Biodiversity Student Meeting - 9/10/96

 A. Origin of group - Bruce Hayden
    1. Long-Term Ecological Research program
    2. began biodiversity vs productivity study
    3. everyone found they had some biodiversity data, but they
       were not in electronic form
       a) mostly paper
       b) not analyzable
    4. we started process of going through data systematization
       problem
    5. taxomists do things differently for different groups
       a) report different information
    6. want to move these activities to modern age
 B. Approach
    1. divide problem up by taxonomic groups
    2. discovery process
       a) where is data?
    3. what is common information across different groups?
       a) taxonomic differences
       b) natural history issues
    4. build a database interface to WWW
       a) designing page is part of this task
 C. Challenges
    1. easier for some groups than others
       a) birds, mammals relatively easy
       b) vegetation more difficult
    2. geographic problem
       a) habitat
       b) island
       c) county
       d) state
       e) different data are given at differnt levels of precision
    3. have to combine many different sources
       a) natural history often separated from taxonomy etc.
 D. Tasks
    1. several joint meetings during semester - need planning time
       a) note times you CAN'T come on sheet
       b) notice of meetings will be via email....
    2. identify group of organisms you want to work on
       a) do this week
       b) data sources
          1) Virginia Journal of Science - 1990
             a> good starting point
          2) bibliographies
             a> can get historical retrospective
          3) Atlas of Flora of Virginia
             a> based on maps for counties
             b> lots of species
             c> more powerful if linked to natural history information
             d> more details in files at William & Mary
                1> possible to go down and talk with them
             e> based on herbarium specimens
          4) Check List of Biota of the Lower Chesapeake - 1972 - VIMS
             a> protozoa
             b> free living invertibrates
             c> many other taxonomic groups
             d> basically entire volume is lists of data
             e> some natural history information - varies by group
             f> bibliography for each to taxonomic groups
          5) Theses
             a> Michelle Monte - Macroalgae
                1> reports on 20-some species of macroalgae
             b> Claire Marie Moss - Passerine Birds and woody plants
                1> tagging and identification of birds
                2> collected feces to look at food habits
          6) Nature Conservancy Ecosystem Study
             a> compendium of information on Virginia Barrier Islands
             b> also has bibliographies
 E. Faculty help
    1. Bruce Hayden
    2. Linda Blum
    3. John Porter
    4. other VCR/LTER investigators
       a) Jay Zieman
       b) Karen McGlathery
       c) Linda Blum
       d) Michael Erwin
    5. pestering other people is way to get things done!
 F. This week:
    1. begin to decide on taxonomic group
    2. next week: identify data sources for taxa
       a) keep eyes peeled for images and pictures (non-copyrighted)
          1) also range maps
          2) keep track of where you saw them
       b) become familiar with resources
 G. around the room - Interests
    1. Seth
       a) computer sci.
       b) reptiles
       c) good contact: Joe Mitchell
          1) just finished book on reptiles of VA
    2. Erin
       a) EVSC major
       b) still deciding
          1) things with backbones
    3. Kurt
       a) EVSC and Physics
       b) fish -- or something out of the water
       c) interest in oceanography
    4. Courtney
       a) EVSC major
       b) invertibrates - possible phytoplankton
    5. Justin
       a) interested in large mammals
          1) deer, foxes
       b) may involve more in historical records - time perspective
       c) live in Suffolk VA
          1) remember deer were larger than in tide water region
    6. Heather
       a) 4th year EVSC
       b) mammals? possibly trees....
 H. Question
    1. email addresses
       a) hayden: bph@virginia.edu
       b) porter: jhp7e@virginia.edu
       c) blum: lblum@lternet.edu
    2. xerox or collect citations?
       a) probably some of both
       b) at xeroxing stage, will make card available
    3. credit hours
       a) take what YOU need..... to get the work done
       b) we will trust you to do appropriate amount of work for
          particular taxa
       c) schedule modifier number 1384
       d) can be done as independent study & independent research
    4. what are the counties?
       a) northampton
       b) accomack
    5. Trip to shore
       a) need to schedule trip to site
    6. VA Journal of Science
       a) will be in Hayden's office