sep 2007
Mapping on your computer with insight
23-09-2007 13:53
Ecological niche
development has caught my attention before
(application in this presentation),
but when I wanted to do some analyses on the
Ecuadorian data, I did a quick survey for suitable
(and affordable) software to use on my
MacBook. DIVA-GIS is still my favorite, but
unfortunately it only runs on Windows machines. So
here are some findings on what is available for
the Mac community.
A nice starting point is a review found on Cartographica.com, reviewing 4 software packages: MyWorldGis, QuantumGIS, uDig and ESRI Arcexplorer. My conclusion from the verdicts was that none of the programs was actually good for my purposes. MyWorldGIS is aimed at high school level and too simple, Arcexplorer is a viewer rather than a full GIS system, while the other two programs need more development before they can be used for analysis. There was the promise of a second part of the review, dealing with a.o. GRASS GIS, but I haven't spotted it yet.
While I'm mostly interersted in a low-cost solution, a list of open source GIS software came in handy. QuantumGIS and uDig are also listed here, as well as GRASS GIS. I downloaded all three, but was unsatisfied with uDig while the two others proved to raise some stumbling-blocks in my attempts to quickly getting them working.
Digging around, it struck me that the GIS community is very prolific in producing all sorts of data. A nice portal with many links to useful sites is the EDEN project.
Finally I explored a program that is Java-based - hence cross-platform - and looks terrific judging from the sketchy tutorial: the Maxent package. The training data set on the site runs as expected, but when I try one of my own data sets I quickly ran into problems.
All this clearly illustrates that there are no quick-fixes when it comes to scientific analyses....
A nice starting point is a review found on Cartographica.com, reviewing 4 software packages: MyWorldGis, QuantumGIS, uDig and ESRI Arcexplorer. My conclusion from the verdicts was that none of the programs was actually good for my purposes. MyWorldGIS is aimed at high school level and too simple, Arcexplorer is a viewer rather than a full GIS system, while the other two programs need more development before they can be used for analysis. There was the promise of a second part of the review, dealing with a.o. GRASS GIS, but I haven't spotted it yet.
While I'm mostly interersted in a low-cost solution, a list of open source GIS software came in handy. QuantumGIS and uDig are also listed here, as well as GRASS GIS. I downloaded all three, but was unsatisfied with uDig while the two others proved to raise some stumbling-blocks in my attempts to quickly getting them working.
Digging around, it struck me that the GIS community is very prolific in producing all sorts of data. A nice portal with many links to useful sites is the EDEN project.
Finally I explored a program that is Java-based - hence cross-platform - and looks terrific judging from the sketchy tutorial: the Maxent package. The training data set on the site runs as expected, but when I try one of my own data sets I quickly ran into problems.
All this clearly illustrates that there are no quick-fixes when it comes to scientific analyses....
Version 0.2 is up
09-09-2007 21:26
The checklist of
Orthalicidae from Ecuador is taking shape. I have
checked now the following collections: ANSP
(Philadelphia), FMNH (Chicago), FLMNH (Gainesville),
RMNH (Leiden) and USNM (Washington). There remain a
number to be done, but as far as I can guess the
number of taxa is quite complete. So after some
polishing I have put up version 0.2 on the web. Its
main changes are:
- Orthalicinae added (checked with Strebel, 1909);
- the longitude/latitude coordinates of the localities have been centralized in Table 1, to improve the readableness of the text;
- the taxa have been numbered;
- a start has been made with some analyses.
This week I also made progress with the inventory of type material in the Naturalis collection. Some 170 have been listed so far, of which 15 manuscript names, mostly of Weyrauch (another project coming up).
- Orthalicinae added (checked with Strebel, 1909);
- the longitude/latitude coordinates of the localities have been centralized in Table 1, to improve the readableness of the text;
- the taxa have been numbered;
- a start has been made with some analyses.
This week I also made progress with the inventory of type material in the Naturalis collection. Some 170 have been listed so far, of which 15 manuscript names, mostly of Weyrauch (another project coming up).
An interim balance
02-09-2007 17:16
After having put the
first version of the Ecuadorian checklist on this
website, I added the Orthalicinae and began to add
data from more museums. Some have made their
collection available through a database (e.g. the
Florida and Philadelphia museums) and Dr. Jochen
Gerben kindly sent me the list of their Orthalicoids
from Ecuador. To make up an interim balance: the list
of localities has grown to 104; only the Provinces of
Bolívar and Sucumbios are not represented, but
Pichincha is still over-represented with 23%.
The number of species has also grown, to 170, with most additional ones to the previous version being species from neighbouring countries. However, I suspect that after checking the identifications with specimens at hand, some may appear to have been identified in error. And just to illustrate the radiation in the Galápagos: about 1/3 of the species now listed is from the archipel.
The number of species has also grown, to 170, with most additional ones to the previous version being species from neighbouring countries. However, I suspect that after checking the identifications with specimens at hand, some may appear to have been identified in error. And just to illustrate the radiation in the Galápagos: about 1/3 of the species now listed is from the archipel.