Forest Research Institute KRC RAN, Pushkinskaya 11, 185910, Petrozavodsk, Russia
Databases are widely used in biology especially for organizing electronic catalogues and for taxonomical purposes. To a lesser extent they are used for accumulating and management of faunistic or floristic information, although in this case the availability of properly structured mass-data significantly facilitates consequent treatment up to the final publication.
We developed a concept of a simple database specially designed for these purposes. The database consist of a main table and several lists linked to it by key fields. The main table contains basic information on every collected species (place, biotope, date, method, number of specimens). Linked lists contain detailed information on localities, methods, biotopes, and taxonomic information on the species. When developing this system we focused on organizing primary data input. This process usually takes much time and is an origin of numerous spelling errors. All input procedures are based on selecting appropriate item from dropdown lists. Selection can be done by moving the cursor through the list as well as by direct typing. In the last case it is usually sufficient to type several initial letters. This method also eliminates entering initially wrong values which are not contained in the lists.
The described system has been realized in the Microsoft Access environment. It contains the data on Eastern Fennoscandian Diptera since 1984 and was used for the preparation of numerous faunistic and taxonomic papers. Based on the given concept we already developed the database on the flora of Karelian lichens. Currently the system is being adapted for other groups of living organisms.
Grant RFBR № 05-07-90077-в.