The other part of Friday´s lecture was Debbie Paul´s Morphbank introduction. Morphbank is a repository for photos of living organisms, which is meant to serve as an aid for species identification. Photos come with a range of metadata, which, I think, could potentially be useful for a variety of other reasons. Data can be uploaded via the web individually or in batch, or, if the identification of the specimen is not to species level, be sent to Morphbank directly. Morphbank is also linked to various other online databases.
I browsed around Morphbank a little and it seems that at this stage the coverage for African species is somewhat sparse. Perhaps a reason to raise awareness amongst African researchers of this resource. Also, could it be possible to link Morphbank to other photographic repositories, such as the West African Plant Database or the Flora of Zimbabwe?
Ramblings of a PhD student
Posts
Publications
Greve, M., Lykke, A.M., Blach-Overgaard, A. & Svenning, J.-C. (in press) Environmental and anthropogenic determinants of vegetation distribution across Africa. Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Greve, M., C. L. Chown, van Rensburg, B. J., Dallimer, M. & Gaston, K.J. (in press) The ecological effectiveness of protected areas: a case study for South African birds. Animal Conservation.
Hui, C., M. A. McGeoch, B. Reyers, P. C. le Roux, M. Greve, S. L. Chown (2010) Extrapolating population size from the occupancy-abundance relationship and the scaling pattern of occupancy. Ecological Applications 19(8): 2038-2048.
Shaw, J. D., D. Spear, M. Greve, S. L. Chown (2010) Taxonomic homogenization and differentiation across Southern Ocean Islands differ among insects and vascular plants. Journal of Biogeography 37(2): 155-168.
Lykke, A.M., Barford, A.S., Svendsen, G.T., Greve, M. & Svenning, J.C. (2009) Climate change mitigation by carbon stocking: the case of semi-arid West Africa. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 8(1): 1-17
Greve, M., K. J. Gaston, B. J. van Rensburg, S. L. Chown(2008). "Environmental factors, regional body size distributions and spatial variation in body size of local avian assemblages." Global Ecology and Biogeography 17(4): 514-523.
Greve, M. and S. L. Chown (2006). "Endemicity biases nestedness metrics: a demonstration, explanation and solution." Ecography 29(3): 347-356.
Greve, M., N. J. M. Gremmen, K. J. Gaston, S. L. Chown (2005). "Nestedness of Southern Ocean island biotas: ecological perspectives on a biogeographical conundrum." Journal of Biogeography 32(1): 155-168.
Greve, M., C. L. Chown, van Rensburg, B. J., Dallimer, M. & Gaston, K.J. (in press) The ecological effectiveness of protected areas: a case study for South African birds. Animal Conservation.
Hui, C., M. A. McGeoch, B. Reyers, P. C. le Roux, M. Greve, S. L. Chown (2010) Extrapolating population size from the occupancy-abundance relationship and the scaling pattern of occupancy. Ecological Applications 19(8): 2038-2048.
Shaw, J. D., D. Spear, M. Greve, S. L. Chown (2010) Taxonomic homogenization and differentiation across Southern Ocean Islands differ among insects and vascular plants. Journal of Biogeography 37(2): 155-168.
Lykke, A.M., Barford, A.S., Svendsen, G.T., Greve, M. & Svenning, J.C. (2009) Climate change mitigation by carbon stocking: the case of semi-arid West Africa. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science 8(1): 1-17
Greve, M., K. J. Gaston, B. J. van Rensburg, S. L. Chown(2008). "Environmental factors, regional body size distributions and spatial variation in body size of local avian assemblages." Global Ecology and Biogeography 17(4): 514-523.
Greve, M. and S. L. Chown (2006). "Endemicity biases nestedness metrics: a demonstration, explanation and solution." Ecography 29(3): 347-356.
Greve, M., N. J. M. Gremmen, K. J. Gaston, S. L. Chown (2005). "Nestedness of Southern Ocean island biotas: ecological perspectives on a biogeographical conundrum." Journal of Biogeography 32(1): 155-168.
About Me
- Michelle Greve
- I am a PhD student in the Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity Group at Aarhus University in Denmark. I grew up in South Africa, which provided ample opportunities for developing an interest in the natural environment. After school I therefore went on to study ecology at Stellenbosch University. When I had completed my undergraduate training, I joined Prof. Steven Chown's research group. It was here that I developed a passion for biogeography. I first did a project on the distribution patterns of organisms across Southern Ocean Islands, with a focus on nestedness patterns. Subsequently, for my Masters project, I shifted to working on body size patterns of birds across South Africa, and also compared bird assemblages in natural and agricultural landscapes. I am currently based at Aarhus University in Denmark, where I am doing a PhD on the relationship between the environment and vegetation patterns in Africa under the supervision of Jens-Christian Svenning and Anne Mette Lykke. The project is mainly bioinformatic in nature and, coming from a biological background, I find myself constantly challenged to learn new methods and approaches for analyzing my data.
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