U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region Technical Announcement

Preparation of an Interactive Key for Northern Gulf of Mexico Polychaete
Taxonomy Employing the DELTA/INTKEY System:  Final Report

OCS Study MMS 2003-065

The Minerals Management Service (MMS), Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new study report, Preparation of an Interactive Key for Northern Gulf of Mexico Polychaete Taxonomy Employing the DELTA/INTKEY System:  Final Report.

Over the past 20 years, taxonomy has innovatively incorporated computer database methodology into the management, analysis, and synthesis of taxonomic data.  As a result, there is a transition underway in which traditional taxonomic papers, monographs, and identification keys are being replaced by interactive data-management systems.  Part of this transition has been the development of Computer Aided Taxonomic Identification (CATI).  CATI is now sufficiently mature that its methods of taxonomic data analysis should be adopted by agencies supporting species identification.

As a demonstration project, the information on northern Gulf of Mexico polychaete worms was converted into a database and interactive key.  The Descriptive Language for Taxonomy (DELTA) was used to develop the database, and a companion program INTKEY was used to develop the interactive key. The exercise proved the practicality of basing taxonomic QA/QC efforts upon CATI.

This report is available only in compact disc format.  The discs are available from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at a charge of $15.00 by referencing OCS Study MMS 2003-065.  The report may be ordered through the Minerals Management Service’s on-line ordering system at:  http://www.gomr.mms.gov/WebStore/front.asp.  You will be able to obtain this report also from the National Technical Information Service in the near future.  Here are the addresses.  You may also inspect copies at selected Federal Depository Libraries.