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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2010
- Title: An improved data management system for the Wildlands and Woodlands project at the Harvard Forest
- Author: Joseph G Horn (Unity College)
- Abstract:
Correct and consistent plant identification is an important part of any plant ecology study. This is even more crucial when a given plot is to be sampled repeatedly over time as in a long-term monitoring program. Data compatibility through time and space can be challenging do to varying crew experience levels, official changes in plant nomenclature, and unclear or incorrect herbarium specimens and field guides. These problems can be minimized through well-organized data and species lists with site specific plant frequencies. To overcome these issues with the long-term ecological monitoring in the Wildlands and Woodlands program at Harvard Forest, a dynamic data entry and species list generator was created using Microsoft Access. The data entry system will improve data entry and consistency between years by automatically generating a standard six letter species code so that any mistake one sampling crew may make will automatically be resolved for future crews. The species list includes the frequency of occurrence in the study sites around New England as well as the Latin names, common names, the six-letter code for each species, as well as hotlinks to pictures and supporting information. The self-correcting database and the automatically generated species list will help future Wildlands and Woodlands sampling crews in gathering data that is correct and consistent with that of past years, and greatly reduce analysis preparation time.
- Research Category: Large Experiments and Permanent Plot Studies
