Skip to main content
Log in

Biological inventories and computer data bases: Their role in environmental assessments

  • Environmental Auditing
  • Published:
Environmental Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

An important goal of biological inventories is to provide information for environmental assessments of development projects and biodiversity conservation. Likewise, computer data bases have been proposed for efficient compilation and management of biological information. However, the attributes of biological inventories and computer data bases have not been examined with respect to environmental assessments. This article presents a case study in Mexico to analyze the current limitations of biological inventories for successful environmental assessments and biodiversity conservation in developing countries. Results demonstrate that, considering the objectives of environmental assessments and information constraints, computerized biological inventories should be assembled with a minimum of record fields: taxonomic data and georeferenced collection localities. Furthermore, it is proposed that environmental assessments should become a feedback to biological inventories and an important financial support to universities and research institutions in developing countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  • Agarwala, S. B. C. 1989. Environmental impact analysis in developing countries.Environmental Conservation 16:66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous. 1991. Final consensus report on the dialogue on biological diversity on federal lands. The Keystone Center, Colorado, 96 pp.

  • Austin, M. P., R. B. Cunningham, and P. M. Flemming. 1984. New approaches to direct gradient analysis using environmental scalars and statistical curve-fitting procedures.Vegetatio 55:11–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blockstein, D. E. 1990. Toward a federal plan for biological diversity.Journal of Forestry 88(3):15–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bojórquez-Tapia, L. A. 1989. Methodology for prediction of ecological impacts under real conditions in Mexico.Environmental Management 13(5):545–551.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bojórquez-Tapia, L. A., and E. Ongay-Delhumeau. 1992. International lending and resource development in Mexico: Can environmental quality be assured?Ecological Economics 5:197–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J. H. and J. Roughgarden. 1990. Ecology for a changing earth.Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America 71:173–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, D. G. 1989. The importance of floristic inventory in the tropics. Pages 6–30in D. G. Campbell and H. D. Hammond (eds.), Floristic inventory of tropical countries, the status of plant systematics, collections and vegetation, plus recommendations for the future. The New York Botanical Garden, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clench, H. 1979. How to make regional lists of butterflies: Some thoughts.Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 33:216–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coddington, J., P. Hammond, S. Olivieri, J. Robertson, V. Sokolov, N. Stork, and E. Taylor. 1991. Monitoring and inventorying biodiversity from genes to ecosystems. Pages 83–95in O. Solbrig (ed.), From genes to ecosystems: A research agenda for biodiversity. The International Union of Biological Sciences, Paris, 124 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Connor, E. F., and E. D. McCoy. 1979. The statistics and biology of the species-area relationship.The American Naturalist 113:791–833.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conservation International. 1992. CI/SIG, sistema de informatión geográfica, versión 2.0: Manual del usuario. Conservation International, Washington, DC, 151 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corson-Rikert, J. 1990. Roots user’s manual. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, Cambridge, Massachusetts 152 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, F. W., D. M. Stoms, J. E. Estes, J. Scepan, and J. M. Scott. 1990. An information system approach to the preservation of biological diversity.International Journal of Geographical Information Systems 4:79–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, G. 1989. Environmental assessment: operational directive adopted by bank.Environment Bulletin 1(4):2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. 1986. The design of a nature reserve system for Indonesian New Guinea. Pages 485–503in M. E. Soulé (ed.), Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Massachusetts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich, P. R., and E. O. Wilson. 1991. Biodiversity studies: Science and policy.Science 253:758–762.

    Google Scholar 

  • Everitt, B. S. 1977. The analysis of contingency tables. Chapman and Hall, London, 127 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flores-Villela, O., and P. Gerez. 1988. Conservación en México: Síntesis sobre vertebrados terrestres, vegetación y uso del suelo. INIREB, Xalapa, 302 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • García, E., and Z. Falcón. 1980. Nuevo Atlas Porrúa de la República Mexicana. Editorial Porrúa, S.A., México, D.F.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaston, K. J., and R. M. May. 1992. Taxonomy and taxonomists.Nature 356:281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodland, R. 1988. A major new opportunity to finance the preservation of biodiversity. Pages 437–441in E. O. Wilson (ed.), Biodiversity. National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 521 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodland, R. 1989. The environmental implications of major projects in Third world development. Pages 9–34in P. Chester (ed.), Major projects and the environment. Major Projects Assoc., Oxford, UK, 101 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, A. C., and D. Taylor. 1988. Assessment of the environmental impacts of proposed forest-based developments in Guerrero and Oaxaca, Mexico. Unpublished Report, 64 pp.

  • ICFA. 1987. AU2 Paquete general de cartografía: Manual del usuario. Publicación 88-AU-2-01, ICFA, México, DF.

    Google Scholar 

  • INEGI. 1982. Carta de México topográfica 1:250 000. Instituto Nacional de Estadística Geografía e Informática, México, DF.

  • Kvamme, K. L. 1990. One-sample test in regional archaeological analysis: New possibilities through computer technology.American Antiquity 55:367–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim, G. 1985. Theory and practice of EIA implementation: A comparative study of three developing countries.Environmental Impact Assessment Review 5:133–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lorence, D. H., and A. García-Mendoza. 1989. Oxaca, Mexico. Pages 253–269in D. G. Campbell and H. D. Hammond (eds.), Floristic inventory of tropical countries: The status of plant systematics, collections, and vegetation, plus recommendations for the future. New York Botanical Garden, New York, 253 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNeely, J. A., K. R. Miller, W. V. Reid, R. A. Mittermeier, and T. B. Werner. 1990. Conserving the world’s biological diversity. IUCN, WRI, CI, WWF-US, WB, Washington, DC, 193 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. I. 1986. Predicting rare plant distribution patterns in the southern Appalachians of the south-eastern U.S.A.Journal of Biogeography 13:293–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. I., S. P. Bratton, and P. S. White. 1987. A regional strategy for reserve design and placement on an analysis of rare and endangered species’ distribution patterns.Biological Conservation 39:255–268.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R. I., S. N. Stuart, and K. M. Howell. 1989. A methodology for analyzing rare species distribution patterns utilizing GIS technology: The rare birds of Tanzania.Landscape Ecology 2:173–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, R.I., and R.G. Weigert. 1989. Documenting completeness, species-area relations, and the species-abundance distribution of a regional flora.Ecology 70:16–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, B. W., C. A. C. Ferreira, M. F. da Silva, and M. L. Kawasaki. 1990. Endemism centers, refugia and botanical collection density in Brazilian Amazonia.Nature 345:714–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nicholls, A. O. 1989. How to make biological surveys go further with generalized linear models.Biological Conservation 50:51–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, B. D. 1987. The principle of nested subsets and its implications for biological conservation.Conservation Biology 1(4):323–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, B. D., and J. H. Brown. 1991. Regional nested patterns of species composition in granivorous rodent assemblages.Journal of Biogeography 18:395–402.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preston, F. W. 1962. The canaonical distribution of commonnes and rarity: Part I.Ecology 43:185–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rzedowski, J. 1991a. Diversidad y origenes de la flora fanerogamica de Mexico.Acta Botancia Mexicana 14:3–21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rzedowski, J. 1991b. El endemismo en la Flora Fanerogamica Mexicana.Acta Botanica Mexicana 15:47–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • SARH. 1980. Vademecum forestal mexicano. Dirección General de Información y Sistemas Forestales.

  • Scott, J. M., B. Custi, J. D. Jacobi, and J. E. Estes. 1987. Species richness.BioScience 37:782–788.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. M., B. Csuti, K. Smith, J. E. Estes, and S. Caicco. 1988. Beyond endangered species: An integrated conservation strategy for the preservation of biological diversity.Endangered Species Update 5:43–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • SCT. 1987a. Mapa de carreteras del estado de Guerrero 1:600 000. Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, México, DF.

  • SCT. 1987b. Mapa de carreteras del estado de Oaxaca 1:800 000. Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes, México, DF.

  • Soberón, J., and J. Llorente. 1993. The use of species accumulation functions for prediction of species richness.Conservation Biology 7:480–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soulé, M. E., and K. A. Kohm. 1989. Research priorities for conservation biology. Island Press, Washington, DC, 97 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh, J. 1974. Preservation of natural diversity: The problem of extinction prone species.BioScience 24:715–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terborgh, J., and B. Winter. 1983. A method for sitting parks and reserves with special reference to Colombia and Ecuador.Biological Conservation 27:45–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toledo, V. M. 1988. La diversidad biológica de México.Ciencia y Desarrollo 81:17–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNEP. 1992. Draft convention on biological diversity. Conference for the adoption of the agreed text of the convention on biological diversity. UNEP/Bio.Div/Conf/L.2, Nairobi, 21 pp.

  • Wheeler, B. D. 1988. Species richness, species rarity and conservation evaluation of rich-fen vegetation in lowland England and Wales.Journal of Applied Ecology 25:331–353.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, P. S., and R. I. Miller. 1988. Topographic models of cascular plant richness in the southern Appalachian high peaks.Journal of Ecology 76:192–199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zar, J. H. 1974. Biostatistical analysis. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 718 pp.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bojórquez-Tapia, L.A., Balvanera, P. & Cuarón, A.D. Biological inventories and computer data bases: Their role in environmental assessments. Environmental Management 18, 775–785 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02394640

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02394640

Key words

Navigation