Guidelines for Data Entry

Welcome to SEAFLORA! Here are some guidelines on how to input your data. It is highly important that all data entered is consistent and accurate so that the information can be analysed and compared effectively. It is therefore essential that before you input your data that you read the instructions for data entry and data gathering.

Getting Your Login
Adding a New Site
Adding an Observation

Getting your Login

If you are new to SEAFLORA, please either click on “Register Here” under the login fields on the Login page, and/or email: kara@seaflora-data.com. In the email, please include in the email body your full name, email address for your login and your institution to receive your login information. After you email Kara, she should respond with your details within one week, but also feel free to email her with any questions you may have in the meantime.

Adding a New Site

Once you receive your login credentials and have successfully logged into SEAFLORA, you will see a few options. Click on whichever option applies to you. If you have not entered an observation for the site before, you may need to add the site to the database. You can click on the link that says “Add Site” from the login landing page, or you can click “Add Site” from the right-hand side of the “Site Name” field in the “Add an Observation” data entry page. This will take you to where you can enter the details of the site where you observed a reproductive event. Please try to complete all fields when creating a new site. Once a site is created, other users may add observations to this site. If you get an alert to say this site already exists, you can skip ahead to adding an observation and choosing that site name from the dropdown menu under the “Site Name” field.

The following information will need to be provided if you are adding a new site:

• Site Name
Accepted name for the location or meadow that the observation was made. Example: Thomson Bay.
• Bioregion
The specific seagrass bioregion the site is located in, as described by Short et al, 2007. Example: Temperate Southern Ocean.
• Country
The country in which the observation site is located. Example: Australia.
• City/Town
Closest city or town to where the site is located. Example: Rottnest Island.
• Timezone
Choose from the list of timezones in UTC that matches where your site is located. Example: Perth UTC +8

If you have already created a site and are entering information for that site, you can click on the button “Add Observation” on the login page or “New Observation” in the top right-hand corner of the “Access Database” page. Once you navigate to that page, you can find your site by typing the first couple of letters in the site name box and selecting the automatically generated result that matches with your site.

Adding a New Observation

Please try to include as much information about your observation as you can, however we recognise that not every survey will include the methods we have included here.

To add a new observation, click on “Add Observation” in the top right-hand corner of the database page or “Add an Observation” from the Login landing page. .

For each field, click on “i” link to see the instructions for data input. Here are the instructions for each field:

• Site Name
Start by typing in the first few letters of the site name and select the corresponding name from the dropdown list.
SEAFLORA will automatically populate the site fields from when the site was added, so you can move on to inputting the data from your observation.
If your site does not exist, please click on “Add Site” on the right-hand side of the field and follow the instructions under “Adding a New Site”.
• Date/Time
Date and Time of the observation. If a survey lasts several hours, write time in which the first observation of seeding/flowering was made. If you did not record the time, leave it at midnight 12:00 AM
• Timezone
Automatically generated
• Latitude
In decmials. Specific coordinate for the site of observation. Can be obtained from Google maps if GPS is not available.
• Longitude
In decimals. Specific coordinate for the site of observation. Can be obtained from google maps if GPS is not available.
• Monitoring Frequency
How often monitoring surveys are carried out at this site.
• Depth (m)
Water depth in meters
• Temperature (C)
Water temperature in Celsius
• Salinity (ppt)
In parts per thousand
• Genus
Taxonomic identification of seagrass genus. If multiple species or genera have been observed to flower or seed, make separate observation entries for each species or genus (if species isn’t able to be confidently identified).
• Species
Taxonomic identification of seagrass species. If species is not able to be confidently identified, select “sp.” as species name. If multiple species have been observed to flower or seed, make separate observation entries for each species.
• Health Status
General health appearance at time of observation. Stressed plants may have leaf discoloration, leaf loss, stunted growth, lesions, or excessive epiphyte growth.
• Male:Female Ratio
If possible, record the ratio of male to female flowers observed. Across at least 10 quadrats along a transect, count how many female flowers are present and how many male flowers are present. Record the average number of each as a ratio. Record ratio as male:female
• Shoot Density
This is used as a general guide for shoot density measurements, however if you have done your survey using slightly different methods (like using randomly placed quadrats), please still include your shoot density recordings if you have used a minimum of 3 quadrats of the same size.
Along a randomly placed transect laid perpendicular to the shore, place 10 quadrats along the length of the transect separated by at least 2 meters. In each one, record the number of vegetative shoots present within the quadrat. Record the average density as number/m-2 along with the standard error.
• Flower Density
This is used as a general guide for density measurements, however if you have done your survey using slightly different methods (ex using randomly placed quadrats), please still include your density recordings if you have used a minimum of 3 quadrats of the same size.
Along a randomly placed transect laid perpendicular to the shore, place 10 quadrats along the length of the transect separated by at least 2 meters. In each one, record the number of flowering shoots present within the quadrat. Record the density as number/m^-2 and include the standard error. Only include if more than 20 flowering shoots are observed.
• Fruiting Density
This is used as a general guide for density measurements, however if you have done your survey using slightly different methods (ex using randomly placed quadrats), please still include your density recordings if you have used a minimum of 3 quadrats of the same size.
Along a randomly placed transect laid perpendicular to the shore, place 10 quadrats along the length of the transect separated by at least 2 meters. In each one, record the number of fruiting plants present within the quadrat. Record the density as number/m-2 and include the standard error. Only include if more than 20 fruiting plants are observed.
• Average Number of Seeds
Sampling at least 3 plants from 3 different quadrats, record the average number of seeds per plant if applicable. If multiple spathes/fruits are present in one plant, count the seeds in each spathe/fruit and record average as one plant.
• Average Seed Size
Sampling at least 3 plants from 3 different quadrats, record the average diameter in mm of seeds.
• Reference
If inputting data made from published papers, include the doi for publication here. Ex: doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2007.06.012
• Comments
Any unique or important information relevant to this observation can be recorded here.

Once you are finished inputting the data for your observation, click “Submit” and your data will be added to the database.

You can see a list of all the data that has been input into SEAFLORA and filter by different categories by clicking on some links within the data. For example, if you click on “marina” under the Species category, all observations for Zostera marina will be shown.

If you would like an excel spreadsheet of data from SEAFLORA, please email: kara@seaflora-data.com and in the email body include what data you’d like to have. For example, “all observations for Shark Bay between the dates 2010 and 2015 for the species Posidonia australis”. If we are able to filter the data in the way you requested, it will be sent to you. If it is not able to be filtered how you requested, a larger selection of data may be sent to you for filtering on your own.