U.S. Department of the Interior Technical Announcement |
October 2003 |
Preparation
of an Interactive Key for Northern
Gulf of Mexico Polychaete
Taxonomy Employing the DELTA/INTKEY System: Final Report
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.
MMS is the Federal agency in the U.S.
Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas, and
other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf in Federal offshore
waters. The agency also collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral
revenues from Federal and American Indian leases. These revenues totaled over
$6 billion in 2002 and nearly $127 billion since the agency was created in
1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and
Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and
Federal park and recreation lands.
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Minerals Management Service
Gulf of Mexico OCS Region
Public Information Office (MS 5034)
1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard
New Orleans, Louisiana 70123-2394
Telephone requests may be placed at
(504) 736-2519 or 1-800-200-GULF
or FAX: (504) 736-2620
U.S. Department of Commerce
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, Virginia 22161
(703) 487-4650 or FAX: (703) 321-8547
Rush Orders: 1-800-336-4700
MMS's Website Address:
http://www.mms.gov