Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package - pre-release summary

BugsCEP is the latest development in the Bugs software package for the storage and analysis of (fossil) beetle data. The new version, to be released in October 2006, includes, apart from a considerable amount of new data (mainly entered by Paul Buckland) a number of new features to help in the interpretation of both fossil and modern beetle assemblages. The data and features are summarised below.

The software allows users to create/import site based abundance data, and perform a variety of ecological and climate related analyses. All outputs are in either MS Excel or Word format, so the results are easily transferable.

Bugs is part of the eternal saga of Phil Buckland's PhD thesis, and more specific details of the methods employed will be published there and in associated papers. For the moment, the reference for the BugsCEP software is:

Buckland P.I. & Buckland P.C. (2006) Bugs Coleopteran Ecology Package Software. [Component Versions: BugsCEP: Beta 7.39; Bugsdata: Release 7.09; BugsMCR: Beta 1.55b; BugStats: Beta 1.008b] [Downloaded/CDROM: DATE].

or for those preferring reference to an old fashioned paper article:

Buckland, P.I. & Buckland, P.C. (2002). "How can a database full of Bugs help reconstruct the climate?". In Burenhult, G & Arvidsson, J (eds) Archaeological Informatics - Pushing the Envelope - CAA 2001 - Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Proceedings of the 29th Conference, Gotland, April 2001. BAR International Series 1016. pp.453-461.

For more details, watch the Bugs website at http://www.bugs2000.org/

Test versions are circulating, but please contact us if you would like any more information:

Phil Buckland: phil.buckland@arke.umu.se
Paul Buckland: pbuckland@bournemouth.ac.uk

Quick links to features:      
Species data Sites & abundance MCR & Climate Ecology statistics
Advanced seaching Reports Importing data  

Data (at time of writing)

Species related

Bibliographic

Fossil record and other sample based

Climate and Ecology

Other

Features (by way of a worked example)

Say we have been lucky enough to find Diacheila arctica (Gyll.) on a hunting trip to the Scandinavian arctic.
We can use BugsCEP to check what various authors have said about the species, in terms of its ecology and distribution...

Click on the images for a full size screenshot.

...and check which (dated) sites it is known fossil from:

We're curious about the site called 'West Bromich', so select the site and click [Show Selected Site], and look at the site details, including coordinates and interpretation summary, and references (1x Osborne 19080 in this case):

From here we can examine the site's dating evidence, by sample (here showing that sample B is dated to 12195±160 - St-3059). Bugs allows multiple dates, of multiple types (radiometric;calendar;period) per sample:

We can also look at the abundance data for the site, as a summary (multiple countsheets can be stored for any site):

...or in detail, here with sample details, showing the ability to store depth and coordinates for each sample:

The data for this site, and all others, can also be accessed from the Site Manager, where new sites can be created & deleted:

BugsCEP can also create MCR (Mutual Climate Change) based temperature reconstructions, accessible though the BugsMCR component:

...which produces diagrams in Excel like this, for West Bromich:

...and can be asked to output sample by sample breakdowns of the thermal envelopes (here colour scaled with the Poptools: http://www.cse.csiro.au/poptools/ Excel plugin):

The facility to predict species movements under climate change would, of course, be extremely useful. Although there is not yet a GIS interface to BugsCEP, it provides a function to produce lists of species that could survive specified thermal parameters. In the example below, the maximums of the thermal envelope for Diachila arctica (an extremely stenothermic cold tolerant species) is expanded by 3 degrees Celcius in all directions. BugsMCR shows which other species in the MCR list could theoretically survive in this regime - and it is then up to the user to explain why, in terms of biogeography and ecology any of those species are not present at a particular site....

The BugStats component can be used to produce environmental reconstructions for sites, using a descriptive ecological coding system devised by Buckland & Buckland (whilst standing on the shoulders of giants!).

BugStats includes several options for species exclusion, standardization and scaling. It allows sites to be summarised in terms of their ecological implications, and compared using a consistent descriptive system. This greatly increases the ease with which inter-site comparisons can be made. The figure below shows part of the output for West Bromich - click on it for the full, somewhat reduced, diagram. All results are exported in Excel format along with the raw data.

Practically all of the data in BugsCEP can be incorporated into species searches which can be used to produce lists of species that match specified criteria. In the example below, we have first checked the BugsEcoCode (descriptive ecology code) for Diachila arctica - BEco12 (Heathland & Moorland) - and asked for a list of all species with that code. We have then asked for a list of which of these species are extinct from the UK, using a search on the UK Red Data Book...

The search path is logged so that it can be easily duplicated, and output in any reports generated on these results.

Bugs provides numerous ways of reporting and exporting data and interpretations. few are listed below (click the picture):

Users can of course create sites and add their own data, and BugsCEP provides an import wizard to help.

...which has facilities for matching synonyms and coping with inconstencies and typos in species lists:

For more details, watch the Bugs website at http://www.bugs2000.org/