how and where the errors are likely to manifest. Second, new techniques with trend surfaces should reduce estimation errors in predictions. Third, the software will facilitate the use of collection databases for biodiversity assessment.