Abstract:

Introduction:
The preservation of ecosystems is fundamental for life on the planet, and to promote their conservation, it is necessary to determine the magnitude of their biodiversity, and identify the changes in such magnitude in time. This is carried out through the accounting of the biological species that inhabits ecosystems, and implies that these must be clearly identified. The most common approach that is followed by scientists for the identification of biological species, is the study and analysis of the visible physical characteristics of collected specimens in the ecosystems under analysis. This process requires specialized knowledge and to pay attention to details, and currently there exists scarcity of trained specialists in this field. Hence, it is necessary to design accessible techniques and methods for scientists and students, to facilitate the teaching and learning of the abilities and knowledge required to carry out this important work. Consequently, the aim of this research was the design of a visual analytical method to facilitate the construction of electronic keys and their use in the identification of species.

Methods:
The species identification process was studied in detail, as well as the features of the most well-known commercial and non-commercial tools. Then, the design of a visual analytics tool was carried out and its usefulness was demonstrated with the use of basic examples and use case scenarios.

Results:
The main results of this research included the study of the characteristics of electronic keys, the analysis of how these are used for the identification of biological species and the elements involved in their construction. Furthermore, the outcomes also include the description of a list of the desirable features to design effective methods to support the identification process and the design of a visual analytics tool for the construction of electronic keys and species identification.

Conclusions:
The process that involves the identification of species requires the use of non-traditional methods to effectively support scientists and students in teaching and learning about the construction of electronic keys and its later use on species identification. Hence, the visual analytics design presented in this research demonstrated that the combined use of information visualization, multiple linked views and human-computer interaction could successfully model both processes and facilitate the decision-making tasks involved in determining the membership of features to a given biological specie.

Keywords:

Visual analytics, species identification, biodiversity.