E-mail from Bob Peet <peet@unc.edu> on 2011-12-9:

at the BIEN call yesterday I promised to help with mapping TurboVeg to VegBank (via VegX).  I need to get up with Stephan to get the newest version and some data, but I attach two files you might work on immediately and which we could then share first with Stephan and then Aaron.

Tvussetup.exe is 2002 version of the TurboVeg installation file.  Being almost 10 years old, I guess there have been a few changes.  It bombed when I tried to install it on my 64-bit Windows OS.  Rather than fiddle with a work around I installed it on Melica, and it worked fine on that 32-bit Windows machine.  If you try to install it you need to know a new things.  To register: Owner = Bob Peet, Code = 1002958.  The default password is Zostera.

The second file (DBASEDIC_rkp2011.xlsx) is a start at mapping, mostly dating back to 2002.  I wonder if you might flesh it out to help Aaron. Cols E & F are mine and I believe the rest came from Stephan.

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E-mail from Mike Lee <michael.lee@unc.edu> on 2011-12-16:

New columns are in blue and headers start with mtl.

the chief complication is how TurboVeg handles strata.  There are standard denormalized fields in the "observation" table to store a variety of heights and cover values, e.g.:

*COV_TOTAL

*COV_TREES

*COV_SHRUBS

*COV_HERBS

+COV_MOSSES

+COV_LICHEN

+COV_ALGAE

*TREE_HIGH

TREE_LOW

*SHRUB_HIGH

SHRUB_LOW

*HERB_HIGH

HERB_LOW

HERB_MAX

*CRYPT_HIGH

VegBank has a subset of these standardized fields that we can use (marked with *).  However, to accurately separate lichens, mosses, and algae, we will need to use our normalized stratum table.  To even better map out the min and max heights, we will also need to use the stratum table.  The trick is that for actual species records, strata are slightly different:

t1    Tree layer (high)

t2    Tree layer - middle

t3    Tree later - low

s1    Shrub layer (high)

s2    Shrub layer - low

hl    Herb layer

jl    Juvenile

sl    Seedling

ml     Moss layer

These map up pretty well, but they are more finely divided.  We could use t1 and s1 for trees and herbs.  Presumably and lichens and algae get entered in the ... herb layer? Or moss layer? 

Or, we could have a t1 layer that just has species in it and a separate TREE layer that records the overall height of trees and total cover of trees in all of t1,t2,t3.

Other than this issue, things are largely compatible and could be populated with a little conversion here, and little filling in extra fields there.