Biodiversity Database - Questions

   I. Who Needs Biodiversity Information
      1. Forester
         a) types of trees in a region or location
         b) abundance
         c) location of rare species
         d) environmental conditions associated with specific species
         e) other species that might use forest as a habitat
      2. Herbalist
         a) specific locations of desired plants
         b) habitat associations of specific plant species
         c) life cycle of plant species (phenology)
         d) abundance of desired species
      3. Bird watchers
         a) where the birds are
         b) what the birds are
         c) when the birds are/migration
         d) what/where the food is for birds
         e) changes in biodiversity
      4. ecologist
         a) population
            1) reproduction - all of above
            2) distribution
         b) conservation
            1) changes over time!
            2) habitat relationships
            3) biotic relationships between species
               a> habitat associations
         c) aquatic
            1) water conditions (habitat)
         d) wetlands
            1)
      5. Conservationist
         a) changes in habitat over time
         b) change in biodiversity
         c) locations of rare species
      6. Students
         a) Teachers
            1) pictures
      7. Government Agencies
         a) focus rare and endangered species
         b) introduced vs native
         c) species "charisma"
      8. Fishing Industries
      9. Developers
         a) where are protected lands
         b) what are protected species
            1) and where they are
  II. Meta Questions
      1. does the ratio of diatoms to mammals vary between systems
      2. what are challenges in comparing locations
         a) differences in area
      3. need to be able to group species in different ways
      4. limited information
         a) studies are patchy
         b) intensity of searching varies among studies
      5. biodiversity -> Studies
         a) Studies -> Biodiversity
            1) which is happening?
      6. do observers vary in skill?
      7. does apparent biodiversity vary with the age of the study
      8. do repeated studies make a difference?
         a) rarefaction
      9. what are the rates of immigration and extinction?
     10. are there "keystone" species?
 III. Query Capabilities
      1. searching on text fields
      2. latitude and longitude searching
         a) union
         b) intersection
         c) subarea
         d) superarea
      3. query by area - need to know area of every box
      4. places that have both X and Y or X or Y
      5. searching by habitat
      6. taxonomic searching
         a) family
         b) order
         c) organism type
         d) genus