VASCAN demonstration Peter Desmet & Luc Brouillet Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria meeting - June 2011

About VASCAN •  VASCAN  is  the  Database  of  Vascular  Plants  of  Canada   –  A  checklist  of  all  vascular  plants  from  Canada,  Greenland  &   Saint  Pierre  and  Miquelon   –  Mainly  literature-­‐based   •  Content   –  ScienEfic  names     –  English  &  French  vernacular  names   –  DistribuEon  &  distribuEon  status   –  ClassificaEon  &  hybrid  parents   –  Habit   –  Sources   •  Officially  launched  on  December  10,  2010  

About VASCAN •  Pioneered  the  use  of  Darwin  Core  Archives  using  the   GBIF  GNA  Profile.   •  Test  case  for  peer  reviewed  publicaEon  of  data  papers   through  GBIF  IPT  and  PensoU  (PhytoKeys).   •  Published  under  CreaEve  Commons  (CC-­‐BY-­‐SA)     –  You  are  free  to  use,  share  &  remix   –  You  must  a[ribute  us  &  share  under  the  same/similar  license   •  Brouillet,  L.,  F.  Coursol,  M.  Favreau,  M.  Anions,  P.  Bélisle   &  P.  Desmet.  2010+  VASCAN,  the  Database  of  Vascular   Plants  of  Canada.   •  data.canadensys.net/vascan  

Names •  ScienEfic  names  (21942)   –  9891  accepted   –  12051  synonyms   •  English  vernacular  names   (20490)   –  6895  accepted   –  13595  alternaEves   •  French  vernacular  names   (10044)   –  6212  accepted   –  3832  alternaEves   •  Sources  

Name URL •  data.canadensys.net/vascan/name/yourname   –  Accepted  scienEfic  name  →  accepted  taxon   –  Synonym  scienEfic  name  →  accepted  taxon  +  redirect  message   –  Vernacular  name  →  accepted  taxon  +  redirect  message   –  Non-­‐unique  name  →  disambiguaEon  page   •  Can  be  used  to  link  from  your  DB  /  Spreadsheet   (concatenate)  

Distribution •  16  regions   •  7  distribuEon  statuses   –  NaEve   –  Introduced   –  Ephemeral   –  Excluded   –  ExErpated   –  Doubhul   –  Absent   •  Sources   •  Stored  for  lowest  taxa  (6507)  and  calculated  for  higher   taxa  

Classification •  ClassificaEon   –  APG  III,  2009   (flowering  plants)   –  Smith  et  al.,  2006  (ferns)   –  Chase  &  Reveal,  2009   (higher  taxonomy)   •  Hybrid  parents   •  Sources  

Habit •  Habit  in  Canada   –  Herb   –  Shrub   –  Tree   –  Vine   •  Primary  &  secondary  habit   •  Stored  for  lowest  taxa  (6507)  and  calculated  for  higher   taxa  

Name search •  Search  for  scienEfic  and  vernacular  names   •  Dropdown  menu  →  quick  link  to  a  name  page   •  Full  search  →  all  results  for  a  search  string    

Checklist builder •  Create  your  own  checklist   •  SelecEon  criteria:   –  Groups   –  Habit   –  Regions   –  CombinaEon   –  DistribuEon  status   •  Display  criteria:   –  Ranks   –  Display  hybrids   –  Sort  

Download •  Darwin  Core  Archive   –  For  checklists  &  enEre  dataset   –  Taxa   –  DistribuEon   –  Vernacular  names   –  Habit   •  Text  file   –  Checklist  as  a  tab-­‐delimited  file   •  Print  page   –  Checklist  &  taxon  page  without  clu[er   •  We  encourage  you  to  use  the  data!  

Feedback •  Click  the  feedback  bu[on  from  any  page   •  Enter  a  data  or  interface  issue   –  All  issues  are  tracked  with  Google  Code  (Google  account   required  to  enter  an  issue,  but  not  to  view  them)   –  code.google.com/p/canadensys/issues/   •  Updates  and  news  regarding  VASCAN:   –  Twi[er:  @canadensys   –  Canadensys  group:  groups.google.ca/group/canadensys    

Explore data.canadensys.net/vascan    

Demonstration examples •  Name  search   –  Full  search  (maple)   –  Dropdown  (maple  white)   •  Name  page   –  DisambiguaEon   –  Name  URL  (Acer  negundo   var.  negundo)   –  Redirect  to  accepted   •  Taxon  page   –  DistribuEon  (list  view)   –  ClassificaEon  (Acer)   –  Calculated  distribuEon   –  Hybrid  parents  (Acer   ×freemanii)   •  Checklist  builder   –  SelecEon  criteria:  Acer  +   in  all  off  +  Central  +   NaEve   –  Display  criteria:  species  +   alphabeEcal   –  Download  as  text  file   •  About