Diversity Collection

Tutorial

Organisms

(= Identification Units)

The organisms or items in a CollectionSpecimen are considered as IdentificationUnits. A specimen may contain multiple IdentificationUnits, e.g., an insect (1) feeding on a fungus (2) growing as a parasite on a plant (3). For more detailed information about Organisms (=IdentificationUnits) see the chapter Organisms.

Presets

To focus on the specimen and its organisms, hide all other entries in the tree by clicking the corresponding buttons on the left side of the specimen tree. The yellow background of a button indicates that the respective information is not currently displayed (see point 1 in the image below).

Add a new organism

You can add any number of organisms to a specimen. Organism types are selected from a list. To add a new organism, follow the next steps.

1. Select the specimen entry in the tree (see point 2 in the image below).
2. Then select the appropriate organism from the list, in our example a plant .

3. This will insert an entry for the organism ( ) along with an identification ( ) below the entry for the specimen ( ) (see the image below).

4. To view the details of the organism, or to enter the details, select the organism entry in the tree. (see point 1 and 2 in the image below)

5. To view the details of the identification entry, or to enter the details such as taxon name, etc. , select the identification entry in the tree. (see point 1 and 2 in the image below and follow the next section Add details to the identification).

Add details to the identification

To view the information for the identification, select the identification entry in the tree view (see point 1 in the image above). The fields for the identification will appear to the right of the tree view (see point 2 in the image above).

You can enter taxonomic names in different ways.

1. Enter the taxonomic name without linking it.

2. Link the taxonomic name to a module, such as DiversityTaxonNames, or to a webservice.

All options are demonstrated below using examples.

Enter a taxonomic name without linking

In the first example, we will enter a taxonomic name for the plant without linking it.

1. Select the entry for the identification in the tree (see point 1 in the image below).
2. In the identification area of the main window, enter a taxonomic name by simply typing it in the Tax. name field (see point 2 in the image below).
3. To save the data set and display the taxonomic name in the tree, click on the button (see point 3 in the image below).

Enter a taxonomic name and link it to DiversityTaxonName

In our second example, we link a taxonomic name to the module DiversityTaxonName.

Please note: To demonstrate the various possibilities simultaneously, we previously added two more organisms, like a fungus and an insect to our specimen example. How this works is described in Chapter Enter more organisms to a specimen.

In our second example we add a linked taxonomic name to the fungus.

1. Select the identification of the fungus in the tree (see point 1 in the image below).
2. In the identification area of the main window, click on button to open the window for the remote modules (see point 2 in the image below).

In the newly opened window, you must first select the database of the module or the webservice you want to link.

3. Select the database DiversityTaxonNames_Fungi (see point 1 in the image below).
4. Enter the search conditions, e.g. the beginning of the taxonomic name (see point 2 in the image below).
5. Start the query (see point 3 in the image below).
6. From the result list select the taxonomic name (see point 4 in the image below).
7. Click OK (see point 5 in the image below) to transfer the selected name to the main form.  

The name of the selected taxon is inserted into the “Taxonomic name” field along with the link to the data source (see figure below). The taxonomic name cannot be edited directly as long as it is linked to a data source (highlighted in yellow). To remove the link, use the button . To view the details of the linked name in the data source, click the button .

Enter a taxonomic name and link it to a webservice

In our third example, we link a taxonomic name to the webservice Catalogue Of Life.

Please note: To demonstrate the various possibilities simultaneously, we previously added two more organisms, like a fungus and an insect to our specimen example. How this works is described in Chapter Enter more organisms to a specimen.

In our third example we add a linked taxonomic name to the insect.

1. Select the identification of the insect in the tree (see point 1 in the image below).
2. In the identification area of the main window, click on button to open the window for the remote modules (see point 2 in the image below).

In the newly opened window, you must first select the database of the module or the webservice you want to link.

3. Select the webservice CatalogueOfLife (see point 1 in the image below).
4. Enter the beginning of the taxonomic name (see point 2 in the image below).
5. Start the query (see point 3 in the image below).
6. From the result list select the taxonomic name (see point 4 in the image below).
7. Click OK (see point 5 in the image below) to transfer the selected name to the main form.  

The name of the selected taxon will be inserted into the “Taxonomic Name” field along with the link to the data source (see figure below). The taxonomic name cannot be edited directly while linked to a data source (yellow background). To remove the link, click the button . To view the details of the linked name as stored in the data source, click the button .

Enter more organisms to a specimen

To enter more organisms living on the plant (see point 2 in the image below) select the plant in the tree (see point 1 in the image below) and create new organisms as described above in section Add a new organism . 

Enter an additional identification for an organism

To enter an additional identification for an organism, select it in the tree (see point 4 in the image below) and click the button (see point 5 in the image below). This will insert a dataset for an additional identification of the organism below the organism, as shown below.

Next chapters

This tutorial continues in the sections listed below.

• section Specimen parts and storage
• section Searching the database