NSF Org:	DBI Div Of Biological Infrastructure
Recipient:	ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date:	July 16, 2008
Latest Amendment Date:	July 31, 2009
Award Number:	0743827
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Julie Dickerson DBI  Div Of Biological Infrastructure BIO  Direct For Biological Sciences
Start Date:	July 15, 2008
End Date:	June 30, 2012 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$503,366.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$509,291.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2008 = $503,366.00 FY 2009 = $5,925.00
History of Investigator:	Corinna Gries (Principal Investigator) cgries@wisc.edu Thomas Nash (Co-Principal Investigator) Edward Gilbert (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	Arizona State University 660 S MILL AVE STE 312 TEMPE AZ  US  85281-3670 (480)965-5479
Sponsor Congressional District:	09
Primary Place of Performance:	Arizona State University 660 S MILL AVE STE 312 TEMPE AZ  US  85281-3670
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	09
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	NTLHJXM55KZ6
Parent UEI:	HX59VKHQH1V7
NSF Program(s):	ADVANCES IN BIO INFORMATICS
Primary Program Source:	040100 NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 040100 NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1165, 7187, 9178, 9183, 9184, 9251, BIOT, SMET
Program Element Code(s):	1165
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.074

ABSTRACT

Arizona State University has been awarded a grant to develop a computer-based identification system for plants and animals. The system, named Symbiota, will introduce an improved data model and highly efficient computer programs to speed the identification process. Based on hierarchically organized data linking descriptions of characteristics to taxonomic ranks this system dynamically builds identification keys for any user determined combination of species of interest. The implementation of inheritance and object oriented principles in Symbiota greatly reduces data entry efforts, handles species concepts for vastly different taxonomic groups in one system and accommodates varying phylogenic or taxonomic views. The system determines the applicability of characters to the species in question at every step of the identification process dynamically adding the more specific characters and removing the more general ones as the choice of possible species is being narrowed. Although the system may be used independently, in this project Symbiota will be integrated into the Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet: http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/index.php), a mature biodiversity information center for the Southwestern US and Northern Mexico. The SEIN collection records provide a wealth of locality information as well as specific taxonomic information that can be used to generate user selected lists of species such as a list of all conifer species within a state park. These lists can be used with Symbiota to dynamically construct an identification key to those species excluding plant species not in the park as well as including only the characteristics for plants which actually appear in the park. Therefore, the system has the enormous potential to be as comprehensive as the professional taxonomist expects it to be or as simple as a primary school student needs it to be when being introduced to the plant species on the school grounds.

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