Cave Fauna of Greece Analysis

CFG Database, a unique and powerful tool for research and conservation of the cave fauna of Greece, was developed within the framework of the project “Conservation of the Cave Fauna of Greece” funded by MAVA foundation and WWF Greece. It was compiled after gathering, critically evaluating and integrating all taxonomic and faunistic information for species recorded in the caves of Greece. In addition, It includes all species recorded up to 2019 and currently regarded as valid. CFG Database is developed and maintained by the Hellenic Institute of Speleological Research.

This website serves as supplementary information and insights repository about the CFG Database. All analyses are conducted in R Programming language using multiple packages.

Data integration

Data integration is about enriching data with other types of data. This process was human curated and was supported by many computational tools. The database was checked for possible gaps in data, errors or inconsistencies in respect to the rules of zoological nomenclature, redundancy, and inconsistencies among parts. The taxonomic reference system was harmonized with the Pan-European Species directories Infrastructure (PESI, EU-nomen).

For each species, the following information is provided: scientific name and authorship; a map displaying the cave(s) location(s) recorded; higher taxonomy; distribution; distribution in caves of Greece; conservation status; protection status; links to Fauna Europaea, GBIF, IUCN red list, PESI & NCBI if available; species literature references. Species synonyms are only exceptionally provided as the user can see them at the linked databases.

Packages for the CFG Database enrichment:

For each cave, the following information is provided: The Greek name of the cave in Latin characters using the Greek – ISO 843 transliteration system (see online portal ); a map displaying the location; the cave name(s) used in literature; closest settlement in the context of the 1/1/2011 administrative system established in Greece (Kallikratis reform, Greek Law 3852/2010); brief description; protection status; species list; cave literature references; species literature references.

Data handling

Tidyverse is used for

Interactive Map

For the Interactive Map we use the leaflet package which we incorporated in a Shiny Application.

Technical specification and database design

The CFG database and the tool were designed with the KISS principle in mind while taking care to apply best coding practices.

The database schema was designed so that each table holds discrete data and a separate table holds their relations . By utilizing MySQL’s “views” feature, “virtual tables” can be generated by aggregating data from the regular tables. We have carefully designed special views that contain only the necessary amount of data for most types of queries utilized in the application. For future revisions of the application, more data fields and more views could be created without breaking the existing functionality.

Contributors

Terms of use & Citation

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY License. The re-distribution of the entire CFG database analysis or large parts of it is not permitted unless by prior written agreement. Data and code are free to use on condition that they are cited. Recommended citation style:

Paragamian, K. and Paragkamian, S.. Cave fauna of Greece database analysis (CFG Analysis) - Hellenic Institute of Speleological Research. Available at https://inspee-hisr.github.io/CFG_analysis/. Accessed (date)

Raw Data and Code

All code is written in R Markdown scripts for reproducibility.

Download Analysis Code  github

Feedback

Any feedback on the content and usability of the database analysis would be highly appreciated. Suggestions for improvements are also very welcome. Please contact s.paragkamian at gmail.com