Notice/Warning to ATBI Data Users: We encourage the use of data produced
in the ATBI for scientific, conservation stewardship and educational uses. However, there are a few
data content issues that need to be understood.
- Since we are in the process of getting a backlog of data checked and appended to the database,
the pool of data there, of "all taxa," should be considered a work-in-progress,
and not taken as the final indicator of the Park's biodiversity.
- There is a backlog in quality checking and entry of older data, yet to go into the database.
DLIA and the park are reducing that backlog as quickly as we can. Additionally we are
transitioning to a Microsoft SQL Server based database management system from our original
Microsoft Access based database management system. Our Access system presently has a much
smaller capacity and is now pushing the limits of its effectiveness and querying time. This
transition to a higher capacity system will occur in 2010, and so we have postponed access to
some datasets until that transition is complete.
- The ATBI database is actually a compilation of more than 50 project datasets. If you are
working with data from a specific project, you should acknowledge the project and project
leader in any report or article that you publish, along with the citation of Discover Life
in America, Inc. and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
- The ATBI database is organized by projects. This devides the data up in such a way as to keep all data gathered by individual research projects using one set of consistant methods and sampling equipment to obtain their specimens and/or observations. Many of these projects are multi-year projects, but most of them are based on research inventories of well-defined groups of taxa (eg. the ATBI Water Mites project). Click
here to see a complete listing of all projects with their metadata basically consisting of project descriptions and protocols.
For further information
on data use contact: chuck at dlia.org. |
