COMPARISON OF RELATIONAL AND NETWORK APPROACHES TO CREATING DATA-BASES IN THE ANIMAL TAXONOMY, ECOLOGY, AND GEOGRAPHICAL-DISTRIBUTION

Some questions of planning of creating data bases and banks in animal taxonomy, ecology, and geographical distribution are considered. Network and relational approaches to the most complete reflection of hierarchical classification are compared analytically. The species is suggested to be taken as a unit of the relevant information storage, while the system of hierarchical relations of such kind of lots is to be used as a structural frame. Data bases and information retreaval systems created and supported in Zoological Institute in St. Petersburg are briefly described.