Abstract:
This database contains information on the herbarium specimens held in the herbarium of the British Antarctic Survey (international code AAS) as well as information about specimens collected in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic and held in other world herbaria. There are over 70 000 records, predominantly of mosses and lichens, but also of vascular plants, ferns, fungi and algae collected in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions as well as some from surrounding continents, particularly South America. The collection from South Georgia And The South Sandwich Islands started in 1775 and from Antarctica in 1834. Documents relating to the Herbarium are kept in the BAS Archives (LS2/4).
The records can be searched and downloaded on: http://apex.nerc-bas.ac.uk/f?p=148:1. There is also a facility to see a distribution map of specimens retrieved by querying the database.
Keywords:
biogeography, fungus, herbarium, lichen, liverwort, moss, taxonomy, vascular plants
| Use Constraints: | This data is released under a UK Open Government Licence V3.0: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 |
|---|
| Creation Date: | 2004-10-21 |
|---|---|
| Dataset Progress: | In Work |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
|
| Parameters: |
|
| Personnel: | |
| Name | Helen J Peat |
| Role(s) | Metadata Author, Technical Contact |
| Parent Dataset: | N/A |
| Reference: | Green, DM (1972) The herbarium of the British Antarctic Survey. BAS Bulletin No 31: 107-109. Lightowlers, PJ (1988) The Antarctic Plant Database and the BAS Herbarium. Taxon 37(2): 378-380 Peat, H.J. 1998. The Antarctic Plant Database: a specimen and literature based information system. Taxon 47: 85-93. Records and index cards relating to the BAS Herbarium are stored in the BAS Archives. Archives reference LS2/4 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Quality: | Validated Data having undergone some initial despiking or cleaning. Database records are generally accurate, some species identifications may not be correct and some are incomplete. |
|
| Lineage: | Botanical specimens have been collected since pre-BAS time. Specimens have been stored in a herbarium which has been housed in several locations since the 1950s (British Museum, Birmingham University, Queen Mary's College, London). In 1970 the first computerised system for listing the specimens became operational. In the 1970s the herbarium and database formed part of the NERC Bryophyte Centre as part of the Institute for Terrestrial Ecology. The centre was originally based at Birmingham University and then moved to the Bush Research Station of ITE, an Edinburgh University site near Penicuik, Midlothian. In 1983 it was no longer possible to get computer support for the system used for the database. A new database was made using STATUS software on the IBM computer at the Institute of Hydrology at Wallingford. The database was named the Antartic Plant Database. In 1988 the herbarium and database returned to BAS. The database is now an Oracle database and is maintained in the Polar Data Centre. |
|
| Temporal Coverage: | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | 1775-01-01 |
| End Date | N/A |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -90 |
| Northernmost | 0 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -180 |
| Easternmost | 180 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Argentina |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | Bouvet Island |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | South Georgia Island |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | Chile |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | Falkland Islands |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | Gough Island |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | Macquarie Island |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | South Orkney Islands |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | South Shetland Islands |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | South America |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | N/A |
| Detailed Location | Crozet |
| Location | N/A |
| Detailed Location | Kerguelen Island |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | South Sandwich Islands |
| Detailed Location | N/A |
| Location | N/A |
| Detailed Location | Marion Island |
| Location | N/A |
| Detailed Location | Heard Island |
| Location | N/A |
| Detailed Location | McDonald Islands |
| Data Storage: | The Antarctic Plant Database is an Oracle database managed by the Biological Data Manager, UK PDC. |
|---|