EcoCount

Techniques that analyze biological remains from sediment sequences for environmental reconstructions are well established and widely used. Yet, identifying, counting, and recording biological evidence such as pollen grains remain a highly skilled, demanding, and time-consuming task. Standard procedure requires the classification and recording of between 300 and 500 pollen grains from each representative sample. Recording the data from a pollen count requires significant effort and focused resources from the palynologist. However, when an adaptation to the recording procedure is utilized, efficiency and time economy improve. We describe EcoCount, which represents a development in environmental data recording procedure. EcoCount is a voice activated fully customizable digital count sheet that allows the investigator to continuously interact with a field of view during the data recording. Continuous viewing allows the palynologist the opportunity to remain engaged with the essential task, identification, for longer, making pollen counting more efficient and economical. EcoCount is a versatile software package that can be used to record a variety of environmental evidence and can be installed onto different computer platforms, making the adoption by users and laboratories simple and inexpensive. The user-friendly format of EcoCount allows any novice to be competent and functional in a very short time.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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