WISCOMP Integrated Computer System
HISTORY
STRUCTURE
INFORMATION & ACCESS to DATA
WISCOMP, started in 1992, is a project designed to combine the taxonomic and various specimen-based databases (loan/exchange, type, and specimen label information) into one integrated system. A primary goal of the WISCOMP project is to enter the collection label information for over the one million specimens in the Wisconsin State Herbarium into the database system.
As part of the WISCOMP project we have also developed protocols and procedures for data entry and formulated standardized policies on access to the data-based information. We have developed and tested standardized queries for the WISCOMP database that will be available to researchers throughout the University, state, country, and international communities. The WISCOMP database system was designed to be flexible and customized queries (with the help of the Database Programmer/Developer or Collections Manager) can be run by individual researchers. Prior to WISCOMP there has been no means by which to quickly and efficiently search the vast amount of taxonomic and ecological information stored on the herbarium labels associated with these collections. To retrieve data on collectors, dates, geographical localities, pollinator associations, or any other criterion or combination of criteria, researchers must conduct unique, physical searches of the entire collection. In contrast searches of the electronic WISCOMP database will be much faster and can accommodate complex queries (e.g., lists of taxa by county, itineraries of individual collectors, frequency of collection data for individual species by decade, pollinators of species that flower in August). The database system is designed so distribution data can easily be read and used by ArcView, a popular GIS software program, allowing us to print detailed plant distribution maps overlain by other geographical data layers, such as soil types, bedrock, and vegetation.
Because the eventual goal of the database project was to make the information contained in the Herbarium available electronically to the scientific community, we have from its inception designed the WISCOMP system to conform to national (Hathway & Hoagland, 1993) and international database standards as proposed by the Taxonomic Database Working Groups (TDWG). Although the database was envisioned primarily to include only the vascular plants, it was designed to be flexible, with the eventual goal of being able to include all data from the bryophyte, lichen, and fungus collections. Eventually we are planning on making the entire WISCOMP system available via the web enabling researchers at other Wisconsin and regional herbaria, researchers preparing national floristic projects such as Flora of North America, and international researches to have access to WISCOMP database via the Internet. We have already a number of requests from researchers for data for genera and families for which we have finished data entry
The specimen label database project (started in 1995) was planned to evolve through a series of stages. To make the project more manageable we have begun with the Wisconsin vascular plants (ca. 270,000) in our holdings, the largest collection of vascular plants specimens from Wisconsin of any herbarium in the world, representing more than 75% of known Wisconsin plant collections. The first stage was to assemble the various component tables of the database. The WISCOMP database system is based on two "authoritative" taxonomic tables, i.e., Taxon (accepted name) and Synonym. Currently there are 7100 entries in the Taxon and 9274 entries in the Synonym table. These authoritative taxonomic tables have already been utilized to produce the Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Wisconsin (Wetter, et al. 2001), a comprehensive list of all known native and introduced vascular plants that occur in Wisconsin outside of cultivation. The entry of each accepted taxon includes the current scientific name, common name(s), synonym(s) and status (native, or one of six non-native categories). The last such comprehensive list for Wisconsin was published in 1883. These two taxonomic tables also form the basis of the Herbarium's Wisconsin Vascular Plants www site [http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/herbarium/].
We have also assembled a "location" database that is compatible with Wisconsin data sets used in GIS mapping programs. The "location" database contains 27,000+ entries and was compiled using a variety of sources, starting with a file from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Land Information & Computer Graphics Facility. Incorporated in the "location" database is a file compiled over the years by herbarium staff of historical name and place data derived from specimen labels of collections that had been mapped for the "Preliminary Reports on the Flora of Wisconsin" series, mostly published in the Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.
As part of the specimen database system, we have also developed a specimen label generating system, which prints labels for new collections and organizes the data into the proper fields so it can be incorporated into the specimen database. New collections both from Wisconsin and other areas that are being accessioned in the herbarium are automatically added to the database, eliminating the need to reenter the label data at a latter date. We have also developed an off-site label generating system that has been given to various institutions (e.g., the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy) and individuals who regularly submit collections to the Herbarium. Data from these collections is automatically incorporated into the database when the specimens are accessioned into WIS.
The specimen database system is also tied to our institutional loan database system (completed in 1994). We can track the location of any bar-coded specimen sent on loan to another institution. When the specimens are returned to WIS, we can automatically update the specimen database to reflect any change in determination or nomenclature.
Once that the main components of the specimen database system were assembled and tested (1995-1996), we began to enter data from our collections and to develop some subsidiary databases that will the complement the specimen database system. Since mid-1998, when funds for data entry (an additional half-time position) became available, there has been a significant increase in the number of specimen labels entered into the WISCOMP database. Currently there are more than 137,184 entries in the specimen label database. This is projected to grow by a conservative estimate of 40,000 entries a year.
Table 1. Total number of entries in WISCOMP
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Of the 137,184 entries in the WISCOMP database 94,091 are WIS specimens that have been bar-coded and entered. The remaining 43,093 records have been incorporated from a variety of sources and institutions, including 20,792 records from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay Herbarium, 3,479 from the Morton Arboretum Herbarium (MOR), 15,944 from the Milwaukee Public Museum Herbarium (MIL), and selected records from WI Dept. of Natrual Resources, UW- Eau Claire (UWEC), UW-La Crosse (UWL), UW-Milwaukee (UWM), UW-Stevens Point (UWSP), and SEWRPC (Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission).
Some subsidiary databases that we have, or currently are, developing include the Curtis database, BER database, and the Type database.
Curtis database. This remarkable data set complied by John T. Curtis, author of The vegetation of Wisconsin (1959), and his co-workers is maintained by the Plant Ecology Laboratory, Dept. of Botany, University of Wisconsin - Madison. Over a ten year period, 1946-1956, a total of 1420 separate stands, including 1045 in native terrestial communities, 187 in native aquatic communities, and 188 in weed communities of disturbed places were investigaged and for each stand species composition was recorded. From each stand a portion was selected for study, "and then every species seen was recorded on printed presence list which included the names of all the common species to the type to be studied and which also included spaces for rare species." Unfortunately these site records were not vouchered by collected specimens, and threfore, this distributional information would not be included in WISCOMP. The Herbarium staff has taken all these species site records along with the locality data (township, range, and section) for each of these stands and created a database (38,771 records) compatible with the WISCOMP database. Since Curtis followed Gleason in Britton and Brown (1950) this also included updating the nomenclature, where necessary, for each taxon to conform to that accepted in WISCOMP. Although these site records do not normally appear on the species distribution maps as the appear on the Wisconsin Vascular Plants www site [http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/herbarium/], since
BER database. WI DNR BER data set. site records,
Vascular
Plant Type Database
Although there has never been a systematic counting of the vascular
plant types in the Wisconsin State Herbarium there are probably 2500 -
3000 types, some of which have been cataloged on 3 x 5 index cards.
Now (1999) in conjunction with the WISCOMP project, we have began to systematically
enter not only the exact label data from the type specimens but also include
the proper literature citation. The goal of this project is to produce
a searchable database of the vascular plant types, including digitized
images of the specimens, which will be available via the Herbarium's World
Wide Web page. Currently (2001) under construction the type database will
eventually include the exact label data from the type specimens, as well
as the corresponding literature citation and include a digitized imagine
of the herbarium specimen. Although there has never been a systematic counting
of the type specimens in WIS, there are probably 2500 to 3000 vascular
plant type specimens.
The WISCOMP system has already been used to produce the Checklist of the Vascular Flora of Wisconsin (Wetter, et al. 1998) and the WWW site of Wisconsin Vascular Plants.
WISCOMP consists of several different integrated relational databases/systems: Loan/Exchange; Specimen Label Data including Taxon and Synonym names tables and Type Specimen data; and the "Offsite" labeling system.
All systems are written in Paradox for Windows currently running under Windows95-98 in a workgroup environment using one main computer as the file server. We are using ArcView as our GIS mapping software with layer files obtained from UW-Land Information & Computer Graphics Facility, Wisconsin Depts. of Transportation and Natural Resources. We have information currently available on the WWW of specimen records for the Orchids of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Vascular Plants, Wisconsin Lichens, WISCOMP database, and the herbarium.
For technical information on the structure of the database, copies of the "offsite" system and help with its use contact Jesse La Grew .
For data information, special queries, and other data related questions contact either Mark Wetter.