ECOLOG is a specimen-based, cross-platform relational database management system, aimed at the storage, retrieval and preliminary analysis of data on sites, species, and specimens gathered in ecological field surveys and biodiversity inventories.

The main goal of ECOLOG is to make the data gathered in ecological field surveys readily accessible, providing lists of species collected in the study area and informations on habitat preferences, abundance or rarity of a given species, biometrics, morphology, dominance, and spatial location of each specimen collected in the field. The system also aims at contributing to the adoption of a minimum standard for gathering, storing, and exchanging of data from ecological surveys and biodiversity inventories, avoiding duplication of efforts in different research and environmental management projects and institutions.

The development of ECOLOG has been based on, and incorporates many of the items, in the list of Desirable Attributes of Ecological Software.

ECOLOG is written in FreePascal/Lazarus, a free, cross-platform object-oriented programming language for Rapid Application Development. Therefore, the program is platform-independent, and can run without modifications on any PC compatible with the x86 architecture, under GNU/Linux, MacOSX, and MS-Windows.

Simple menu-driven, multiple document interface, using familiar terminology and options which reflect the researcher workflow

Direct utilization of electronic spreadsheets in several formats (.xls, .xlsx, .ods, .csv, and .tsv), which the user can create and edit is her/his favorite program (Office Excel, LibreOffice/OpenOffice Calc, Gnumeric, etc.)

Interactive filter definition for the selection of the records; each data field or combination of fields can be used as criteria for record retrieval, including text-based ones

Simple pre-defined reports, including checklists, and collecting labels, with output in HTML format, allowing the automatic production of Web pages from database contents

Generation of database statistics, including counts of species per family/genus, with percents, counts of individuals per species, also with percents, rarefraction curves, and several diversity indices for one or more filtered sites; these statistics can then be used to automatically produce simple bar and line graphs

Storage of user-defined morphological and biometrical descriptors and environmental variables

Flexible export of data in several different formats for exchange with other software

Support to storage and statistical analysis of short gene sequences for biodiversity inventories using DNA barcode

Support to the description of the contents, context, structure, and accessibility of data sets (metadata), based on the Ecological Metadata Language (EML) standard

Integration with Google Earth, for generating distribution maps of specimens from spatial coordinate data stored in the database, exported to KML format

Multivariate analysis of ecological data (similarity indices,  cluster analysis, ordination), directly from ECOLOG, by means of the R system for statistical computing and graphics

Localized versions in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, geared towards other countries in Latin America, Caribbean, and Africa

• The Atlantic Rainforest Research Program at Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, collated a database with about 20,000 specimen records and 2,000 records of plant species collected at Macaé de Cima Ecological Reserve, Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro (Dalcin et al., 1997) and another one with about 600 specimen records and 140 plant species from Paraíso State Ecological Station, Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro (Kurtz & Araujo, 2000).

• The Jacarepiá State Ecological Reserve Integrated Biological Survey, Saquarema, Rio de Janeiro, conducted by Rio de Janeiro State Foundation of Environmental Engineering, created a database with about 300 specimen records e 200 plant species (Sá et al., 1991).

• Biotupé Project, at National Institute of Amazon Research, Manaus, Amazonas, geared towards the management and analysis of biodiversity data from Tupé Lake Sustainable Development Reserve (Cavalcanti, 2005).

Publications

1. Cavalcanti, M.J. 1991. ECOLOG: um sistema de banco de dados para levantamentos ecológicos de campo. Resumos do XVIII Congresso Brasileiro de Zoologia, Salvador, p. 557.

2. Cavalcanti, M.J. 1993. ECOLOG: um sistema gerenciador de bancos de dados para levantamentos ecológicos de campo. Resumos do I Simpósio de Aplicações da Informática em Biologia, Campinas, pp. 44-45.

3. Cavalcanti, M.J. 1998. Aplicações de Sistemas Gerenciadores de Bancos de Dados em Ecologia e Sistemática. Acta Biologica Leopoldensia, São Leopoldo 20: 5-20.

4. Cavalcanti, M.J. 2005. Bancos de dados sobre biodiversidade na Amazônia: a experiência do Projeto Biotupé. In: Santos-Silva, E.N., Aprile, F.M., Scudeller, V.V. & Melo, S. (orgs.), BioTupé: Meio Físico, Diversidade Biológica e Sociocultural do Baixo Rio Negro, Amazônia Central. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, pp. 199-213.

5. Cavalcanti, M.J. 2011. ECOLOG: um sistema gerenciador de bancos de dados para levantamentos ecológicos de campo e inventários de biodiversidade. In: Santos-Silva, E.N., Scudeller, V.V. & Cavalcanti, M.J. (orgs.), BioTupé: Meio Físico, Diversidade Biológica e Sociocultural do Baixo Rio Negro, Amazônia Central - Volume 3. Rizoma Editorial, Manaus, pp. 291-302.

6. Dalcin, E., Solano, L. & Pizarro, R. 1997. De banco de dados a centro de informações e serviços: uma experiência para a Reserva Ecológica Macaé de Cima. In: Lima, H.C. & Guedes-Bruni, R.R. (orgs.), Serra de Macaé de Cima: Diversidade Florística e Conservação em Mata Atlântica. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 307-314.

7. Kurtz, B.C. & Araujo, D.S.D. 2000. Composição florística e estrutura do componente arbóreo de um trecho de Mata Atlântica na Estação Ecológica Estadual do Paraíso, Cachoeiras de Macacu, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. Rodriguésia, Rio de Janeiro 51: 69-112.

8. Sá, C.F.C., Araujo, D.S.D., Lima, H.C., Cavalcanti, M.J., Pereira, M.C.A. & Fontoura, T. 1991. Composição florística e estrutura da floresta de cordão arenoso da Reserva Ecológica de Jacarepiá, Saquarema (RJ): dados preliminares. Resumos do XLII Congresso Nacional de Botânica, Goiânia, p. 527.

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Dr. Mauro J. Cavalcanti
Ecoinformatics Studio
P.O. Box 18123, CEP 20720-970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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