Managing biodiversity information: development of New Zealand's National Vegetation Survey databank

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) databank is designed to safeguard the investment of millions of dollars spent over the last 50 years collecting, computerising and checking New Zealand vegetation data and to optimise the potential knowledge gains from these data. Data such as these can be synthe sised across a range of spatial and temporal scales, allow novel ecological questions to be considered, and can underpin land management and legal rep orting obligations. The NVS databank builds largely on the base of data col lected under the auspices of the New Zealand Forest Service from the 1940s to 1987. In more recent years, it has incorporated data from Protected Natu ral Area (PNA) surveys and from new and remeasured plots in a range of ecos ystems collected by staff of, among others, the Department of Conservation, Landcare Research, regional councils and universities. The databank curren tly stores data from approximately 14 000 permanent plots, 52 000 reconnais sance descriptions and PNA plots, and 14 000 timber volume plots measured i n the 1940s and 1950s. Ecosystems that are best represented are grasslands in montane and alpine areas and indigenous forests. Geographic coverage is widespread but patchy. As the NVS databank continues to develop and grow, a range of data management issues are being addressed. These include (i) dev eloping mechanisms to meet the needs of both data users and data providers and incentives to encourage individuals and organisations to deposit data i nto the databank, (ii) ensuring that metadata are adequate to allow raw dat a to be interpreted, and (iii) ensuring that the data stored meet set quali ty standards. In the future, the databank will take advantage of changing t echnology to best meet the needs of data users and providers. Further infor mation about the NVS databank can be obtained from www.landcare.cri.nz/scie nce/nvs.