Specimen.dq is a series of distributed queries and data parsers that, given a list of plant species, searches on-line and local databases and returns output for taxonomy, georeferenced herbarium specimen data, as well as information on the appropriate and responsible use of the data collated by the program. While the program is operational, we are not yet able to offer the search results to third parties, as we do not yet have permission to redistribute data from sources. Our hope is to make the entire program web-accessable.

Under the umbrella of specimen.dq, the modular Java utility performs three tasks:

1. syn/tax.dq is the "Taxonomy" query, which currently searches 3 on-line databases (IPNI, ITIS, and Tropicos) and returns all associated taxa (i.e., ALL taxa associated with a species name) this list can then be databased and used as a departure point for analysis of the taxonomic history and relationships of plant taxa.

2. spec.dq proper is the "Specimen" query, which currently searches 2 on-line databases (Tropicos and the University of British Columbia Herbarium) returns specimen records in a standardized format for a list of plant species. This list can be directly input into spec.dq or a specimen query can be automatically spawned to search using the output of syn/tax.dq.

3. datause returns a list of all data sources, complete data use agreements for each as well as appropriate citations/acknowledgement instructions

A (non-operational) version of the input form can be found here.

A sample run of specimen.dq....

We input a list of 26 species representing the tree species in a Gentry plot from Missouri, USA (Cuive River State Park- 39 N 91 W). View the Species List input for this example.

The syn/tax.dq module searched three on-line databases (IPNI, ITIS, and Tropicos) for all associated taxa. The syn/tax.dq query returned 1665 associated taxa for the original list of species. View the Taxonomy Output. This will take a moment to load, and please use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.

The spec.dq module searched two on-line databases for specimen records (Tropicos and the University of British Columbia Herbarium). The search was spawned in each for every unique taxon found by the syn/tax.dq module above. The search of the UBC database searches for all unique genus and species combinations, but as Tropicos has specimens residing under infraspecific taxa, the Tropicos search includes all unique infraspecific taxa found in the Tropicos portion of the syn/tax.dq module. Download the Specimen Output.

The point occurences of all georeferenced specimen are plotted on a map here .