Computer aided plant identification system to rejuvenate traditional taxonomy

Abstract

There is growing scientific consensus that habitats are altered and species are disappearing at rates never before witnessed on the planet. The biodiversity crisis is not just about the perilous state of plants and animals but also endangering of specialists who know them. BIOTIK is an initiative in the emerging area of biodiversity informatics and has enabled biodiversity researchers to overcome such impediments. The BIOTIK aims to develop knowledge base on tree species of the rain forests in the Western Ghats of India, which is one of the “hotspots” of biodiversity. The species identification software “IDentification Assistée par Ordinateur (IDAO)” was implemented to generate identification key for tree species. The identification system, entirely graphic, provides multi-entry points, allows identification of incomplete samples and certain level of observational errors, and enables specialists and non-specialists to make determinations of taxa by generating rules as required at any stage of identification, as like the way by which experts discriminating taxa by using which character(s) should be used in various circumstances.

The identikit builds a conceptual plant for every selection of characters in the user querying interface. Subsequently, at each step of the identification process, Gower’s similarity coefficient is calculated for each species based on the user supplied characters. If the user have some difficulties to choose the next character to feed, it’s possible to request the software to provide the user, through a negative entropy calculation, the most discriminate character. In the result interface, for each taxon, in addition to pictures of species, morphological description of species, brief information on ecology and distribution data are provided in English and local languages viz., Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam for wider dissemination of taxonomic knowledge and enhancement of biodiversity assessment capabilities of the region. The BIOTIK identikit is available on-line as web-based application (www.biotik.org), on DVD for personal computer platforms as well as on Ultra Mobile Personal Computer and it can even be accessed through IPod to identify species easily. The identikit is a freeware (www.biotik.org for downloadable windows version ; www.ifpindia.org/biotik for online version). The BIOTIK knowledge base will continue to evolve (by including more species) and play a major role in biodiversity assessment and species conservation efforts through IT&C.

Speaker

Dr. B. R. Ramesh and Dr. N. Ayyappan, French Institute of Pondicherry.

Organisers

Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry.

Venue

Jawaharlal Nehru Conference Hall, French Institute of Pondicherry, 11, Saint Louis Street, Pondicherry - 605 001.

Time

4.30 pm