An information infrastructure for vegetation science

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An information infrastructure for vegetation
science
Robert K. Peet for the Ecological Society of
America Vegetation Classification Panel
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ESA Vegetation Panel

• Founded in 1995 to
• Foster collaboration among federal, NGO and
  academic communities.
• Develop standards.
• Increase credibility through a process of peer
  review and formal publication.
• Primary funding provided by GAP.

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Partner Organizations 1999 MOU
Ecological Society of America Role to develop
and implement professional standards, including
peer review, for vegetationdocumentation and
classification. NatureServe Role to develop,
support maintain a standard vegetation
classification for conservation, inventory, and
monitoring.
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Partner Organizations
FGDC Vegetation Subcommittee Role to establish
standards within the federal community for
vegetation data and vegetation classification
units. USGS NBII Role to make the NVC
system, and its associated data and information
products, broadly accessible by incorporating
them in the NBII federation.
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• A Federal Standard
• The National Vegetation Classification adopted
  as a federal standard in 1997 following ESA Panel
  review.
• Finest-scale floristic classification based on
  quantitative field data was adopted only in
  concept with the process left unspecified.

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• ESA Guidelines
• The ESA Vegetation Panel and its partners have
  developed guidelines for the floristic levels of
  the classification covering
• Vegetation field plots
• (Classification plots EO plots),
• Documentation description of floristic types.
• Submission peer review of proposed types.
• Management, citation, archiving of
  data (including XML schemas).

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• Guidelines
• for describing the associations and alliances of
  the U.S. National Vegetation Classification.
• The Ecological Society of America Vegetation
  Classification Panel. Version 4.0. July, 2004
• http//www.esa.org/vegweb/
• Under review by FGDC as a U.S. federal standard

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US-NVC Proposed data flow
Legend
External Action
Internal Action
Software Entity
Public view of NVC
Classification Mgt.
NVC Proceedings
US-NVC Panel
Peer Review
Proposal to revise
Analysis Synthesis
Public plot archives
Taxonomic database
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Overview of online resources
Stores plots makes them publicly accessible
Stores NVC community descriptions
Stores current plant taxonomy
Allows people/organizations to propose changes in
the NVC
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• VegBank
• The ESA Vegetation Panel is developing a public
  archive for vegetation plots known as VegBank
  (http//vegbank.org).
• VegBank is expected to function for vegetation
  plot data in a manner analogous to GenBank.
• Primary data will be archived for
• - Documentation citation
• - Discovery access
• - Analysis

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• VegBank applications
• Vegetation classification
• Vegetation occurrence (EO)
• Vegetation/taxon monitoring resurvey
• High-quality ground truth points
• Species presence absence for modeling
• Community assembly
• Ecological attributes of taxa
• Indicator taxa for taxa/communities

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www.vegbank.org
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• T

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http//vegbank.org/get/std/observation/VB.Ob.26013
.027020404
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http//vegbank.org/vegbank/views/userdataset_const
ancyanalysis.jsp?viewconstancyanalysiswparam197
079entityuserdatasetparams197079
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VegBank data are open access

• All data in VegBank are freely available to the
  public (except for embargoed location data).
• Key data can be viewed by a simple web link.
• (http//vegbank.org/get/std/observation/5153,5906
  )

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• VegBranch Access database
• Free download from VegBank
• Data entry tools forms
• Local plot database system
• Legacy data migration tools
• Automated export to VegBank
• Easy import from VegBank

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Taxonomic database challengeStandardizing
organisms and communities The problem
Integration of data potentially representing
different times, places, investigators and
taxonomic standards. The traditional solution
A standard list of organisms / communities.
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• Standardized taxon lists fail
• to allow dataset integration
• The reasons include
• The user cannot reconstruct the database as
  viewed at an arbitrary time in the past,
• Taxonomic concepts are not defined (just lists),
• Multiple party perspectives on taxonomic concepts
  and names cannot be supported or reconciled.

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High-elevation fir trees of western North
America
AZ NM CO WY MT AB eBC wBC WA OR
Distribution
Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica
Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa
USDA - ITIS
Abies bifolia
Abies lasiocarpa
Flora North America
Will the real Abies lasiocarpa please stand up?
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Andropogon virginicus complex in the
Carolinas More ugly 9 elemental units 17 base
concepts
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Toward concept-based taxonomy

• VegBank provides concept-based taxonomy and
  dataset resolution.
• VegBank aims to provide an initial set of concept
  relationships for use by USDA PLANTS and ITIS.

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Public access to the NVC

• NatureServe Explorer
• VegBank

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Note Link

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NVC Peer Review

• Goal
• The NVC must be open in the sense that any person
  (independently or representing some institution)
  is free to submit proposed revisions.
• The rules, standards, and opportunities must be
  the same for all potential contributors.
• Process
• NVC Peer Review Board oversight
• Several Regional Editorial Boards

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• Concluding remarks
• VegBank, the NVC Proceedings, and the NVC
  Revision System are being used to test and
  demonstrate implementation strategies for the
  proposed FGDC Vegetation Standards.
• The ESA Vegetation Panel looks foreword to
  continued collaboration with its partner
  organizations (GAP, FGDC, NatureServe, and NBII)
  in the advancement of an open US National
  Vegetation Classification.

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We are pleased to acknowledge the support and
cooperation of