Introduction
The objective of this page is to outline the functionality of a taxonomic comparator process that takes as input two or more taxonomic checklists and performs a series of evaluations to assess areas of overlap and distinction.
History
Several comparators have been developed in the past.
- Crispen Wilson demonstrated a taxonomic comparator in 2005 to uBio
- Jessie Kennedy and Martin Graham demonstrated a taxonomic comparator at TDWG 2007 in St. Louis
- Burke Chih-Jen Ko demonstrated a comparator tool to GBIF at a recent meeting in Taipei
Functionality
Taxonomic comparators analyse two or more taxonomic checklists and, depending upon the detail of the source data, perform a series of evaluations.
This includes
Comparison of included taxa:
- For a given taxon, the evaluation summarises the absolute number of included taxa for each classification
- The degree of concordance between each classification
- The degree of distinction within each classification
- Evaluates if included taxa that do not appear within the sibling taxon in the second classification, appear elsewhere in the classification
- A comparison function should be able to identify related taxon groups based on overlapping membership and not rely simply on higher taxon names.
- For example Classification A might refer to the Gramminae while Classification B refers to the Poaceae yet the two groups include a majority of identical child taxa.
Reconciliation of nomenclature
In some cases the same nominal taxon may be treated in different classifications under different nomenclatural forms. For example, Classification A may refer to a taxon as Pternistes afer (Müller) while Classification B may refer to a taxon as Francolinus after (Müller). A reconciled comparator should be able to identify these two forms as belonging to the same taxon. This functionality benefits from access to nomenclatural authority data and is a recognized use case for the Global Names Usage Bank.
Reconciliation of circumscription
In cases where taxonomic data sources provide synonymy in addition to a list of accepted/valid species, additional evaluations can be performed on the names included within the taxon concept. This can improve the overall assessment.
Interfaces
Browsing interfaces
Multiple panels - One interface presents parallel panels in which different classifications can be loaded. One classification constitutes the Reference Taxonomy and one or more constitute Target Taxonomies. A browse interface provides navigation through the Reference Taxonomy. Corresponding taxa