In search of a functional flora--towards a greater integration of ecology and taxonomy

Large-scale biodiversity informatics projects will not properly address the needs of one important potential user group. Ecologists do not have ready access to datasets which allow them to assign plant species to functional types. We believe that information technology has developed sufficiently to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plant ecology 2007-10, Vol.192 (2), p.161-167
Main Authors: Pendry, Colin A, Dick, Jan, Pullan, Martin R, Knees, Sabina G, Miller, Anthony G, Neale, Sophie, Watson, Mark F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
bioinformatics
Biological taxonomies
Ecologists
Ecology
Ecophysiology
Flora
Functional ecology
Functional groups
Functional types
Information technology
Plant ecology
Plant species
Plants
Population ecology
Species
Taxa
taxonomy
Tropical forests
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Large-scale biodiversity informatics projects will not properly address the needs of one important potential user group. Ecologists do not have ready access to datasets which allow them to assign plant species to functional types. We believe that information technology has developed sufficiently to allow taxonomists and ecologists to work together to address this need and develop specimen databases to combine taxonomic data with ecological and ecophysiological information so that this information will be assigned to the correct taxon in the future. Digital images provide a rapid and economical method of vouchering specimen data, reducing the need to store physical vouchers in herbaria.
ISSN:1385-0237
1573-5052
DOI:10.1007/s11258-007-9304-y