Weather data
A large number of automatic weather stations has been implemented in the frame of the BIOTA AFRICA project by the Namibian National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) and the Group "Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology" (BEE) of the University of Hamburg. The website offers hourly updates of data and graphs of a large number of weather parameters.


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Subproject S04

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rambold, Universitaet Bayreuth, Lehrstuhl fuer Pflanzensystematik, Universitaetsstrasse 30 - NM I, 95447 Bayreuth

Development of a storage and retrieval system for lichenological biodiversity data

The BIOTA subproject S04 is focussed on the establishment and further development of a combined system of an online database (LIAS) which stores structural and ecological data of lichens, i.e., lichenized ascomycetes, and an online Geographic Information System (GIS).
Actually, the LIAS register includes about 800 structural, i.e. morphologic-anatomical and chemical features of more than 2000 ascomycete species. It will be the major task of the subproject

1.  to complete this register by definitions, explanations and illustrations (photographs, drawings and virtual objects) and
2.  to enter all relevant descriptive data of the species of lichenised ascomycetes recorded from the Observatories in southern Africa by participants of the BIOTA subproject S05.

A Java-based application "Data Navigator" will be developed, which will control the data transfer between the LIAS database system, a GIS system, and a specimen-based, Systax (developed at the University of Ulm) compatible database in which all individual records are stored. Visualisation of the spatial distribution of taxa will provide distribution patterns. Spatial distribution data of (taxa-independent) phenotypic characters and their correlation with abiotic factors will allow estimations on the functionality of adaptations. Aside from GIS connectivity, a number of additional "Data Navigator" modules will be set up:

module 1:  "Online Data Entry and Revision" (dynamically generated GUIs for data input via text fields, select boxes, and pick lists);
module 2:  "Character Optimisation" (for phylogenetic character reconstruction on phylogenetic trees which have been generated by the database system ARB (developed at the Technical University of Muenchen) and its visualisation;
module 3:  "Character analysis" (analysis of features stored in LIAS, for instance, usage by item, char-state usage and char-state usage by character cross tabulations) and their visualisation as charts;
module 4:  "Identification" for data retrieval and species identification;
module 5:  "Statistics" (data export in a SPSS- and Statistica-readable standard format).

The navigation software will be platform independent. It will support most relevant standard data exchange formats and will be provided for free usage also to other biodiversity projects.