Publication:
An integrated system for producing user-specific keys on demand: an application to Italian lichens

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Date
2010
Authors
Nascimbene, Juri
Martellos, Stefano
Nimis, Pier Luigi
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Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
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Abstract
The identification of lichens is important in several applied fields, such as the biological monitoring of air pollution and the restoration of openair stone monuments. This often creates relevant problems for non-specialists and technicians which are in charge of routinely applying lichen monitoring techniques. The coupling of a complex information system (ITALIC), together with a new software which can automatically produce identification keys for any subset of species included in a database (FRIDA), is an innovative approach in the field of identifying biodiversity. ITALIC is able to produce a list of species which potentially occur under a set of ecological and distributional conditions specified by the user. The list is automatically transferred to FRIDA, which generates a user-oriented interactive identification key limited to the species present in the “virtual habitat” created by the user. The new system has relevant applications, since it effectively supports the technical personnel of Environmental Agencies, Nature Parks, Cultural Heritage Conservation Agencies involved in lichen monitoring throughout the Country.
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Keywords
interactive keys, biomonitoring, restoration of monuments, lichens, identification
Citation
Juri Nascimbene, Stefano Martellos, Pier Luigi Nimis, An integrated system for producing user-specific keys on demand: an application to Italian lichens, in Pier Luigi Nimis and Régine Vignes Lebbe (eds.): “Tools for Identifying Biodiversity: Progress and Problems. Proceedings of the International Congress, Paris, September 20-22, 2010”, Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2010, pp. 151-156.