1.
Taxonomy (biology)
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Taxonomy is the science of defining groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics and giving names to those groups. The exact definition of taxonomy varies from source to source, but the core of the remains, the conception, naming. There is some disagreement as to whether biological nomenclature is considered a part of taxonomy, the broadest meaning of taxonomy is used here. The word taxonomy was introduced in 1813 by Candolle, in his Théorie élémentaire de la botanique, the term alpha taxonomy is primarily used today to refer to the discipline of finding, describing, and naming taxa, particularly species. In earlier literature, the term had a different meaning, referring to morphological taxonomy, ideals can, it may be said, never be completely realized. They have, however, a value of acting as permanent stimulants. Some of us please ourselves by thinking we are now groping in a beta taxonomy, turrill thus explicitly excludes from alpha taxonomy various areas of study that he includes within taxonomy as a whole, such as ecology, physiology, genetics, and cytology. He further excludes phylogenetic reconstruction from alpha taxonomy, thus, Ernst Mayr in 1968 defined beta taxonomy as the classification of ranks higher than species. This activity is what the term denotes, it is also referred to as beta taxonomy. How species should be defined in a group of organisms gives rise to practical and theoretical problems that are referred to as the species problem. The scientific work of deciding how to define species has been called microtaxonomy, by extension, macrotaxonomy is the study of groups at higher taxonomic ranks, from subgenus and above only, than species. While some descriptions of taxonomic history attempt to date taxonomy to ancient civilizations, earlier works were primarily descriptive, and focused on plants that were useful in agriculture or medicine. There are a number of stages in scientific thinking. Early taxonomy was based on criteria, the so-called artificial systems. Later came systems based on a complete consideration of the characteristics of taxa, referred to as natural systems, such as those of de Jussieu, de Candolle and Bentham. The publication of Charles Darwins Origin of Species led to new ways of thinking about classification based on evolutionary relationships and this was the concept of phyletic systems, from 1883 onwards. This approach was typified by those of Eichler and Engler, the advent of molecular genetics and statistical methodology allowed the creation of the modern era of phylogenetic systems based on cladistics, rather than morphology alone. Taxonomy has been called the worlds oldest profession, and naming and classifying our surroundings has likely been taking place as long as mankind has been able to communicate
2.
Plant
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Plants are mainly multicellular, predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. The term is generally limited to the green plants, which form an unranked clade Viridiplantae. This includes the plants, conifers and other gymnosperms, ferns, clubmosses, hornworts, liverworts, mosses and the green algae. Green plants have cell walls containing cellulose and obtain most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts and their chloroplasts contain chlorophylls a and b, which gives them their green color. Some plants are parasitic and have lost the ability to produce amounts of chlorophyll or to photosynthesize. Plants are characterized by sexual reproduction and alternation of generations, although reproduction is also common. There are about 300–315 thousand species of plants, of which the great majority, green plants provide most of the worlds molecular oxygen and are the basis of most of Earths ecologies, especially on land. Plants that produce grains, fruits and vegetables form humankinds basic foodstuffs, Plants play many roles in culture. They are used as ornaments and, until recently and in variety, they have served as the source of most medicines. The scientific study of plants is known as botany, a branch of biology, Plants are one of the two groups into which all living things were traditionally divided, the other is animals. The division goes back at least as far as Aristotle, who distinguished between plants, which generally do not move, and animals, which often are mobile to catch their food. Much later, when Linnaeus created the basis of the system of scientific classification. Since then, it has become clear that the plant kingdom as originally defined included several unrelated groups, however, these organisms are still often considered plants, particularly in popular contexts. When the name Plantae or plant is applied to a group of organisms or taxon. The evolutionary history of plants is not yet settled. Those which have been called plants are in bold, the way in which the groups of green algae are combined and named varies considerably between authors. Algae comprise several different groups of organisms which produce energy through photosynthesis, most conspicuous among the algae are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that may roughly resemble land plants, but are classified among the brown, red and green algae. Each of these groups also includes various microscopic and single-celled organisms
3.
Flowering plant
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The flowering plants, also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants, with 416 families, approx. 13,164 known genera and a total of c.295,383 known species, etymologically, angiosperm means a plant that produces seeds within an enclosure, in other words, a fruiting plant. The term angiosperm comes from the Greek composite word meaning enclosed seeds, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms in the Triassic Period, during the range 245 to 202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants are known from 160 mya. They diversified extensively during the Lower Cretaceous, became widespread by 120 mya, angiosperms differ from other seed plants in several ways, described in the table. These distinguishing characteristics taken together have made the angiosperms the most diverse and numerous land plants, the amount and complexity of tissue-formation in flowering plants exceeds that of gymnosperms. The vascular bundles of the stem are arranged such that the xylem and phloem form concentric rings, in the dicotyledons, the bundles in the very young stem are arranged in an open ring, separating a central pith from an outer cortex. In each bundle, separating the xylem and phloem, is a layer of meristem or active formative tissue known as cambium, the soft phloem becomes crushed, but the hard wood persists and forms the bulk of the stem and branches of the woody perennial. Among the monocotyledons, the bundles are more numerous in the stem and are scattered through the ground tissue. They contain no cambium and once formed the stem increases in diameter only in exceptional cases, the characteristic feature of angiosperms is the flower. Flowers show remarkable variation in form and elaboration, and provide the most trustworthy external characteristics for establishing relationships among angiosperm species, the function of the flower is to ensure fertilization of the ovule and development of fruit containing seeds. The floral apparatus may arise terminally on a shoot or from the axil of a leaf, occasionally, as in violets, a flower arises singly in the axil of an ordinary foliage-leaf. There are two kinds of cells produced by flowers. Microspores, which divide to become pollen grains, are the male cells and are borne in the stamens. The female cells called megaspores, which divide to become the egg cell, are contained in the ovule. The flower may consist only of parts, as in willow. Usually, other structures are present and serve to protect the sporophylls, the individual members of these surrounding structures are known as sepals and petals. The outer series is usually green and leaf-like, and functions to protect the rest of the flower, the inner series is, in general, white or brightly colored, and is more delicate in structure. It functions to attract insect or bird pollinators, attraction is effected by color, scent, and nectar, which may be secreted in some part of the flower
4.
Eudicots
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The eudicots, Eudicotidae or eudicotyledons are a monophyletic clade of flowering plants that had been called tricolpates or non-magnoliid dicots by previous authors. The close relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains was initially seen in studies of shared derived characters. These plants have a trait in their pollen grains of exhibiting three colpi or grooves paralleling the polar axis. Later molecular evidence confirmed the basis for the evolutionary relationships among flowering plants with tricolpate pollen grains. The term means true dicotyledons, as it contains the majority of plants that have been considered dicots and have characteristics of the dicots, the term eudicots has subsequently been widely adopted in botany to refer to one of the two largest clades of angiosperms, monocots being the other. The remaining angiosperms are sometimes referred to as basal angiosperms or paleodicots, the other name for the eudicots is tricolpates, a name which refers to the grooved structure of the pollen. Members of the group have tricolpate pollen, or forms derived from it and these pollens have three or more pores set in furrows called colpi. In contrast, most of the seed plants produce monosulcate pollen. The name tricolpates is preferred by some botanists to avoid confusion with the dicots, numerous familiar plants are eudicots, including many common food plants, trees, and ornamentals. Most leafy trees of midlatitudes also belong to eudicots, with exceptions being magnolias and tulip trees which belong to magnoliids, and Ginkgo biloba. The name eudicots is used in the APG system, of 1998 and it is applied to a clade, a monophyletic group, which includes most of the dicots. The eudicots can be divided into two groups, the basal eudicots and the core eudicots, basal eudicot is an informal name for a paraphyletic group. The core eudicots are a monophyletic group, a 2010 study suggested the core eudicots can be divided into two clades, Gunnerales and a clade called Pentapetalae, comprising all the remaining core eudicots
5.
Caryophyllales
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Caryophyllales is an order of flowering plants that includes the cacti, carnations, amaranths, ice plants, beets, and many carnivorous plants. Many members are succulent, having fleshy stems or leaves, the members of Caryophyllales include about 6% of eudicot species. This order is part of the core eudicots, currently, the Caryophyllales contains 33 families,692 genera and 11,155 species. As with all taxa, the circumscription of Caryophyllales has changed within various classification systems, all systems recognize a core of families with centrospermous ovules and seeds. More recent treatments have expanded the Caryophyllales to include many carnivorous plants, although the monophyly of the order has been strongly supported, their placement is still uncertain. Systematists are undecided on whether Caryophyllales should be placed within the complex or sister to the asterid clade. This primitive flower might well be found in stock as Wernham, Bessy. Caryophyllales is separated into two suborders, Caryophyllineae and Polygonineae and these two suborders were formerly recognized as two orders, Polygonales and Caryophyllales. As circumscribed by the APG III system, this includes the same families as the APG II system plus the new families, Limeaceae, Lophiocarpaceae, Montiaceae, Talinaceae. Kewaceae, Limeaceae, Macarthuriaceae, Microteaceae, and Petiveriaceae were added in APG IV, recent molecular and biochemical evidence has resolved additional well-supported clades within the Caryophyllales. The APG favours much larger orders and families, and the order Caryophyllales sensu APG should rather be compared to subclass Caryophyllidae sensu Cronquist, a part of the difference lies with what families are recognized. The plants in the Stegnospermataceae and Barbeuiaceae were included in Cronquists Phytolaccaceae, the Chenopodiaceae are included in Amaranthaceae by APG. New to the order are the Asteropeiaceae and Physenaceae, each containing a single genus, earlier systems, such as the Wettstein system, last edition in 1935, and the Engler system, updated in 1964, had a similar order under the name Centrospermae. Tree of Life Characteristics and Phylogenetic Relationships
6.
Portulacaceae
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The Portulacaceae are a family of flowering plants, comprising 115 species in a single genus Portulaca. Formerly some 20 genera with about 500 species, were placed there, but it is now restricted to only one genus. The family is similar to the Caryophyllaceae, differing in the calyx. The APG II system assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the core eudicots. In the APG III system, several genera were moved to the Montiaceae, Didiereaceae, Anacampserotaceae and Talinaceae, thus making the family monotypic, Portulacaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz. The families of flowering plants Flora of North America, Portulacaceae Flora of China, Portulacaceae NCBI Taxonomy Browser links at CSDL Portulacaceae of Chile, by Chileflora
7.
Portulaca
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Portulaca is the type genus of the flowering plant family Portulacaceae, comprising about 40-100 species found in the tropics and warm temperate regions. They are also known as moss roses, common Purslane is widely considered an edible plant, and in some areas an invasive type of weed. Some Portulaca species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the Nutmeg, Purslane can be eaten raw or cooked, and lends itself to salads and lightly stir-fry dishes. When harvested early in the morning, the leaves and tender stems have a pleasant, mildly sour taste due to the accumulation of malic acid. Anacampseros arachnoides Sims Anacampseros filamentosa subsp, lanceolata Anacampseros rufescens Sweet Anacampseros telephiastrum DC. Sesuvium portulacastrum L. Talinum fruticosum Juss
8.
Binomial nomenclature
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Such a name is called a binomial name, a binomen, binominal name or a scientific name, more informally it is also called a Latin name. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs, for example, humans belong to the genus Homo and within this genus to the species Homo sapiens. The formal introduction of system of naming species is credited to Carl Linnaeus. But Gaspard Bauhin, in as early as 1623, had introduced in his book Pinax theatri botanici many names of genera that were adopted by Linnaeus. Although the general principles underlying binomial nomenclature are common to these two codes, there are differences, both in the terminology they use and in their precise rules. Similarly, both parts are italicized when a binomial name occurs in normal text, thus the binomial name of the annual phlox is now written as Phlox drummondii. In scientific works, the authority for a name is usually given, at least when it is first mentioned. In zoology Patella vulgata Linnaeus,1758, the original name given by Linnaeus was Fringilla domestica, the parentheses indicate that the species is now considered to belong in a different genus. The ICZN does not require that the name of the person who changed the genus be given, nor the date on which the change was made, in botany Amaranthus retroflexus L. – L. is the standard abbreviation used in botany for Linnaeus. – Linnaeus first named this bluebell species Scilla italica, Rothmaler transferred it to the genus Hyacinthoides, the ICN does not require that the dates of either publication be specified. Prior to the adoption of the binomial system of naming species. Together they formed a system of polynomial nomenclature and these names had two separate functions. First, to designate or label the species, and second, to be a diagnosis or description, such polynomial names may sometimes look like binomials, but are significantly different. For example, Gerards herbal describes various kinds of spiderwort, The first is called Phalangium ramosum, Branched Spiderwort, is aptly termed Phalangium Ephemerum Virginianum, Soon-Fading Spiderwort of Virginia. The Latin phrases are short descriptions, rather than identifying labels, the Bauhins, in particular Caspar Bauhin, took some important steps towards the binomial system, by pruning the Latin descriptions, in many cases to two words. The adoption by biologists of a system of binomial nomenclature is due to Swedish botanist and physician Carl von Linné. It was in his 1753 Species Plantarum that he first began using a one-word trivial name together with a generic name in a system of binomial nomenclature. This trivial name is what is now known as an epithet or specific name
9.
Hawaii
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Hawaii is the 50th and most recent state to have joined the United States of America, having received statehood on August 21,1959. Hawaii is the only U. S. state located in Oceania and it is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is the only U. S. state not located in the Americas, the state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles. At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast, Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group, it is called the Big Island or Hawaiʻi Island to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania, Hawaii has over a million permanent residents, along with many visitors and U. S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu, Hawaii is the 8th-smallest and the 11th-least populous, but the 13th-most densely populated of the fifty U. S. states. It is the state with an Asian plurality. The states coastline is about 750 miles long, the fourth longest in the U. S. after the coastlines of Alaska, Florida, the state of Hawaii derives its name from the name of its largest island, Hawaiʻi. A common Hawaiian explanation of the name of Hawaiʻi is that was named for Hawaiʻiloa and he is said to have discovered the islands when they were first settled. The Hawaiian language word Hawaiʻi is very similar to Proto-Polynesian *Sawaiki, cognates of Hawaiʻi are found in other Polynesian languages, including Māori, Rarotongan and Samoan. According to linguists Pukui and Elbert, lsewhere in Polynesia, Hawaiʻi or a cognate is the name of the underworld or of the home, but in Hawaii. A somewhat divisive political issue arose in 1978 when the Constitution of the State of Hawaii added Hawaiian as an official state language. The title of the constitution is The Constitution of the State of Hawaii. Article XV, Section 1 of the Constitution uses The State of Hawaii, diacritics were not used because the document, drafted in 1949, predates the use of the okina and the kahakō in modern Hawaiian orthography. The exact spelling of the name in the Hawaiian language is Hawaiʻi. In the Hawaii Admission Act that granted Hawaiian statehood, the government recognized Hawaii as the official state name. Official government publications, department and office titles, and the Seal of Hawaii use the spelling with no symbols for glottal stops or vowel length
10.
Endangered species
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An endangered species is a species which has been categorized as likely to become extinct. In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered worldwide, the figures for 1998 were, respectively,1102 and 1197. Many nations have laws that protect conservation-reliant species, for example, population numbers, trends and species conservation status can be found in the lists of organisms by population. The conservation status of a species indicates the likelihood that it will become extinct, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Over 40% of the species are estimated to be at risk of extinction. Internationally,199 countries have signed an accord to create Biodiversity Action Plans that will protect endangered, in the United States, such plans are usually called Species Recovery Plans. Those species of Near Threatened and Least Concern status have been assessed and found to have relatively robust and healthy populations, though these may be in decline. The IUCN categories, with examples of animals classified by them, include, Extinct Extinct in the wild Captive individuals survive, critically endangered Faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Endangered Faces a high risk of extinction in the near future, vulnerable Faces a high risk of endangerment in the medium term. Near-threatened May be considered threatened in the near future, Least concern No immediate threat to species survival. A population size reduction of ≥ 50%, projected or suspected to be met within the next 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on any of to under A1. E) Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, there is data from the United States that shows a correlation between human populations and threatened and endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act in the United States, species may be listed as endangered or threatened, the Salt Creek tiger beetle is an example of an endangered subspecies protected under the ESA. Some endangered species laws are controversial, also lobbying from hunters and various industries like the petroleum industry, construction industry, and logging, has been an obstacle in establishing endangered species laws. The Bush administration lifted a policy that required federal officials to consult an expert before taking actions that could damage endangered species. Under the Obama administration, this policy has been reinstated, being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since it could make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers. This effect is potentially reducible, such as in China where commercially farmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangered species. Another problem with the species is its effect of inciting the use of the shoot, shovel
11.
Yellow
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Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of visible light. It is evoked by light with a predominant wavelength of roughly 570–590 nm, in traditional color theory, used in painting, and in the subtractive color system, used in color printing, yellow is a primary color. In the RGB color model, used to create colors on television and computer screens, yellow is made by combining red, the word yellow comes from the Old English geolu, geolwe, meaning yellow, yellowish, derived from the Proto-Germanic word gelwaz yellow. It has the same Indo-European base, gʰel-, as the gold and yell. In Iran it has connotations of pallor/sickness, but also wisdom and it plays an important role in Asian culture, particularly in China, where it is seen as the color of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony, and culture. The word yellow comes from the Old English geolu, geolwe, meaning yellow, yellowish and it has the same Indo-European base, gʰel-, as the words gold and yell, gʰel- means both bright and gleaming, and to cry out. The English term is related to other Germanic words for yellow, namely Scots yella, East Frisian jeel, West Frisian giel, Dutch geel, German gelb, and Swedish and Norwegian gul. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the oldest known use of word in English is from The Epinal Glossary in 700. Yellow, in the form of yellow pigment made from clay, was one of the first colors used in prehistoric cave art. The cave of Lascaux has an image of a horse colored with yellow estimated to be 17,300 years old, in Ancient Egypt, yellow was associated with gold, which was considered to be imperishable, eternal and indestructible. The skin and bones of the gods were believed to be made of gold, the Egyptians used yellow extensively in tomb paintings, they usually used either yellow ochre or the brilliant orpiment, though it was made of arsenic and was highly toxic. A small paintbox with orpiment pigment was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, men were always shown with brown faces, women with yellow ochre or gold faces. The ancient Romans used yellow in their paintings to represent gold and it is found frequently in the murals of Pompeii. During the Post-Classical period, yellow became firmly established as the color of Judas Iscariot, from this connection, yellow also took on associations with envy, jealousy and duplicity. The tradition started in the Renaissance of marking non-Christian outsiders, such as Jews, in 16th century Spain, those accused of heresy and who refused to renounce their views were compelled to come before the Spanish Inquisition dressed in a yellow cape. The color yellow has been associated with moneylenders and finance. The National Pawnbrokers Associations logo depicts three golden spheres hanging from a bar, referencing the three bags of gold that the saint of pawnbroking, St. Nicholas, holds in his hands. Additionally, the symbol of three golden orbs is found in the coat of arms of the House of Medici, a fifteenth century Italian dynasty of bankers and lenders
12.
Flower
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A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in plants that are floral. The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs, Flowers may facilitate outcrossing or allow selfing. Some flowers produce diaspores without fertilization, Flowers contain sporangia and are the site where gametophytes develop. Many flowers have evolved to be attractive to animals, so as to them to be vectors for the transfer of pollen. After fertilization, the ovary of the flower develops into fruit containing seeds, the essential parts of a flower can be considered in two parts, the vegetative part, consisting of petals and associated structures in the perianth, and the reproductive or sexual parts. A stereotypical flower consists of four kinds of structures attached to the tip of a short stalk, each of these kinds of parts is arranged in a whorl on the receptacle. The four main whorls are as follows, Collectively the calyx, corolla, the next whorl toward the apex, composed of units called petals, which are typically thin, soft and colored to attract animals that help the process of pollination. Androecium, the whorl, consisting of units called stamens. Stamens consist of two parts, a called a filament, topped by an anther where pollen is produced by meiosis. Gynoecium, the innermost whorl of a flower, consisting of one or more units called carpels, the carpel or multiple fused carpels form a hollow structure called an ovary, which produces ovules internally. Ovules are megasporangia and they in turn produce megaspores by meiosis which develop into female gametophytes and these give rise to egg cells. The gynoecium of a flower is described using an alternative terminology wherein the structure one sees in the innermost whorl is called a pistil. A pistil may consist of a carpel or a number of carpels fused together. The sticky tip of the pistil, the stigma, is the receptor of pollen, the supportive stalk, the style, becomes the pathway for pollen tubes to grow from pollen grains adhering to the stigma. The relationship to the gynoecium on the receptacle is described as hypogynous, perigynous, although the arrangement described above is considered typical, plant species show a wide variation in floral structure. These modifications have significance in the evolution of flowering plants and are used extensively by botanists to establish relationships among plant species, the four main parts of a flower are generally defined by their positions on the receptacle and not by their function. Many flowers lack some parts or parts may be modified into other functions and/or look like what is typically another part, in some families, like Ranunculaceae, the petals are greatly reduced and in many species the sepals are colorful and petal-like. Other flowers have modified stamens that are petal-like, the flowers of Peonies and Roses are mostly petaloid stamens
13.
Molokini
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It is the remains of one of the seven Pleistocene epoch volcanoes that formed the prehistoric Maui Nui island, during the Quaternary Period of the Cenozoic Era. The islet has an area of 23 acres, a diameter of about 0.4 miles, is 161 feet at its highest point and is located about 2.5 miles west of Makena State Park, the islet is a Hawaiʻi State Seabird Sanctuary. Molokini is a popular tourist destination for diving and snorkeling. Its crescent shape protects divers from waves and the powerful currents. However, experienced scuba divers will also drift dive off the 300-foot sheer outer wall, in the morning, when winds are calmer, smaller tour boats can also bring guests to safely snorkel the backwall of Molokini as well. The crater houses a lush reef with excellent visibility as deep as 150 feet, Molokini is home to about 250 species of fish, many endemic. The best conditions occur in early morning, the water depth ranges from a single foot near the shore to 20–50 feet in the majority of the allowed dive spots. Its popularity has led many water-sport guides to lament that overcrowding has made the experience less attractive, in Hawaiian legend, Molokini was a beautiful woman. She and Pele, the goddess, were in love with the same man. The jealous Pele cut her rival in two and transformed her into stone, the womans head is supposedly Puʻu Olai, the cinder cone by Makena Beach. This is one of various legends involving Molokini Crater, potassium-argon dating by Yoshitomo Nishimitsu of Kyoto University indicates that Molokini erupted approximately 230,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence, primarily in the form of stone sinkers and lures and they also likely harvested seabirds, eggs and feathers. During World War II, the United States Navy used Molokini for target practice, in 1975 and 1984, the Navy detonated in-place unexploded munitions found within the crater, resulting in the destruction of large areas of coral. This resulted in a public outcry, a thorough search and risky manual removal of unexploded munitions to deep water was carried out by volunteer divers as a result. As well, a 2006 survey found no evidence of unexploded munitions on the islet, as a result of the extensive target practice, the southwest rim of the islet is fairly mutilated. From the 1950s through the 1970s, commercial harvesting of black coral occurred in Molokini, in 1977 Molokini islet, the crater, and the surrounding 77 acres of underwater terrain were declared a Marine Life Conservation District. Molokini crater is home to approximately 250 to 260 marine species, most commonly observed among these are the black triggerfish, yellow tang, Moorish idol, parrotfish, raccoon butterflyfish and bluefin trevally. Due to constant exposure to park visitors and the history as a conservation district
14.
Maui
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The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles and is the 17th-largest island in the United States. Maui is part of the State of Hawaii and is the largest of Maui Countys four islands, bigger than Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, in 2010, Maui had a population of 144,444, third-highest of the Hawaiian Islands, behind that of Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Island. Kahului is the largest census-designated place on the island with a population of 26,337 as of 2010 and is the commercial and financial hub of the island, Wailuku is the seat of Maui County and is the third-largest CDP as of 2010. Other significant places include Kīhei, Lahaina, Makawao, Pukalani, Pāʻia, Kula, Haʻikū, native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the islands name in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa, the navigator credited with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. According to that legend, Hawaiʻiloa named the island of Maui after his son, the earlier name of Maui was ʻIhikapalaumaewa. The Island of Maui is also called the Valley Isle for the isthmus between its northwestern and southeastern volcanoes and the numerous large valleys carved into both mountains. Mauis diverse landscapes are the result of a combination of geology, topography. Each volcanic cone in the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is built of dark, iron-rich/quartz-poor rocks, several of the volcanoes were close enough to each other that lava flows on their flanks overlapped one another, merging into a single island. Maui is such a volcanic doublet, formed from two shield volcanoes that overlapped one another to form an isthmus between them, the older, western volcano has been eroded considerably and is cut by numerous drainages, forming the peaks of the West Maui Mountains. Puʻu Kukui is the highest of the peaks at 5,788 feet. The larger, younger volcano to the east, Haleakalā, rises to more than 10,000 feet above sea level, the eastern flanks of both volcanoes are cut by deeply incised valleys and steep-sided ravines that run downslope to the rocky, windswept shoreline. The valley-like Isthmus of Maui that separates the two volcanic masses was formed by sandy erosional deposits, although considered to be dormant by volcanologists, Haleakalā is certainly capable of further eruptions. Maui is part of a larger unit, Maui Nui, that includes the islands of Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Molokaʻi. During periods of reduced sea level, including as recently as 20,000 years ago and this, and the extreme insularity of the Hawaiian Islands account for the strong marine influence on Mauis climate. Gross weather patterns are determined by elevation and orientation towards the Trade winds. Mauis rugged, irregular topography produces marked variations in conditions, air swept inland on the Trade winds is shunted one way or another by the mountains, valleys, and vast open slopes. This complex three-dimensional flow of air results in striking variations in speed, cloud formation. Maui displays a unique and diverse set of conditions, each of which is specific to a loosely defined sub-region of the island
15.
Kahoolawe
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Kahoʻolawe is the smallest of the eight main volcanic islands in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Kahoʻolawe is located seven miles southwest of Maui and also southeast of Lanai. The highest point on Kahoʻolawe is the crater of Lua Makika at the summit of Puʻu Moaulanui, more than one quarter of Kahoʻolawe has been eroded down to saprolitic hardpan soil. Kahoʻolawe has always been populated, due to its lack of fresh water. During World War II, Kahoʻolawe was used as a training ground, after decades of protests, the U. S. Navy ended live-fire training exercises on Kahoʻolawe in 1990, and the whole island was transferred to the jurisdiction of the state of Hawaii in 1994. The Hawaii State Legislature established the Kahoolawe Island Reserve to restore and to oversee the island, today Kahoʻolawe can be used only for native Hawaiian cultural, spiritual, and subsistence purposes. The U. S. Census Bureau defines Kahoʻolawe as Block Group 9, Census Tract 303.02 of Maui County, Kahoʻolawe is an extinct shield volcano, which formed during the Pleistocene epoch. Most of the island is covered by lava flows. A caldera is located in the part of the island. The caldera is now infilled by lava or is hidden underwater in Kanapou Bay, the last volcanic activity on the island occurred about one million years ago. Sometime around the year 1000, Kahoʻolawe was settled by Polynesians, Puʻu Moiwi, a remnant cinder cone, is the location of the second-largest basalt quarry in Hawaii, and this was mined for use in stone tools such as koʻi. Originally a dry forest environment with intermittent streams, the changed to an open savanna of grassland and trees when inhabitants cleared vegetation for firewood. Hawaiians built stone platforms for religious ceremonies, set rocks upright as shrines for successful fishing trips and these indicators of an earlier time can still be found on Kahoʻolawe. While it is not known how many people inhabited Kahoʻolawe, the lack of freshwater probably limited the population to a few hundred people. As many as 120 people might have lived at Hakioawa, the largest settlement. Violent wars among competing aliʻi laid waste to the land and led to a decline in the population. During the War of Kamokuhi, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, the ruler of the Big Island of Hawaii, raided and pillaged Kahoʻolawe in an attempt to take Maui from Kahekili II. From 1778 to the early 19th century, observers on passing ships reported that Kahoʻolawe was uninhabited and barren, food and water were scarce, some prisoners reportedly starved, and some of them swam across the channel to Maui to find food
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Detritus
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In biology, detritus is dead particulate organic material. It typically includes the bodies or fragments of organisms as well as fecal material. Detritus is typically colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose the material, in terrestrial ecosystems, it is encountered as leaf litter and other organic matter intermixed with soil, which is referred to as humus. Detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material suspended in water and piles up on seabed floors which is referred to as marine snow. Dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues gradually lose their form, decomposition, the process through which organic matter is decomposed, takes place in many stages. Materials like proteins, lipids and sugars with low weight are rapidly consumed and absorbed by micro-organisms and organisms that feed on dead matter. Other compounds, such as complex carbohydrates are broken down more slowly, the various micro-organisms involved in the decomposition break down the organic materials in order to gain the resources they require for their own survival and proliferation. Accordingly, at the time that the materials of plants and animals are being broken down. In ecosystems on land, detritus is deposited on the surface of the ground, in aquatic ecosystems, most detritus is suspended in water, and gradually settles. In particular, many different types of material are collected together by currents, much detritus is used as a source of nutrition for animals. In particular, many bottom feeding animals living in mud flats feed in this way, however, there are many micro-organisms which multiply in natural environments. A characteristic type of food chain called the cycle takes place involving detritus feeders, detritus. For example, mud flats are inhabited by many univalves which are detritus feeders, what is left behind by the detritivores is then further broken down and recycled by decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi. In ecosystems on land, far more material is broken down as dead material passing through the detritus chain than is broken down by being eaten by animals in a living state. In both land and aquatic ecosystems, the role played by detritus is too large to ignore, in contrast to land ecosystems, dead materials and excreta in aquatic ecosystems do not settle immediately, and the finer the particles involved are, the longer they tend to take. Detritus occurs in a variety of habitats including forest, chaparral. In forests the detritus is typically dominated by leaf, twig and this plant litter provides important cover for seedling protection as well as cover for a variety of arthropods, reptiles and amphibians. Some insect larvae feed on the detritus, there is an extremely large number of detritus feeders in water
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Scree
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Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, volcanoes or valley shoulders that has accumulated through periodic rockfall from adjacent cliff faces. Landforms associated with these materials are called talus deposits. Talus deposits typically have a concave form, while the maximum inclination corresponds to the angle of repose of the mean debris size. The term scree comes from the Old Norse term for landslide, skriða, formation of scree or talus deposits the results of physical and chemical weathering and erosion acting on a rock face. During the day, water can flow into joints and discontinuities in the rock wall, if the temperature drops enough, for example in the evening, this water may freeze. Since water expands by 9% when it freezes, it can generate forces that either create new cracks or wedge blocks into an unstable position. Special boundary conditions may be required for this to happen, the efficiency of freeze/thaw processes in scree production is debated by scientists. Many researchers believe that ice formation in large open crack systems cannot generate high pressures, many argue that frost heaving, like that known to act in soil in permafrost areas, may play an important role in cliff degradation in cold places. For example, Lech dl Dragon, in the Sella Group of the Dolomites, derives from the waters of a glacier. The melting process of the glacier is slowed by the protective layer of scree. Eventually a rock slope may be covered by its own scree. The slope is then said to be mantled with debris, fellfield Lava stringer Mass wasting Weathering
18.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Wikidata
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Wikidata is a collaboratively edited knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is intended to provide a source of data which can be used by Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia. This is similar to the way Wikimedia Commons provides storage for files and access to those files for all Wikimedia projects. Wikidata is powered by the software Wikibase, Wikidata is a document-oriented database, focused on items. Each item represents a topic and is identified by a number, prefixed with the letter Q—for example. This enables the basic information required to identify the topic the item covers to be translated without favouring any language, information is added to items by creating statements. Statements take the form of pairs, with each statement consisting of a property. The creation of the project was funded by donations from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, at this time, only the first phase was available. Historically, a Wikipedia article would include a list of links, being links to articles on the same topic in other editions of Wikipedia. Initially, Wikidata was a repository of interlanguage links. No Wikipedia language editions were able to access Wikidata, so they needed to continue to maintain their own lists of interlanguage links, on 14 January 2013, the Hungarian Wikipedia became the first to enable the provision of interlanguage links via Wikidata. This functionality was extended to the Hebrew and Italian Wikipedias on 30 January, to the English Wikipedia on 13 February, on 23 September 2013, phase 1 went live on Wikimedia Commons. The first aspects of the second phase were deployed on 4 February 2013, the values were initially limited to two data types, with more data types to follow later. The first new type, string, was deployed on 6 March, the ability of the various language editions of Wikipedia to access data added to Wikidata as part of phase two was rolled out progressively between 27 March and 25 April 2013. On 16 September 2015, Wikidata began allowing so-called arbitrary access, for example, in the past the article about Berlin you could not access data about Germany, but with arbitrary access it could. On 27 April 2016 arbitrary access was activated on Wikimedia Commons, phase 3 will involve database querying and the creation of lists based on data stored on Wikidata. As of October 2016 two tools for querying Wikidata were available, AutoList and PetScan, additionally to a public SPARQL endpoint, there is concern that the project is being influenced by lobbying companies, PR professionals and search engine optimizers. As of December 2015, according to Wikimedia statistics, half of the information in Wikidata is unsourced, another 30% is labeled as having come from Wikipedia, but with no indication as to which article
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Encyclopedia of Life
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The Encyclopedia of Life is a free, online collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all of the 1.9 million living species known to science. It is compiled from existing databases and from contributions by experts and non-experts throughout the world and it aims to build one infinitely expandable page for each species, including video, sound, images, graphics, as well as text. In addition, the Encyclopedia incorporates content from the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the project was initially backed by a US$50 million funding commitment, led by the MacArthur Foundation and the Sloan Foundation, who provided US$20 million and US$5 million, respectively. The project was led by Jim Edwards and the development team by David Patterson. Today, participating institutions and individual donors continue to support EOL through financial contributions, EOL went live on 26 February 2008 with 30,000 entries. The site immediately proved to be popular, and temporarily had to revert to demonstration pages for two days when it was overrun by traffic from over 11 million views it received. The site relaunched on 5 September 2011 with a redesigned interface, eOLv2 is redesigned to enhance usability and encourage contributions and interactions among users. The product is also internationalized with interfaces provided for English, German, Spanish, French, Galician, Serbian, Macedonian, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Ukrainian language speakers. On 16 January 2014, EOL launched TraitBank, a searchable, open digital repository for organism traits, measurements, interactions, information about many species is already available from a variety of sources, in particular about the megafauna. Gathering currently available data on all 1.9 million species will take about 10 years, as of September 2011, EOL had information on more than 700,000 species available, along with more than 600,000 photos and millions of pages of scanned literature. The initial focus has been on living species but will later include extinct species, as the discovery of new species is expected to continue, the encyclopedia will grow continuously. The goal of EOL is to serve as a resource for the public, enthusiastic amateurs, educators, students. The Encyclopedia of Life has content partners around the world who share information through the EOL platform, including Wikipedia and its interface is translated at translatewiki. net. The Encyclopedia of Life – Introductory video on YouTube from May 2007
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Global Biodiversity Information Facility
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The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by institutions from around the world. Data available through the GBIF portal are primarily distribution data on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes for the world, the mission of the Global Biodiversity information Facility is to facilitate free and open access to biodiversity data worldwide to underpin sustainable development. ABCD Schema Atlas of Living Australia Darwin Core Global biodiversity Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum GBIF website Short description of GBIF
22.
INaturalist
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Observations may be added via the website or from a mobile application. The observations provide valuable data to a variety of scientific research projects, museums, botanic gardens, parks. Users of iNaturalist have contributed four million observations since its founding in 2008. INaturalist. org began in 2008 as a UC Berkeley School of Information Masters final project of Nate Agrin, Jessica Kline, Nate Agrin and Ken-ichi Ueda continued work on the site with Sean McGregor, a web developer. In 2011, Ueda began collaboration with Scott Loarie, a fellow at Stanford University. Ueda and Loarie are the current co-directors of iNaturalist. org, on April 24,2014 iNaturalist. org merged with the California Academy of Sciences In 2014, iNaturalist celebrated its one millionth observation. The iNaturalist platform is based on crowdsourcing of data, users of iNaturalist can submit observations of organisms in the form of photographs, sound recordings, or visual sightings. Observations are either casual or research grade, and research grade observations are incorporated into online databases to be utilizable for scientists, iNaturalist is the preferred application for crowd-sourced biodiversity data in Mexico. As of 28 January 2017, the iNaturalist community consisted of almost 400,000 users contributing over 4,300,000 observations of plants, animals, users have created and contributed to over 9000 different projects, spanning hundreds of themes. Project examples include taxa- and location-specific bioblitzes, roadkill observations, animal tracks, the US National Park Service partnered with iNaturalist to record observations from the 2016 National Parks BioBlitz. That project exceeded 100,000 observations in August 2016, list of citizen science projects Official website iNaturalist on Vimeo Introducing iNaturalist by Suzanne Cadwell
23.
International Plant Names Index
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The International Plant Names Index describes itself as a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes. Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species, the IPNI also maintains a list of standardized author abbreviations. These were initially based on Brummitt & Powell, but new names, IPNI is the product of a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, The Harvard University Herbaria, and the Australian National Herbarium. The IPNI database is a collection of the names registered by the three cooperating institutions and they work towards standardizing the information, the standard of author abbreviations recommended by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants is Brummitt and Powell’s Authors of Plant Names. A digital and continually updated list of authors and abbreviations can be consulted online at IPNI, the IPNI provides names that have appeared in scholarly publications, with the objective of providing an index of published names rather than prescribing the accepted botanical nomenclature. The Plant List, a project which was unveiled in 2010. The use of IPNI is free of charge, a similar project, which lists names of fungi, is the Index Fungorum. The Plant List Official website of the IPNI Plant Name search – IPNI search for plant names Author search – IPNI search for author names and standard abbreviations
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Integrated Taxonomic Information System
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The Integrated Taxonomic Information System is an American partnership of federal agencies designed to provide consistent and reliable information on the taxonomy of biological species. The database draws from a community of taxonomic experts. Primary content staff are housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the primary focus of ITIS is North American species, but many groups are worldwide and ITIS continues to collaborate with other international agencies to increase its global coverage. ITIS provides a reference database of scientific and common names for species. As of May 2016, it contains over 839,000 scientific names, synonyms, and common names for terrestrial, marine, data presented in ITIS are considered public information, and may be freely distributed and copied, though appropriate citation is requested. ITIS is frequently used as the de facto source of data in biodiversity informatics projects. It presents the names in a classification that contains author, date, distributional. In addition, common names are available through ITIS in the official languages of the Americas. ITIS and its partner, Species 2000, cooperate to annually produce the Catalogue of Life. The Catalogue of Lifes goal was to complete the global checklist of 1.9 million species by 2011. As of May 2012, the Catalogue of Life has reached 1.4 million species—a major milestone in its quest to complete the first up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms, ITIS and the Catalogue of Life are core to the Encyclopedia of Life initiative announced May 2007. EOL will be largely on various Creative Commons licenses. The newer material has been checked to higher standards of taxonomic credibility, biological taxonomy is not fixed, and opinions about the correct status of taxa at all levels, and their correct placement, are constantly revised as a result of new research. Many aspects of classification remain a matter of scientific judgment, the ITIS database is updated to take account of new research as it becomes available, and the information it yields is likely to represent a fair consensus of modern taxonomic opinion. Records within ITIS include information about how far it has been possible to check and its information should be checked against other sources where these are available, and against the primary research scientific literature where possible
25.
National Center for Biotechnology Information
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The National Center for Biotechnology Information is part of the United States National Library of Medicine, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The NCBI is located in Bethesda, Maryland and was founded in 1988 through legislation sponsored by Senator Claude Pepper, the NCBI houses a series of databases relevant to biotechnology and biomedicine and is an important resource for bioinformatics tools and services. Major databases include GenBank for DNA sequences and PubMed, a database for the biomedical literature. Other databases include the NCBI Epigenomics database, all these databases are available online through the Entrez search engine. NCBI is directed by David Lipman, one of the authors of the BLAST sequence alignment program. He also leads a research program, including groups led by Stephen Altschul, David Landsman, Eugene Koonin, John Wilbur, Teresa Przytycka. NCBI is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data. org, NCBI has had responsibility for making available the GenBank DNA sequence database since 1992. GenBank coordinates with individual laboratories and other databases such as those of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Since 1992, NCBI has grown to other databases in addition to GenBank. The NCBI assigns a unique identifier to each species of organism, the NCBI has software tools that are available by WWW browsing or by FTP. For example, BLAST is a sequence similarity searching program, BLAST can do sequence comparisons against the GenBank DNA database in less than 15 seconds. RAG2/IL2RG The NCBI Bookshelf is a collection of freely accessible, downloadable, some of the books are online versions of previously published books, while others, such as Coffee Break, are written and edited by NCBI staff. BLAST is a used for calculating sequence similarity between biological sequences such as nucleotide sequences of DNA and amino acid sequences of proteins. BLAST is a tool for finding sequences similar to the query sequence within the same organism or in different organisms. It searches the query sequence on NCBI databases and servers and post the results back to the browser in chosen format. Input sequences to the BLAST are mostly in FASTA or Genbank format while output could be delivered in variety of such as HTML, XML formatting. HTML is the output format for NCBIs web-page. Entrez is both indexing and retrieval system having data from sources for biomedical research
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Natural Resources Conservation Service
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Its name was changed in 1994 during the presidency of Bill Clinton to reflect its broader mission. It is a small agency, currently comprising about 11,000 employees. Its mission is to improve, protect, and conserve resources on private lands through a cooperative partnership with state. While its primary focus has been agricultural lands, it has many technical contributions to soil surveying, classification. NRCS is the agency in this project. The agency was founded largely through the efforts of Hugh Hammond Bennett, bennetts motivation was based on his knowledge of the detrimental effects of soil erosion and the impacts on U. S lands that led to the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. On September 13,1933, the Soil Erosion Service was formed in the Department of the Interior, the Soil Conservation Service was in charge of 500 Civilian Conservation Corps camps between 1933 and 1942. The primary purpose of these camps was erosion control, Hugh Bennett continued as chief, a position he held until his retirement in 1952. On October 20,1994, the agency was renamed to the Natural Resources Conservation Service as part of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform, NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to farmers and ranchers. The financial assistance is authorized by the Farm Bill, a law that is renewed every five years, the 2014 Farm Bill consolidated 23 programs into 15. NRCS offers these services to land owners, conservation districts, tribes. NRCS also collects and shares information on the soil, water, air. The Conservation Title of the Farm Bill provides the funding to agricultural producers, all of these programs are voluntary. Conservation Stewardship Program CSP is targeted to ag producers who maintain a level of environmental stewardship. Regional Conservation Partnership Program RCPP consolidated four programs from the prior 2008 Farm Bill and it aims at more regional or watershed scale projects, rather than individual farms and ranches. ACEP includes technical and financial help to maintain or improve land for agriculture or environmental benefits, landowners volunteer to restore and protect forests in 30 or 10 year contracts. This program hands assisting funds to participants, the project began in 2010 and initially focused on the Mississippi Basin area. The main goal of the project is to implement better methods of managing water drainage from agricultural uses, in October 2011, The National Managing Water, Harvesting Results Summit was held to promote the drainage techniques used in hopes of people adopting them nationwide
