internet information: vitis vinifera

[Donat Agosti]

Here is a distribution pattern which seems to be all too stunning

http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20m?kind=Vitis+vinifera&banner=1

I didn't know, that wines are not native to Europe, and am now confirmed
that a Claret is another kind of treat than a Cab?!

At least, in this case, it is obvious, that this is an artefact in what
is called a global mapper, even though MOBOT is listed as source. What
about Stanhopea tigrina or any other taxon, an ecologist would pick up
for her macro-ecological analysis, and has no prior knowledge of its
distribution? Quality control, in this case, doesn't work. For anybody
not familiar with distributions, at least a sentence should be added,
that this is only the holding of one single repository, which can be
very misleading. But then, why to make something online accessible, when
this artefact easily could be cleaned up by using other datbases such as
those accessible through GBIF
http://www.gbif.net/portal/digit_viewer.jsp?taxonKey=268650&countryKey=0
&resourceKey=0&georeferencedOnly=false&showMap=true&startRecord=1&record
Count=927&nextTask=ecat_browser.jsp
which includes 927 records?

Donat




Dr. Donat Agosti
Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian
Institution

Email: agosti at amnh.org
Web: http://antbase.org
CV: http://antbase.org/agosticv_2003.html

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