Help
What's benthic habitat?
Please have a look at our seamonsters website
for a overview of the benthic ecology basics. You can also find a definition of
the benthic habitat here. Wikipedia
has a page about the benthic zone that you can access here.
Performing a simple taxa search
To access the Taxa search form,
click the "Taxa search" navigation link in the left menu.
In the "Taxonomic information" section, enter the scientific names as wanted and
click on the "View results" button to get the results.
This search queries only the NBI database, not the website itself or the documents
included in it. It works in a permissive mode so if you enter the word "arpini"
in the "Scientific name" textbox, it will perform a search for all the records which
have a scientific name that contains "arpini" like "Metharpinia floridana".
A group of words is not recognized as a phrase by default: as a
consequence, if you enter several words like "Onuphis Eremita" in the "Scientific
name" textbox, it will perform a search for all the records which have a scientific
name that contains "Onuphis" and "Eremita" like "Onuphis Eremita"
but also "Onuphis eremita oculata". If you wish more control over
your search please look at the
following section.
Notes:
To erase the text box, click the "Clear form" button.
To perform an advanced search, click the "Advanced search" link at beginning of
the form.
To access the help page, click the "help page" link at beginning of the form.
You can show and hide alternatively the search tips by clicking on the "View search
tips" and "Hide search tips" links.
Performing an advanced search
To access the advanced search
form, click the "Advanced search" link at beginning of the Taxa search form.
In the "Limit your search by" section, you can limit your search by study name,
region or state.
In the "Select Fields, Terms and Operators" section, enter the search terms as wanted.
A group of words is not recognized as a phrase by default. For
example, if you enter the words "Metharpinia floridana" in the first "Search for:"
textbox, the resulting request will perform this search: 'Metharpinia' IN
all fields AND ('floridana' IN all fields).
This search queries only the NBI database, not the website itself or the documents
included in it. It works in a strict mode so if you enter the word "floridana" in
the "Scientific name" textbox, it will perform a search for all the scientific names
that are exactly "floridana" unlike "Metharpinia floridana".
You can specify a "connector" in the corresponding drop-down list (and, or, but
not).
You can specify a selector (all of these, any of these, as a phrase). For example,
if you enter the words "Metharpinia floridana" in the first "Search for:" textbox,
and you select "As a phrase" in the corresponding selector's drop-down list,
the resulting request will perform this search: 'Metharpinia floridana'
IN all fields.
You can also limit your search by selecting a field in the "in:" drop-down list.
Select a connector from the drop-down menu when you include 'other terms'
in your search. Select "and" when all the terms must appear and may be far apart
from each other.
Select "or" when at least one of the terms must appear (such as synonyms, alternate
spellings, abbreviations.).
Select "but not" to exclude specific terms.
In the "Display Options" section, you can control the way the results will be displayed.
Boolean wildcards and truncation let you easily combine or eliminate search words,
making your search simpler:
- a percent sign (%) will match zero or more characters in that position (for example:
"%floridana" would find "Metharpinia floridana" and "a[%]b" would find "a%b").
- an underscore (_) will match one character at that position anywhere in a word (for
example: "Me_harpinia" would find Metharpinia or Mecharpinia and "a[_]b" would find
"a_b").
- brackets ([]) will match any single character within the specified range ([a-f])
or set ([abcdef]). Please note that "a[[]b" would find "a[b" and "a]b" would find
"a]b".
Notes:
To erase all the text boxes and return the drop down lists to their default selections,
click the "Clear form" button.
To perform your search using the simple search form, click the "simple search" link
at beginning of the form.
To review the help page, click the "help page" link at beginning of the form.
Performing a website search
To access the website search,
click the "Search" navigation link in the top right menu or the corresponding link
in the taxa search form or in
the advanced search form.
In the textbox, enter the terms as wanted, select an option between "Search NBI
website" and "Search the entire web", and click on the "Search" button to get the
results.
This search queries the NBI website itself, the NBI database, and the documents
included in it. It's a google search, so it uses the same syntax.
Notes:
The results are displayed in the google website, so click on a link in the results
section to navigate back to the NBI website.
Search results page
To access this page, click on the "View results" button from the simple search or
from the advanced search.
You can show and hide alternatively the request summary by clicking on the "View
request summary" and "Hide request summary " links.
When the request summary is shown, you can refine your search (ie: add a new condition
ti your previous search): in the "Refine your search" textbox, enter the keywords
as wanted and click on the "Go" button to get the results.
This "refine your search" works in a permissive mode so if you enter the word "arpini"
in the "Scientific name" textbox, it will perform a search for all the records which
have a scientific name that contains "arpini" like "Metharpinia floridana".
A group of words is not recognized as a phrase by default: as a
consequence, if you enter several words like "Onuphis Eremita" in the "Scientific
name" textbox, it will perform a search for all the records which have a scientific
name that contains "Onuphis" and "Eremita" like "Onuphis Eremita"
but also "Onuphis eremita oculata". If you wish more control over
your search please look at the
following section.
Notes:
To download the data of your search results, click the "Download" button when the
request summary is displayed.
To perform an advanced search, click the "Advanced search" link at beginning of
the form.
To access the help page, click the "help page" link at beginning of the form.
Full taxa list
You can obtain a complete list of taxa included in the National Benthic Inventory
(NBI) by clicking on the "Full taxa list" button located in the upper right section
of the website.
When the results are displayed, you can show and hide alternatively the request
summary by clicking on the "View request summary" and "Hide request summary " links.
Notes:
To download the data of your search results, click the "Download" button when the
request summary is displayed.
To perform an advanced search, click the "Advanced search" link at beginning of
the form.
To access the corresponding help section, click the "help page" link at beginning
of the form.
The system is not case-sensitive
Upper and lower case characters are interpreted as equivalents. (Upper case is used
below for easy reading only.)
Be aware of search restrictions
Numeric data are searchable only as text.
The maximum number rows returned is 30 000.