General > Linking an ecological database

You can link an ecological database to each and every species list. There are a few preconditions concerning format, content, and directory of the database to be stored.

•	The format of the database has to be DbaseIII+.

•	The name of the database table has to be ECODBASE.DBF, and it must be stored in the same directory that contains the species list. For example for South Africa the species list is by default stored in the directory C:\TURBOWIN\SPECIES\SOUTHAFR.

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It has to contain a field that holds the species numbers, since the species numbers form the link with the species list that is present in Turboveg. If the species numbers are stored in the first column of the database, and the field specifications are:
- Field name = ”SPECIES_NR”
- Field type = “N”
- Field length = 5
- Field decimals = 0
then the management of the list can be done within Turboveg. Otherwise an external management tool that can handle dBaseIII+ formatted files is required

•	Do not make fields larger than necessary, and define field type as “C” (character). Compared with a numerical field (field type = “N”) a clear distinction can be made between missing values and ‘0’ in a character field.

An ecological database can also be created and management within Turboveg. Therefore select Manage | Species lists | Edit | <species list concerned>. On the dialog window to maintain the species list click the Create or Modify button.

In the ecological database all kind of plant traits can be stored. These can be indicator values (e.g. Ellenbergs indicator values) or morphological, chorological, phytosociological, phenological, and other characteristics.

If you want to make calculations based on the values of a certain item make sure that only numerical values are stored in the database for that particular item.

For example, if you want to know the mean altitude of all species in the relevés than do not store the following values in the database: “0-1000”, “200-2000”, etc. Create two fields instead, one field holding the minimal altitude, and one holding the maximal altitude. As a result two mean values can be calculated, one for minimal altitude, and one for maximum altitude.

Items with which we never can calculate are for example are life-form, phytosociological status, flowering periode, etc.

Using the data from the ecological database, the mean value of an indicator value of each relevé can be calculated (see Add ecological indicator values). In addition, if exporting a selection to a table you can add for each species one or more parameters from the ecological database (see Export to a spread sheet table).