Implementation of a database for ecological data from plant communities under fire management

• Grant number: 24/21833-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Technical Training Program - Technical Training
• Start date: February 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Alessandra Tomaselli Fidelis
• Grantee: Gabriela Dezotti Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/16620-0 - Fire as a tool for management and restoration in the Cerrado in the Anthropocene, AP.BTA.TEM

Abstract

The large amount and the complexity of vegetation data, sampled from designed experiments to understand the effects ofprescribed fire on plant communities, requires its proper storage, structuration and management by a technician who mastersdata bases. The structured query language (SQL) will be used for this purpose, given its widespread acceptance and itscapabilities for the management of complex databases. It will be possible to keep track of implementations, maintenance,curatorship, and management of data, ensuring its integrity through time and decreasing its susceptibility to manipulationerrors. The working plan for this scholarship will comprehend the systematization of all data already available in the project(about fire experiments and plant community relevés) into a database, as well as incorporation of new data to be sampled.The database will be store in a web server set up for distinct user's profile, allowing access for any person to the data in thedatabase via a friendly interface to be develop by the technician. Furthermore, databases allow the exploration and analyzeof complex data by statistic models, revealing ecological patterns which can supply decisions for conservation andmanagement of natural systems. Beyond implementation of the database, the technician will also be responsible fordeveloping statistical models and to give training to the researchers associated to the project on the R environment.Additional to the database, other products resulting from the scholarship will be R scripts and RMarkdown files for statisticalanalysis and training, which will be made available on GitHub. This TT will be directly trained by Dr Gabriella Damasceno toorganize data in big database and by Dr Tadeu Siqueira for data analyses.