The Prometheus taxonomic database

In [13], a new model of plant taxonomy (Prometheus) was designed; it supports multiple overlapping classifications, and distinguishes the process of naming from classifying. The concepts identified in this taxonomic model necessitated the design of a new database model (POOM) to represent and manipulate the data. POOM is an extended object oriented model which emphasises relationships, thereby providing graph behaviour in an object-oriented database and providing an expressive means of defining relationships between objects. Additionally, OQL is extended (POOL) to provide unified querying of object-oriented and graph structures. This paper presents a taxonomic database system designed in terms of the concepts offered by POOM. Through examples we show how the representation of the semantics and processes of taxonomy, not possible using existing data models, can be supported. Example POOL queries highlight the need for the extended features for manipulating relationships, graph structures and complex objects such as found in taxonomy.