U.S. National Science Foundation Project OCE 00-03970

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Interfacing Geospatial, Taxonomic and Environmental Data for a Group of Marine Invertebrates

About this site:  This website is intended to:

  • provide a public information resource of data, interpretation, and methods related to the taxonomy, biogeography, and habitat characteristics or environmental correlates of the Hexacorallia and allied taxa. 
  • connect and integrate the activities of the individual and institutional partners;
  • keep a wide range of project information updated and available to all interested parties; 
  • provide a directory and communication links to participants and related projects.

We solicit community feedback and contribution! Specific needs are for:

1. Station or locality data for the taxon/organism database (see background statement);

2. New or improved global datasets for inclusion in the Environmental database;

3. Information about and links to related projects and data sources.

How the website works:  Information on site format, conventions, and structure.

The overall site represents a synthesis of two major database components and their associated tools:

The 'Biodata' query structure and database can be searched by geographic location of the entries, by various levels of taxonomic classification (including synonyms), by aspects of the literature reference(s) (Title, Author, Year), and by the Museum repository for type specimens (if any). Images are included if available.

The 'Envirodata' query structure provides access to the contents of a global, half-degree (30') database that serves a variety of marine, terrestrial, atmospheric and geomorphic global datasets in a common scale and format. This database is designed to be queried first by geographic region or location, and a variety of options are available for extraction of data for the grid cells representing multiple points or regions. The environmental variables are selected from a user specified version of the database - a selected (preferred) data set, all available environmental data, or either selected or total data bases with LOICZ biogeochemical budget variables included.

A variety of manipulation, analysis and interconnection tools are available as part of the Envirodata facility, by links, or at the interface of the Biodata and Envirodata structures. Selection of locations directly and indirectly, mapping of point locations, querying points for available biodata, and automatic reporting of summary environmental characteristics for biodata locations are all part of the growing links between biological and biogeographic/environmental analyses and data retrieval. On the Envirodata output pages, it is possible to visualizes distributions and statistics for selected variables and regions, filter, transform, and calculate variables online, examine corellation matrices and scatter plots of selected datasets. Data can be downloaded as comma separated variable files, or transferred for analyses in the partner facility at Swarthmore College that maintains the LOICZView geospatial clustering package (password required for sustained use; see overview or test using the guest login).

Draft Function Diagrams