INTRODUCTION

Many decisions are made based on information concerning the flora and fauna of the world. Biological Informatics is a field that allows scientists and decision makers to combine a wide array of data sets to make meaningful analyses and sound decisions (Baker et al., 1998; Parker et al., 1998). One method of analysis utilizes Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software to combine and visualize data in a geographic context. However, GIS software requires that locality data be available in either latitude and longitude or UTM coordinates. Locality data for many classical museum specimens are not recorded in this format. In order to make Texas Tech University's collection of Recent mammals accessible to GIS, UTM coordinates needed to be assigned to the collection's electronic database. UTM Converter was developed for this purpose.

 

METHODS AND MATERIALS

UTM Converter is capable of processing classical museum specimen collection localities (reference points and modifiers) and calculating UTM coordinates. It accomplishes this task by locating the reference point (for example, "Lubbock") in a data dictionary, copying the UTM coordinates for that location and then calculating the distance (in meters) from that location (for example, "3 MI E, 5 MI S"). This results in a precise location for the calculated UTM coordinates. In order to address the issue of accuracy, Precision Index Values, based on the American Society of Mammalogists Documentation Standards (McLaren et al., 1996) are also assigned.

 

RESULTS

In a trial project consisting of 15,220 locality records for mammals collected in the state of Texas, 86% of the records were assigned without modification, 10.2% were assigned manually, and 3.8% could not be assigned. Those localities that could not be assigned were those that referred to locations that could not be identified without additional investigation, such as "DOUBLE U RANCH," "5 MI FROM SALDINE," or "3 MI S OF I-40, CARBON BLACK ROAD."

Following the completion of the trial described above, data dictionaries for each of the fifty United States and Puerto Rico were developed. These will be used to assign UTM coordinates to all specimen localities in the United States in the Texas Tech University collections. UTM Converter and the data dictionaries are available free of charge at http://nsrlmap.musm.ttu.edu/utm/project.htm.

Screen capture of the web page that allows searches of the on-line database of Texas mammals included in the NSRL web site: . As shown, query results are displayed on a map of Texas. Information for individual specimens is available by selecting locality dots on the map. This application is possible only when GIS-compatible coordinates for collecting locations are included in the specimen database.

 

CONCLUSION

The demand for data and syntheses of data from various sources has never been greater than it is now. Museum collections represent a valuable repository of biological data in a temporal and geographic context. Assigning UTM coordinates to classical museum localities provides a mechanism for accessing this virtually untapped resource and utilizing it for GIS-based research. This, in turn, will augment the value of the collections resulting in a positive feedback loop with the potential of great benefits in the future.

Figure 1 Locations from which mammal specimens have been collected in Texas and archived as reported in The Mammals of Texas by Davis and Schmidly. Red dots represent specimens archived at Texas Tech University; blue dots represent specimens archived at other institutions.	Figure 2 Distribution of Dipodomys ordii specimens archived at the Natural Science Research Lab. This map was created using the locality data in the NSRL's relational database to which UTM coordinates were assigned.	Figure 3 Geographic depiction of collecting localities from which specimens were collected between 1 January 1990 and 31 December 1998 and archived at the NSRL.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project was supported by Texas Parks and Wildlife and Texas Tech University as a part of their cooperative effort to create a natural history database for the citizens of the state of Texas.

 

LITERATURE CITED

Baker, R.J., C.J. Phillips, R.D. Bradley, J.M. Burns, D. Cooke, G.F. Edson, D.R. Haragan, C. Jones, R.R. Monk, J.T. Montford, D.J. Schmidly, and N.C. Parker, 1998. Bioinformatics, Museums and Society: Integrating Biological Data for Knowledge-Based Decisions. Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech Univ. 187:i+1-8.

McLaren, S. B., P. V. August, L. N. Carraway, P. S. Cato, W. L. Gannon, M. A. Lawrence, N. A. Slade, P. D. Sudman, R. W. Thorington, Jr., S. L. Williams, and S. M. Woodward, 1996. Documentation Standards for Automatic Data Processing in Mammalogy, Version 2.0. American Society of Mammalogists Committee on Information Retrieval (S. B. McLaren, Chair).

Parker, N.C., R.D. Bradley, J.M. Burns, G.F. Edson, D.R. Haragan, C. Jones, R.R. Monk, J.T. Montford, C.J. Phillips, D.J. Schmidly, and R.J. Baker, 1998. Bioinformatics: A Multidisciplinary Approach for the Life Sciences. Occasional Papers, Museum of Texas Tech Univ. 186:i+1-4.