Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

S. ROSCHER, I. BRAKE, W. BRAUN, E. GROß, D. GUTTWEIN, F. KLINGENSTEIN and K.H. LAMPE
been mailed in November, because these institutes usually have more time to do paper
work in winter. By October 9, 2001, 20% of the institutions had answered the
questionnaires (42 institutions with 102 collections), 13% announced that they intend
to participate, but need more time, and 10% do not hold the sort of collections required
for participation in the ZEFOD database. In all 43% of the institutions responded
to our initiative within the first four months. A further increase of coverage is
expected, because the response rate for the first batch of questionnaires (mailed in
June) has reached 82%.
Some of the museums were visited in order to explain the aims of the project and to
obtain the data. Similarly several scientific as well as other meetings within the community
of collection holders, curators, etc. were attended. Representatives of Naturweb
(Austria) and BIODIV (Belgium) were contacted in order to exchange experience
with regard to online databases carrying meta information about biological collections.
A representative of ISIS (International Species Information System), a database
for zoological gardens, was contacted to check the possibility of using some of
their data for ZEFOD.
Current state of the database of national botanical collections
Questionnaires were mailed to 70 herbaria. For Botanic Gardens, data from 435 special
collections in 71 gardens have already been collected in previous projects (see,
e.g., RAUER et al. 2000). The survey for living collections will be based on this information,
so the gardens will obtain partly filled-in questionnaires to complete their data
in a next step. An Access2000 database application is used for interim data collection
and the data existing for Botanical Gardens have been transformed into the ZEFOD
data format and integrated into the data bank. The database already accepts queries
for different collection characteristics like taxonomy, geography, biotopes, and functional
types. It also allows a detailed analysis and shows the amount, variety, and
diversity of living plant collections in Germany and different spectra of the representation
of diversity in nature and in collections.
To ensure support for the project and to achieve maximum data quality, the Association
of Botanical Gardens (VBG) has been informed about the objectives and working
plan of ZEFOD. Sixteen Botanic Gardens and six herbaria have already been visited
to inform directors and staff about ZEFOD and to give practical support in answering
the questionnaire. Moreover, the project has been presented in four meetings within
the botanical collection community. Within this audience ZEFOD is now well known
and the utility of its aims is widely accepted.
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