easyFulcrum

easyFulcrum processes and integrates geospatial and environmental field sampling data collected with the Fulcrum mobile application into the R environment, linking substrate photographs and environmental parameters with laboratory isolation and molecular identification data for ecological and biodiversity analyses.

Key Features:

• Data Integration and Management: Links Fulcrum field records (geospatial coordinates, substrate photographs, environmental parameters) with laboratory isolation records and molecular identifications within R.
• Standardized Data Processing: Provides a set of R functions to clean and process ecological field sampling and isolation data for consistent downstream analysis.
• Data Visualization and Analysis: Supports joining environmental field data with molecularly defined specimen identities and generating visual summaries of complex ecological datasets.
• Extensibility: Applicable to wild nematode sampling and extensible to other microscopic flora and fauna for comparable sampling and isolation workflows.

Scientific Applications:

• Large-scale biodiversity surveys: Integration of geospatial, environmental, and molecular data to assess species diversity across sites.
• Ecological monitoring and habitat association studies: Linking substrate and environmental parameters to occurrence and isolation records for habitat analyses.
• Molecular barcode-based identification studies: Combining field metadata with laboratory molecular identifications to support barcode-based species delineation.
• Wild nematode ecology: Managing and analyzing field and isolation data specific to wild nematode sampling campaigns.

Methodology:

Field sampling data are captured with the Fulcrum mobile app (geospatial coordinates, substrate images, environmental parameters), exported into R via easyFulcrum, and undergo cleaning, processing, and joining with laboratory isolation and molecular identification data.