Book of Abstracts (PDF) - International Mycological Association

IMC7 Thursday August 15th Lectures
241 - Use of nomenclatural and bibliographic
mycological data
P.M. Kirk
CABI Bioscience, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW20
9TY, U.K. - E-mail: p.kirk@cabi.org
Nomenclatural and bibliographic databases are important
tools in mobilizing mycological information, especially
within the subject area of biodiversity information. The
nomenclator is fundamental to biosystematics research,
listing names which have been published in the literature.
The service it provides to biosystematists, as both
producers and users of names, is obvious but most users of
names have a somewhat different requirement. The two
types of databases can be conveniently and favourably
linked through the 'potential taxon' model of Berendsohn.
This can deliver the service that users of names require; not
the association of a name with a specimen (the type of the
name) but the association of a name with an accepted
taxon, usually a species. The global database of fungal
names (http://www.indexfungorum.org/) originated as a
nomenclator but a partial implementation of the potential
taxon model allowed for the inclusion of taxonomic
opinion, with heterotypic synonyms retrieved through a
single-cycle recursive join. This simple and pragmatic
approach has been very successful. The services it can and
does provide will be demonstrated and possible
enhancements and linkages will be explored. Any database
today should seamlessly deliver to ink-on-paper and the
Internet; the latter is the future.
242 - Use of mycological data for producing a checklist,
US experience
D.F. Farr
USDA, Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory,
BARC-West, Rm. 304, Bldg. 011A, Beltsville MD 20705,
U.S.A. - E-mail: davef@nt.ars-grin.gov
The Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory has been
a pioneer in the use of computer databases to manage
mycological information. We found that success depends
on several factors: clear goals, efficient user interfaces for
data entry and continuous management of personal
resources. Once the big push to complete a computer
database project is over, the organization is faced with the
need to maintain the database. To be successful over the
long term database projects need to form an important
component of the organization's reference materials and
collection's management tools. Now that many mycological
databases are available on the web we need to begin to look
at ways in which a single user interface can be used to
retrieve and integrate information from various Web sites.
One way that this could be done is to extract data from a
remote database on an as needed basis. The term 'Web
Services' is being applied to a standard set of procedures
that are being developed to handle this type of interaction.
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Book of Abstracts
These procedures can greatly simplify the exchange of
information between remote databases and it is important
that mycologists make use of these procedures to further
enhance the utilization of the databases that we have
developed.
243 - NZFUNGI - a biodiversity information system for
fungi in New Zealand
J.A. Cooper
Landcare Research, PO Box 40, Lincoln 8152, New
Zealand. - E-mail: Cooperj@landcareresearch.co.nz
Landcare Research is New Zealand's foremost institute in
systematics and environmental research in terrestrial
ecosystems, and is the custodian of the national collections
and associated databases of plants, insects, fungi, bacteria
and nematodes. NZFUNGI is part of an ongoing project to
unlock our extensive data on biodiversity. It comprises a
cross-indexed information facility which integrates a
number of existing and new resources on taxonomy,
pathology, literature, specimens, cultures, descriptions,
images and keys. Integration of these data was facilitated
using a taxonomic framework provided by the extensive
authority files of CABI Bioscience, together with a number
of standard authority files and database structures (e.g.
TDWG data standards, dictionaries, and the IOPI
taxonomic information model). Software systems for these
data are being developed to maximize the opportunities
provided by the recent and rapidly development enabling
technologies of XML/SOAP and web services. Adoption of
this technology is allowing us to address some important
issues. For example, it allows us to provide secure and
sophisticated application interfaces that will operate
anywhere on the net, and to consider the virtual integration
of distributed data resources and functionality. The
presentation will provide a demonstration and discussion of
work to-date.
244 - MycoKey - a database and a mycological expert
system
T. Læssøe 1* & J.H. Petersen 2
1 Botanical Institute, Copenhagen University, Oester
Farimagsgade 2D, DK-1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark. -
2 Department of Systematic Botany, Institute of Biological
Sciences, University of Aarhus, Nordlandsvej 68, DK-8240
Risskov, Denmark. - E-mail: ThomasL@bot.ku.dk
MycoKey is a user friendly genus identification system for
fungal genera. It is based on the relational database
software 'Forth Dimension' and will be distributed in both
mac and PC versions. A beta version will be available at
the congress. At present MycoKey includes 530 genera of
Basidiomycota (excluding rusts and smuts) known from
Northern Europe. MycoKey is based on a character matrix
of more than 1.000 characters, 17 interrelated files and