Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

BfN
Wild flora of
Germany;
Protected species
RUB
Collections of German
botanical Gardens
S. ROSCHER, S. HARRER, H.-G. FINK, H. KNÜPFFER and TH. STÜTZEL
To overcome syntactic and semantic differences between the dispersed, heterogeneous
databases, BIG follows a mediated approach. The search agent does not
communicate directly with the heterogeneous databases but contacts wrappers instead.
These wrappers understand the standardised query. They know how to
translate this query for the local database and convert the response into a standardised
one. The local databases - up to ten at the moment - are queried simultaneously.
The BIG-Kernel watches the processes, samples the incoming results and
compiles a single answer out of all results before sending it back to the user. For the
query as well as for data exchange, XML (Extendable Markup Language) is used.
Geographical Information System
BIG Network
BIG
Integrated information system
combining dispersed and
heterogeneous databases
IPK
Genebank accessions;
Taxonomy of
cultivated plants
ZADI
Information technology
Ex situ resources
For the visualisation and analysis of geo-spatial data, a geographic information system
(GIS) is used. Interactive distribution maps for the wild flora of Germany as well as
some global area maps are available within BIG. Beyond this, locations of accessions
from the local databases given by their coordinates (longitude and latitude) can be
converted into geo-spatial data. This happens “on the fly”, and accession locations
stored in different databases can be compared online. The user can display them
together with other thematic maps like topography, climate, soil. Also sample locations
can be chosen by ecological regions. The next step will be the integration of gazetteers,
so that material can be found by place names, e.g., local names for landscape types.
BIG offers an integrated view for a variety of information that is needed in the field of
plant genetic resources.
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