Appears in the Invertebrates in Captivity 2003 Conference Proceedings (pages 140-143)
Held July 30 - Aug 3, 2003 in Rio Rico, Arizona
Hosted by the Sonoran Arthropod Studies Institute (SASI), Tucson, Arizona
Ronald W. Lyons
Abstract: Obtaining information on local arthropods at parks and nature centers is often difficult because many facilities lack a "staff expert" and have little printed or display material. Archival material in the form of stories, research reports, species lists, specimens, etc. is often available but unorganized or unconsolidated making it difficult to access. These problems can be alleviated by organizing the archival material into a local arthropod web site. Such a site would improve the visibility and increase the value of this information for both staff and visitors.
Disclaimer: The situation as described in this paper is based on my own observations and experiences. I believe it is widespread although the extent of the problem varies greatly depending on the facility.
Over the past few years I have visited a number of parks and nature centers, mainly in the western portion of the country. I have been struck by the lack of information in the form of handouts, publications or display materials on the local arthropods or their impacts. This lack stands in stark contrast to the volume of material and information for plants and larger animals such as birds, reptiles and mammals, and in some places even fish. In addition, there appears to be little information that the staff can readily access and few facilities have any sort of on-site expert.
People often visit parks and other natural areas to experience nature. In these settings they are normally more appreciative of creatures they might not tolerate at home. As educators, we should be concerned about this missed opportunity to explain arthropods and their important roles.
In most cases, some arthropod information does exist. Various sources include species lists, research papers and reports (not necessarily published), letters, photographs, school projects, newsletter and newspaper articles, databases (in different formats), collecting permits and specimens in the hands of different collectors and collections. Information may be present in field studies not obviously related to arthropods. It may predate the establishment of the park or facility. It may or may not be current or complete. The information or references to it may be found in various places such as document files, research journals, museums and collections. In some cases, the information may exist only in the personal experiences of the staff and visitors. Some valuable material has undoubtedly been lost with the passing of potential contributors.
Finding the information one wants in this array of possibilities is not always a trivial process - it often involves considerable time and effort, always with the underlying awareness that the information desired may not even exist. In order to be brought into a usable form some sort of consolidation (perhaps quite extensive) is necessary. Consolidation increases the value of scattered information because:
1) the information becomes more accessible and the relationships between the pieces more apparent
2) the current state of our knowledge can be assessed more accurately
3) areas that need to be addressed can be identified more reliably
4) the information can be incorporated into management decisions, if needed.
During the process of consolidation, discrepancies between what should exist and what actually does exist may become apparent. Time needs to be allowed to reconcile these discrepancies.
At least initially, consolidation usually takes the form of a new document file. Document files can be unwieldy and tedious to search through. Sometimes these get condensed into a more digestible form such as a book or a paper (c.f. Weissmann and Kondratieff's 1999 work at the Great Sand Dunes National Monument). Books are expensive to produce, especially in limited quantities. The information in papers is often condensed more than one would like for the purposes discussed here. Both can quickly go out-of-date. Ideally, we want to put the arthropod material into a form that is more accessible to a wider audience for a variety of purposes, easier to keep current and easy, as well as, inexpensive to reproduce or circulate. If we accomplish this, then we can expect interest and future participation by a wider audience.
While working on this web site, I came across an article by Ginsberg (1994) discussing wider aspects of this problem, including some of the points raised herein, with regards to the National Parks. I thank him for taking the time to discuss his article with me and providing a copy of his 1993 report upon which his later article was based.
Advances in computer-based technology have made it relatively easy to link together large and small pieces of information into a useful and usable form. They can be built into a web site - a format which is not only less expensive than previously available but more flexible. In addition, information in this format can be easily circulated or converted into a retail product.
Such a web-based information system should be designed with simplicity in mind. By doing this, we can minimize the time required to put the site together. In addition, people at various skill levels can update the site without jeopardizing its integrity. (Unfortunately, design considerations won't affect the time needed to gather the information. They may however affect the ease with which updates can be made and the variety of personnel that can be involved.) The design should be such that all users, even those who are unfamiliar with arthropods, can find what they want with a minimum of effort. Proprietary document formats should not be used since everyone does not have the software to read these. (The site presented here was copied to a CD and tested with several operating system and browser combinations. There were some small differences in how the images were treated. The only substantive problem occurred with the file names - Apple's operating system is case sensitive, Microsoft's is not.)
The arthropod web site discussed below expanded on work I began as a summer volunteer at one of our nation's parks (hereafter the Park). This site includes some basic background material, a photographic guide to common local arthropods, a list of researchers and their project areas, lists of species for the different orders based on a number of sources, a park bibliography, arthropod management concerns, and a list of useful references.
Before conceiving the idea of a web site, I had supplied the Park with a arthropod guide book for use in the Visitor Center. This book, written for a general audience, included some background material on arthropod classification, life cycles, and identification. The guide contained information about a variety of local arthropods illustrated with photographs acquired over the summer. The species were identified wherever possible, although in some cases this was limited to order and family. Scientific names were used together with any English equivalents. Many of the species shown were common along the well-travelled trails in the Park, although some of the pictures were taken in areas not commonly visited and some were of pinned specimens from the Park's small collection. All the major environments were sampled, including the night life attracted to the lights at the Visitor Center. No traps were set; no living specimens were collected. The book included some arthropod notes describing the progression of species over the summer and a couple of longer articles. Since the book involved a considerable amount of work, the fact that there are only two copies in existence was one of the reasons the idea of a web site appealed to me.
I converted all of the material from my arthropod guide book into web pages with the same basic look and feel as the original. I added a table of contents for each order so that all of the order information could be accessed from a single page. I also set up pages that would display all the images for each order together in a photo gallery. The web-accessible guide became the basis around which the scientific material accumulated over the years could be organized and presented. This approach makes useful background information available to those who are unfamiliar with arthropods but need to use the scientific material for some reason. In addition, it provides pictures or representative examples of some of the local species mentioned in the scientific material.
As a first step to consolidating the scientific material, I had examined the on-site research files for arthropod-related projects during my summer stay. One project not directly related - a biotic assessment of one pond and its surroundings - contained an arthropod species list. The researchers and their subject areas were listed. Some researchers who received collection permits indicated that they had or would forward certain non-target specimens to other investigators. Since these other investigators would be using Park-related materials, their names were also noted. Species information was located. A preliminary Park bibliography was produced from the arthropod-related papers and presentations mentioned.
I began the web project as an experiment; I was not sure how it would turn out but it seemed like a good idea, as well as an interesting indoor project during the rainy Oregon winter. Since I had no official status at the Park, I decided not to contact researchers directly, probably a faster and more desirable way to proceed initially, although not always feasible. Instead, I elected to build on the summary I had prepared from the Park's research files. While this approach undoubtedly involved more work, I wanted to find out how far it would take me and the process became an interesting challenge. If I had proceeded in the obvious manner, I might not have come across some of the resources I did find.
The researchers involved with the Park projects are listed on a web page arranged by arthropod order. Web searches were conducted for these people and links were added to any personal web sites. Similar web searches were conducted for the other investigators. Perhaps not surprisingly, few of the researchers maintained personal web pages. This list provides an quick overview of the scientific projects associated with the Park and can be used to help assess future research requests.
The bibliography serves to document the on-going contribution of the Park and its arthropod fauna to our scientific knowledge, an important factor for oversight and funding bodies. A search of various web sites (e.g. the researcher home pages found previously, bibliographical sites, sites relevant to the area, sites that dealt with various species in the Park) turned up several valid additions to the bibliography, including one invertebrate paper predating the Park's creation and one on-line report. For whatever reasons, the Park had no record of some of the papers in the bibliography as it now stood. After reading these papers at a university library, I was able to add several more references. Two significant obstacles were encountered. Since most of the papers are not specifically about the Park, reference to the Park may only consist of a single statement in the text. When specimens are discussed in an aggregate manner, collection information may not be included and any association with the Park is lost. One important series of papers not found in this manner began with a used monograph purchased at an "Invertebrates in Captivity" conference. Another reference, printed before the Park's creation, was found serendipitously while examining plates in a book for a totally unrelated project (the species photographs were labeled with the collection information). All of the items in the bibliography contain some explicit reference to the Park or locations in the Park. The bibliography of published and presented papers, annotated to indicate the Park's contributions, is presented on a web page. This page also includes references to non-published material (annual reports and letters) from the Park's files.
The species reports were augmented using the bibliographic material. The consolidated lists are incorporated into the web site by arthropod order as reports and checklists, the latter being more complete and verifiable. Each species entry includes the original source document reference(s) (this may save someone time later.) A bibliography is included at the end of each species list so that each list is self-contained. Specimens that are in use as holotypes or paratypes are documented on a separate page.
Web space is devoted to issues and concerns that affect management decisions. This space can include any relevant information on endangered or threatened species, problem species or invasive species. It should include any concerns raised by researchers. Management decisions that have already been affected by arthropod-related concerns can be summarized here for the benefit of future personnel (sometimes these reasons get buried in old files). There is one potential problem here - a lack of content may be interpreted as a lack of concerns, whereas it likely means that little or no work has been done.
Finally, the site contains an annotated list of useful references (monographs and web sites), not necessarily related to the Park. The bulk of this list is devoted to identification materials arranged by arthropod order.
In order to make the site easier to navigate, an index to the various items of the arthropod guide is contained on the site's title page. In addition, the photo gallery, species lists and references are accessible both from this page and from the table of contents for each order. At present, the researcher list and management concerns can only be accessed from the title page (this is partly because some of these are not really order specific and might otherwise be overlooked).
Much work remains to be done on the scientific material. Most of the specimens that have been collected are still in the hands of collectors or have been deposited in various collections, some outside of the country. Much of the information about these specimens has not yet made it back to the Park. Also, there are a number of the specimens in the small collection on-site that still need to be identified. The identifications and collection data for all of these specimens need to be gathered up and made available. Work needs to continue on the Park bibliography - of particular interest are references that predate the formation of the Park.
The current state of our knowledge of local arthropods can be made clearer by consolidating existing arthropod information into a web site designed so that new information can easily be incorporated. In this form, the information can easily be made available to any interested party. As accessibility improves in general, the information can be correlated with information from other areas, thus providing a better framework for our understanding.