Ecogeographic Surveys

Early plant collectors could not have predicted the detailed analysis that would subsequently be based on the provenance information they recorded. These data are therefore often very basic: site location data may be ambiguous and ecological details missing. Older specimen labels are hand written, often difficult to read and may be written in an unfamiliar language. Botanists from the herbarium can help here.

Inference of data

It may be necessary to infer various features (latitude and longitude, geology, soil, altitude, etc.) of collection sites from location data by reference to appropriate maps. Whether this is possible will depend on the precision of the location data available, the topography of the collection area and the precision of the environmental data required. For example, if the collecting site is situated in a mountainous area, then the altitude is likely to vary markedly within short distances and so estimates of site altitude will be misleading unless the location is precisely specified. A gazetteer of local geographical names and locations is helpful in inferring a specimen’s provenance. There is no comprehensive world gazetteer yet available, but other publications contain extensive gazetteers such as the Atlas of the World (Times Books, 1988). Older maps, atlases, gazetteers and even travel books can be a useful source of localities where the original name or boundary has changed. In some cases it may even be necessary to infer the provenance data from the collector’s original notebooks. In all cases, data which have been inferred should be flagged in the database to distinguish them from other types of data.