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An ecological service for professional and amateur ecologists
 

Local and Regional Flora and Fauna Assessments 
and Field Guides

 

When Only a Limited Area is Needed
Viridans flora and fauna CD-Roms and DVDs provide our customers with access to information on plants and animals across the state at a variety of resolutions.  However, if all you need to know is the flora or fauna composition (or both) of a specific region in Victoria, Viridans can help you to determine the full range of vascular plants or terrestrial vertebrates from any area in the state using the resources of the Viridans-DSE Flora Information System (FIS) and  Victorian Fauna Database (VFD) in conjunction with the Viridans DVD atlases Just a Minute - Victorian Plants and Just a Minute - Victorian Animals.

Interactive Species List
All you do is provide us with details of the area you are interested in and we will generate the full list of species along with colour photographs, descriptive text, environmental information, national and Victorian conservation status, abundance in the area and date of the last record.  This information is burnt on to a CD-Rom along with the same software that Viridans uses for Wild Animals of Victoria and Wild Plants of Victoria.  The package does not offer a mapping facility but it does provide everything else that the larger packages do, including filtering on specified characters, identification tools, export of lists to spreadsheets and word processors, and photograph and text printing.  

Analysis
In addition to the interactive species list Viridans will carry out an analysis of the data and compare it to state-wide standards and averages so that you may see at a glance: 
(i) Whether the area you have chosen has been adequately surveyed or if an ecological assessment is required
(ii) How the figures extracted from the FIS or VFD compare to what would be expected for similar sized areas elsewhere in the state
(iii) A conservation rating for the area, relative to state-wide standards
(iv) How the relative abundance of major flora or fauna groups compares to state-wide norms

All Terms Described
All technical terms in the lists, including conservation status codes, scientific nomenclature, plant and animal family names are fully explained and available as single mouse-click hyperlinks. There are also extensive notes on the interpretations that can be placed on the analysis.

Field Guides
With a little extra work Viridans can turn the results into a publishable CD-Rom which we can produce in limited numbers, at wholesale price, for you to on-sell.  The work we can do includes some editing of the species list to remove or amalgamate some anomalies that may occur from the initial search, add a new, printed title to the CD-Rom, assist in the basic preparation of artwork for brochures.  That is, we customise the package a little before release.

Site-Specific Data  
The information contained within these products will include a local summary of data from the FIS or VFD but will not contain site-specific information suitable for incorporation into GIS packages.  If you require such data we can supply it to you once you have entered into a data-sharing agreement with DSE (see information on FIS or VFD for contact details for data-sharing agreements)

 

Finding the Search Area
You may determine the area of your search in a number of ways, the simplest of which is to email us a place name and a radius (e.g. all plants found within 10 km of Maryborough) and we will search for all data within your specified circle.

Alternatively you may use the Viridans map library on this web site, download one of the digital maps (click the right mouse button while the cursor is over the map), sketch the area of interest with your favourite image editor (e.g. Microsoft Paint) and email the map back to us at flora.fauna@viridans.com.    (Click here for an example of this process)

Alternatively you can email us a place name and a radius (e.g. all plants found within 10 km of Maryborough) and we will search for all data within your specified circle.  

You may also ask for all the data from known areas, such as local government areas or small parks or reserves (Note: extra costs may apply if the area is very large, e.g. more than 1000 km2) .  

Finally, if you have GIS facilities and you can export a polygon with coordinates in decimal lat-long or AMGs, you can send us that information and we will use it as our search area (please contact us for the format of the polygon file). 

If you are interested in this service but are unsure of how to proceed you can contact us for more information (on flora.fauna@viridans.com or phone 03 9557 5988)  and we will help you decide which is the best option for you.

Costs

Costs will vary depending upon the type of product you are looking for, the size of the area and the number of species returned by the search.  The starting price for one basic flora or fauna search and first CD-Rom will be $77 ($144 for both flora and fauna) plus postage and handling.  Extra copies can be purchased for $33 each.  For a product which will form the basis of a published local field guide the starting price will vary as additional work, such editing the final output (extracts from databases are not always the cleanest way to present information) and adding specific design features (e.g. cover layout).  Viridans will provide you with a quote once the size of the project has been determined.  The quote will include the cost of supplying multiple copies of the CD-Roms at wholesale price to the purchaser to on-sell. 

Conditions of Use

Viridans will retain the copyright for whatever product is created for the client and you may not make copies of the product for your own use, for resale or any other purpose.  Any copies that you wish will need to be created by Viridans and supplied at the agreed price - usually $33 for standard retail purchases and $22 for wholesale purchases (Note: there will be a minimum number of purchases for wholesale prices to apply). 

 

Disclaimer
 The results of any regional search will be dependent on the quantity and quality of the available data from the DSE Flora Information System (FIS) and the Victorian Fauna Database (VFD).  While we take all care with the creation of this product Viridans makes no guarantee for the accuracy or completeness of the data.