Modern biodiversity research involves systematic and
simultaneous study of macro- and micro-level relationships
between various biological entities. The data involved
in such studies vary in scale, structural complexity and
also in query processing costs and storage. Due to the
lack of holistic databases, biologists are often forced
to manually forage through the results obtained from
disparate data sources looking for consolidated answers.
Over the last few years, we have built a database system,
called BODHI - (Biodiversity Object
Database arcHItecture) specially geared to
provide seamless and efficient integration of wide range
of data occuring in bio-diversity studies. The system,
built around publicly available database components,
integrates several sophisticated access structures to
effectively support variety of bio-diversity queries
involving complex hierarchical, spatial and genome
sequence based predicates.
The system comes with a web-based graphical user interface for querying
the database as well as for visualization of
results. Easy dissemination of information is supported
through the use of XML in publishing the results of
queries, providing added semantics for future data
exchange requirements.
Acknowledgements:
The BODHI project was sponsored by
Department of Biotechnology,
Govt. of India and the domain and data expertise was provided by the
faculty at Center for Ecological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Science.
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