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Atta biodiversity information system: Wikis

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The Atta Biodiversity Information System' is a system that supports the core information process at INBio, the National Biodiversity Institute in Costa Rica. Therefore, it includes modules for generating, consulting, editing, and analyzing taxonomic, geographic, and ecological information, including information on species indicators like endemism and potential uses of Costa Rican species of plants, insects, mollusks, arachnids, fungi and nematodes.

Atta maintains a relational database with over three million records, each one corresponding to a single specimen (note that the conception of specimen itself varies according to the Collection involved). Through a unique bar code physically attached to each specimen (one of Atta's distinguishing characteristics) users of this system have efficient and systematic access to the associated digital information. This information includes, but is not restricted to, where, when, how, and who collected the specimen. When the taxonomic identification process is concluded (which according to the Collection could take even years), this information is supplemented with a complete taxonomic description of the specimen (what it is).

Atta is a flexible system that manages up to 22 taxonomic levels, from the Dominium down to Form. It includes a basic geographic information system that permits the combination of taxonomic and ecological information. This flexibility turns Atta into a powerful tool for predictive studies, planning and in general, for decision making about different aspects of conservation of our biodiversity.

With the aim of facilitating the dissemination of information generated using Atta, the system also includes interfaces to export information to standard tools such as ArcView <sup>TM</sup>, MS-EXCEL <sup>TM</sup> and the World Wide Web.

Also a digital publication system for the description of species belonging to the Costa Rican biodiversity stands out as one of Atta's modules on the web. This module, formerly named UBIs (acronym for Basic Information Units in Spanish) is now called cientifico&-Op=eq&nueva=S&-Max=3&-Find Species of Costa Rica. By using this system, national and international collaborators are able to use the web in order to submit species descriptions by means of an electronic publication process. The resulting publication includes at least a photo or illustration of the species and a distribution map (generated for almost all taxonomic groups from the information contained in Atta's specimen database).

All information on specimens and species publicated may be accessed free of charge at INBio's website, http://www.inbio.ac.cr. See the Terms of Use on Information from the Atta's System. For more information and articles on the Atta System, consult the Eco-Index.

Atta is INBio's second version of a comprehensive, efficient, scalable, multi-taxa information system that exploits modern technologies such as multimedia, object-oriented development, GIS, and Internet. It is the result of a multidisciplinary effort that involved many collaborators. For its development INBio has received the kind collaboration of ORACLE de Centroamérica, SOIN, CESA and ESRI, as well as the generous financial assistance from the Government of the Netherlands, Norway (Norwegian Agency for Development) and GEF (Global Environmental Facility).

In the following years, through its participation in several projects, INBio expects to be able to use Atta's development experience to develop an Open Source system that could help different stakeholders in several biodiversity projects.








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