VegBank is the vegetation plot database of the Ecological Society of America. VegBank consists of three linked databases: VegPlots (the plot module) contains the actual plot records, VegTypes (the community types module) contains the US National Vegetation Classification and other vegetation types submitted by users, and VegPlants (the plant taxon module) contains all plant taxa recognized by ITIS as well as all other plant taxa recorded in plot records. Vegetation records, community types and plant taxa may be submitted to VegBank and may be subsequently searched, viewed, annotated, revised, interpreted, downloaded, and cited.
The server version of VegBank can be found at www.vegbank.org. This is the client version of VegBank, which is an identical database structure of VegBank in MS Access. The details below apply to both the server version of VegBank and the client.
Jump to... VegPlots VegPlants VegTypes
This module stores data associated with plots. The basic model is:
"Plot," the left most box, represents data about a plot that is generally recorded once per plot. This box differs from the center box, "plot observation" , in that plot data remain constant for all observations of a plot. Many plots may only be sampled once, but some are sampled repeatedly. This data structure allows separate maintenance of certain constant fields (elevation, Geo-coordinates, plot size, etc.) and variable fields (date, sampling method, soil depth, etc.). Both plot and plot observation are linked to themselves in their upper right hand corners in the above diagram. This allows for subplot (plots that are part of a "parent" plot) and previous observation links.
The upper table is "project", a research project, which can contain one or more plot observations. The project table contains information that is in common among all the observations that belong to the project.
At each plot observation, plant taxa are observed and their attributes are
recorded in the "taxon observation" table (upper right).
Fields include: taxa presence, cover, stratum cover, stem size and abundance.
Each plant taxon is observed and interpreted as belonging to a particular plant concept in the plant taxonomy module in the "taxon interpretation" table (lower right). Taxa can be assigned various interpretations at various times by various parties.
The lower table, "plot interpretation" allows plot observations to be interpreted (by one or more parties) at one or more times as belonging to one or more particular types of vegetation. A vegetation type corresponds to a "community concept" in the community taxonomy module. Because vegetation can change, there is no necessary relationship between the interpretations at different observation events for a plot. Plot interpretations can stop if they are deemed no longer valid (by one or more parties).
Typically, taxonomists use different names to distinguish between different taxa. So the standard approach to maintaining taxonomy is a list of taxonomic names. However, not all taxonomists agree what names should apply to which taxa, and even more critically, which individuals are included as which taxa. So for a database to properly distinguish taxa, we cannot rely simply on taxon names. We need concept-based taxonomy, which will now be explained. The point of the following explanation is NOT whether or not we are dealing with one taxon or two taxa. Rather, the point is to explain how VegBank's plant taxon module deals with plant taxon complexities.
If you understand concept-based taxonomy and want to skip to the architecture of this module, click here.
An ecologist who follows Gleason 1952 taxonomic nomenclature for the Shagbark
Hickory would see the plants below and label both Carya ovata.
However, if an ecologist follows Radford et al. 1968, he or she would
label the plants differently, following the theory that the old notion of
Shagbark Hickory (above) is really two different taxa. Some are Northern
Shagbark Hickories (Carya ovata) and others Southern (Carya
carolinae-septentrionalis).
Now, a third ecologist might see the same two plants and follow the same
belief that there are really two different taxa here. But, this ecologist
may follow Strong's Flora North America (1997) and identify some
individuals at the variety level, and others at specific level:
There are other ecologists who follow other taxonomists views, undoubtedly, but this is enough to illustrate the point that if a taxon is observed to be Carya ovata, no one knows whether the author means any the narrow view (green icons) or the broader view (green and yellow icons).
Clearly, we must record more than just a taxon name in VegBank to identify exactly what we mean when we observe a taxon. We really want to know if they are referring to the green icons, yellow icons, or a union of both. To do this, we can start by recording both the name and the reference under which the name was collected. A reference is the authority by which taxa are differentiated. We follow Richard Pyle in referring to the name-reference couplet as an “assertion.” An assertion may also be called a Taxonomic Concept.
In the last examples, we have four names:
Carya ovata ( 
or 
or 
)
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis ()
Carya ovata var. ovata ()
Carya ovata var. australis ()
and three References:
Gleason 1952 Britton & Brown
Radford et al. 1968 Flora Carolinas
Stone 1997 Flora North America
We have six assertions:
Carya ovata Gleason 1952 Britton & Brown
Carya ovata Radford et al. 1968 Flora Carolinas
Carya ovata Stone 1997 Flora North America
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis Radford et al. 1968 Flora Carolinas
Carya ovata var. ovata Stone 1997 Flora North America
Carya ovata var. australis Stone 1997 Flora North America
But only three assertions are unique (all have synonyms in this case):
Note that although we now can know what someone means by Carya ovata sec. Gleason '52, we cannot resolve this to one of Northern Shagbark or Southern Shagbark. When collected, this split did not yet exist (or was not collected according to the split). This is as precise as we can get with taxonomic complexity.
The Plant Concept is the center of the VegBank Plant Module. From this idea, the following (simplified) structure develops:
An assertion has links to Name and Reference, as there form an assertion. The link between Name and Reference has not yet been explained. Each plant name has a reference from which the plant name originated (without consideration for the concept that was originally intended). This data must be embedded in VegBank. For many who submit data through the client, this reference may not be known for each taxon. In this situation, it is suitable to create a reference "unknown" and refer to this "unknown" reference for plant Names. It is not permissible to refer to an unknown reference in an assertion, as this defeats the purpose of concept based taxonomy. References for plant names could be looked up later, but references for concepts cannot.
There are many other aspects to the plant taxon module, but these are not directly accessed in the client. For further information on these, click here to go to the VegBank's web information page.
VegBank's community types module is concept-based and has identical structure as the plant taxon module. A community name is not the center of the model, as different people have different ideas about what that name might mean. The community concept (community name with a community reference), however, provides a framework around a community name and uniquely identifies what is meant. For a more complete explanation of concept-based taxonomy, see the plant taxon example above (click here).
The (simplified) community type module looks like this:
There are many other aspects to the community types module, but these are not directly accessed in the client. For further information on these, click here to go to the VegBank's web information page.