I'm collaborating with colleagues from Dartmouth College on an
ongoing long-term study combining my 40 years of data on the
phenology and abundance of flowering by about 120 species of
wildflower species near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory with
three years of data on phenology and abundance of bees (derived from
a combination of pan traps, netting, and observation). Data for the
flowers are stored in a combination of Excel spreadsheets (one for
each plot/year) and a (now very large) R matrix with all the
data. Data for the bees are also in Excel files, but with over
12,000 entries after three years we're starting to think it would be
preferable to have database software for the bees with:
-pull-down menus to reduce data entry errors
-ability to use the same information for multiple specimens (batch entry)
-ability to replace temporary names (sp. X, sp. Y) with the species
name once specimens are identified
-ability to query the system
One option is to get some help writing custom software for this
project, and another would be to use some existing database
software. If you have recommendations, I'd be glad to hear them.
Thanks.
David Inouye
Dr. David W. Inouye, Professor
Associate Chair, Director of Graduate Studies
Dept. of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4415
Rocky Mtn. Biological Laboratory
PO Box 519
Crested Butte, CO 81224
[email protected]
301-405-6946
2013-14 President-elect, Ecological Society of America
