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Invertebrate herbivore biodiversity assessment
tool.
What's new
What is Plant-SyNZ™
Plant-SyNZ™,
pronounced plant signs, is the short name for a database of invertebrate
herbivores found on New Zealand plants and for a new tool for assessing
the biodiversity of insect and mite herbivores on native plants.
Invertebrate herbivore - host plant database
This database focuses on New
Zealand native plants and New Zealand native invertebrate herbivores.
It is linked to the Landcare Research nzflora and nzbugs (invertebrates)
databases. The Plant-SyNZ database features a reliability
index to show the quality of information supporting each association.
Plant-SyNZ herbivore biodiversity tool
Plant-SyNZ™ is a new tool for assessing the biodiversity of
insect and mite herbivores on native plants. It is being developed
by Crop & Food Research for use by professional scientists, lay
people and school students. Insects are an important and numerous
component of New Zealand’s biodiversity and it is important
that they are assessed in biodiversity studies. Plant-SyNZ™
is based upon photographs of plant damage caused by the invertebrates
and photographs of invertebrates that have a unique appearance on
a particular plant. The tool is designed to be used for a wide variety
of purposes and by people with different skill levels.
Central to Plant-SyNZ™ are invertebrate identification charts,
which are laminated A4 pages featuring the photographs of plant
damage. Each of these invertebrate identification charts covers
only one plant species. The charts for each plant species are available
for three levels of skill, student, standard and expert. The charts
are accompanied by matching recording sheets. An example
of an identification chart (pdf 82 KB) is also available.
A more detailed explanation of Plant-SyNZ™,
including examples of identification charts as well as how to Plant-SyNZ™
might be used, is available.
Plant-SyNZ™ trial
During the first six months of 2004 Crop & Food Research is seeking
feedback on the identification charts for five plant species in order
to improve their presentation and content. We would like potential
users of Plant-SyNZ™ to order one or more trial packs and after
testing them out to return a questionnaire with feedback on the identification
sheets.
During the trial, the plant identification pages will only be available
in the trial packs from Crop & Food Research. This will ensure
that users have copies with high quality photographs.
Contacts/Feedback
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PDFs can be viewed
using Adobe Reader. |
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