[Taxacom] Practical Taxon Concept Software

Mon Oct 29 05:39:29 CDT 2007

Dear Lancelot,

 From my interpretation, Anthony needs to 
build/explore several custom and concurrent 
(perhaps even ad-hoc) scenarios on what is 
Dryopteris affinis (in a neutral fashion). This 
is highly related with published record (e.g. 
monographies, revisional work, in general taxonomic literature) .

Indeed the results in the search suggested by you 
may include several taxonomic concepts, but 
tracing what taxonomic concept was used when 
labeling specimens stops at data source 
specimen/its label/ or in the best case its 
citation in literature. It does not return a 
whole taxon concept with lists of related names 
and relations among them. I guess, for some of 
the records the use of LSIDs, RDF and semantic 
web may be useful for tracing the applied taxon 
concept, but I am not sure how much development is currently put into this.

As I see things now, there are two directions on 
how this may be approached: simple synonymy lists 
and laborious chresonymy. In first instance, it 
would be wonderful if GBIF for example or other 
similar projects will produce filters for 
selecting occurrence data allowing alternative 
views (taxon concepts in form of synonym lists) 
or, why not, even user suggested views. I guess 
this is  easily achievable if a standard is 
developed and various international resources 
serve their synonym lists for further use. 
However, this may not solve Anthony's issue 
because although all labels on specimens say D. 
affinis behind may be different taxon concepts 
(we could have specimens collected in at least 
200 years!) and this can be solved mainly by 
tracing literature and citation of specimens in 
literature (more related to chresonymy). This is 
a quite difficult and laborious task that can be 
actually passed partially to user side (if we 
speak about a limited number of records), or to 
taxon focused projects. In myNature project 
(http://mybiosis.org) for example we will ask 
users to specify what guide, key, publication was 
used when ID was given - this included in 
metadata of record may help later deciding on 
what taxon concept was applied. Aside from this 
discussion, I see regional biodiversity focused 
projects enormously benefiting from such developments.

All the best,
Adorian

At 09:59 29.10.2007, Gael Lancelot wrote:
>This might not be exactly what you're looking for, but GBIF (Global
>Biodiversity Information Facility) connects together a large number of
>specimen and observation databases, and keeps record of the taxonomy
>used in each. You can consult these taxonomies for Dryopteris affinis
>at this link:
>http://data.gbif.org/species/search.htm?c[0].s=0&c[0].p=0&c[0].o=Dryopteris%20affinis&c[1].s=9&c[1].p=0&c[1].o=7000
>
>More general information to be had at http://data.gbif.org.
>
>Cheers,
>
>G. Lancelot
>
> > Thanks for the responses. I'll try to be a 
> bit more specific. I'd like to be
> > able to record and organise the various names that taxa have been given in
> > different treatments so that I can in due course produce a 'preferred
> > taxonomy with synonymy, etc., as traditionally done in a monograph, I
> > suppose, but also to be able to compare and demonstrate alternative
> > treatments in a neutral way.  The immediate 
> target is the Dryopteris affinis
> > complex in the ferns, which is a  particularly nomenclaturally-tangled
> > asexual species complex in which most taxa 
> have been given a wealth of names
> > at various levels and with various circumscriptions. I thought it would be
> > useful way to approach it especially as I'm interested in the idea of
> > databases holding multiple taxonomies (alternative treatments) rather than
> > the more traditional method of just holding one preferred view with
> > synonymy.
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Anthony
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> >> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu]On Behalf Of Roger Hyam
> >> Sent: 28 October 2007 20:52
> >> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> >> Subject: [Taxacom] Practical Taxon Concept Software
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Anthony,
> >>
> >> I'd be interested to know your requirements a little better. Why do
> >> you want to track the taxonomies? Are you creating a monograph or
> >> flora/fauna or do you need it to accurately integrate ecological or
> >> other studies?
> >>
> >> The chances are you don't just want Taxon Concept software but want
> >> software to do something "useful" that just happens to handle Taxon
> >> Concepts data correctly.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Roger
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 28 Oct 2007, at 17:00, taxacom-request at mailman.nhm.ku.edu wrote:
> >>
> >> > Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:03:14 -0000
> >> > From: "Anthony Pigott" <Anthony.Pigott at btinternet.com>
> >> > Subject: [Taxacom] Practical Taxon Concept Software
> >> > To: "Taxacom" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
> >> > Message-ID:
> >> >    <DCEFIBBAOPBHLHBNBDGHGEKAKAAA.Anthony.Pigott at btinternet.com>
> >> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >> >
> >> > Does anyone have experience of the practical use of software
> >> > supporting the
> >> > creation and use of a database for recording multiple taxonomies,
> >> > i.e. taxon
> >> > concepts, publication-based, etc.?  I've tried a few of the
> >> > examples that
> >> > various people have built and made available for download but so
> >> > far I've
> >> > not found anything that works sufficiently well (or at all,
> >> > sometimes) for
> >> > practical use. Thanks.
> >> >
> >> > Anthony
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>Gaël Lancelot
>Communication Officier
>EDIT - WP1
>(0033)1 40 79 80 19
>
>
>
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Dr. Adorian Ardelean

----------
AquaEcology
Stresemanstr. 46
27570 Bremerhaven
Germany

Phone: 0471-140-475

----------
coordinator of myNature Project

proiectul myNature
str. Rascoala din 1907 nr 12
Timisoara 300325
Romania

http://mybiosis.org/nature/portal.php?pagename=firstpage 
[a Romanian biodiversity-database]
http://mybiosis.org/nature/portal.php?pagename=adorian [CV]
http://mybiosis.org/romanianorchids/ [Romanian Orchids]
http://greendorf.com [botanical illustration]
http://planktonnet.awi.de/ [planktonNet]

Projects in which I was involved:
http://hercules.kgs.ku.edu/Hexacoral/Anemone2/ [Hexacorallians of the World]
http://www.ubio.org [uBio Project]
http://portal.ubio.org [uBio Portal]
http://microscope.mbl.edu [micro*scope Project]
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/biopedia [BioPedia]
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/custar [CU*STAR]

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