On-line application of Drudge 1 and 2 - simple and quick determination of the modern vegetation most closely resembling fossil plant assemblages
Abstract
The statistical tools Drudge 1 and Drudge 2 introduced by Teodoridis et al. (2020) help determine modern vegetation proxies for the fossil record. They combine two diagnostic parameters, namely the Integrated Plant Record (IPR) and Taxonomic Similarities.
The Drudges were originally designed to work in the form of MS Excel sheets, which is inconvenient and does not allow direct updates in the reference (calibration) dataset. The newly developed on-line application of the Drudges 1 and 2 is linked to the existing IPR vegetation database (www.iprdatabase.eu).
Together they build one platform with a uniform and continuous data management along with a simple and methodologically identical data import. This enables a fast and convenient expansion of the database-core, potentially improving the reliability of the proxies derived from Drudges.
Finally, the on-line application is easy, quick and user friendly, crucial features that help spread the use of these diagnostic tools within a large palaeobotanical community