Symbiota, A Virtual Flora Model for the Southwestern United States

亚利桑那州立大学获得了一笔拨款，用于开发一种基于计算机的动植物识别系统。这个名为Symbiota的系统将引入一个改进的数据模型和高效的计算机程序来加快识别过程。基于层次化组织的数据，将特征描述链接到分类等级，该系统动态地为任何用户确定的感兴趣的物种组合构建识别键。Symbiota中继承和面向对象原则的实现大大减少了数据输入的工作量，在一个系统中处理不同分类群体的物种概念，并适应不同的系统发生或分类观点。该系统在识别过程的每一步都确定字符对所讨论物种的适用性，随着可能的物种选择范围的缩小，动态地添加更具体的字符并删除更一般的字符。虽然该系统可以独立使用，但在这个项目中，Symbiota将被整合到西南环境信息网络（SEINet: http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php）中，这是一个成熟的美国西南部和墨西哥北部生物多样性信息中心。SEIN收集记录提供了丰富的地点信息以及特定的分类信息，这些信息可用于生成用户选择的物种列表，例如州立公园内所有针叶树物种列表。这些列表可以与Symbiota一起动态构建除非公园植物物种之外的物种识别键，以及仅包括公园中实际出现的植物的特征。因此，该系统具有巨大的潜力，可以像专业分类学家所期望的那样全面，也可以像小学生在学校操场上介绍植物物种时所需要的那样简单。

Arizona State University has been awarded a grant to develop a computer-based identification system for plants and animals. The system, named Symbiota, will introduce an improved data model and highly efficient computer programs to speed the identification process. Based on hierarchically organized data linking descriptions of characteristics to taxonomic ranks this system dynamically builds identification keys for any user determined combination of species of interest. The implementation of inheritance and object oriented principles in Symbiota greatly reduces data entry efforts, handles species concepts for vastly different taxonomic groups in one system and accommodates varying phylogenic or taxonomic views. The system determines the applicability of characters to the species in question at every step of the identification process dynamically adding the more specific characters and removing the more general ones as the choice of possible species is being narrowed. Although the system may be used independently, in this project Symbiota will be integrated into the Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet: http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php), a mature biodiversity information center for the Southwestern US and Northern Mexico. The SEIN collection records provide a wealth of locality information as well as specific taxonomic information that can be used to generate user selected lists of species such as a list of all conifer species within a state park. These lists can be used with Symbiota to dynamically construct an identification key to those species excluding plant species not in the park as well as including only the characteristics for plants which actually appear in the park. Therefore, the system has the enormous potential to be as comprehensive as the professional taxonomist expects it to be or as simple as a primary school student needs it to be when being introduced to the plant species on the school grounds.