Biological Abstracts - Part 1

                                                                                                   

Biological Abstracts  is a quarterly publication of printed citations and abstracts from approximately 9,000 periodicals published by the Biosciences Information Service (BIOSIS). Biological Abstracts (BA) was started in 1926 and  provides informative abstracts (summaries) of current published research from the biological and biomedical literature.  Fields of study include biochemistry, horticulture, medical and clinical microbiology, psychiatry, public health, veterinary medicine and much more.

Biological Abstracts consists of three separate indexes:  

SUBJECT INDEX -  used to find all items about a subject using significant indexing terms.

Important Features:

  1. The Subject Index displays significant concepts discussed in the paper( key terms) followed by additional context terms, (when appropriate), major concepts (initials capitalized) discussed in the original document, and other terms that best describe the context of the key term in the original document.

  2. Each entry is followed by major concepts and additional context terms where they apply.
       

  3. Individual entries are located by their reference numbers.

Example of Subject Index Page

        keyterm                                                                                                                    reference
                                                                                                                                            number

        kelp (Phaeophyta)---context term (Phaeophyta is a brown algae classification of kelp)

             Aquaculture/Metabolism/Laminaria japonica                                    74210

             Marine Ecology                                                                             141875

                  gametophyte                                                                          326522

                  Laminaria groenlandica                                                           141875

          Population Studies/Climatology/Marine Ecology---major concepts        174016

Using the 1999 hardbound copies of Biological Abstracts in the Reference Section of the library I want to find additional information that will support my revised search statement.

Revised Search Statement

What environmental impacts over the past twenty years have lead to the endangerment of kelp off the coast of California?

Having chosen my key term, kelp, I used the alphabetical listing in the Subject Index and found the term, kelp.  Here I found several reference numbers that would lead me to articles pertaining to kelp.  The major concepts listed under kelp can sometimes give you an idea what the abstract might be about.  For example:

          kelp
              Aquaculture/Metabolism/Laminaria japonica

                  (this article is about a particular genus and 
                    species of kelp, Laminaria japonica)           

Using each of the reference numbers shown in the example, I located each citation with abstract in Biological Abstracts V. 106  1999.  Only one of these citations proved to be supportive of my search statement.  The most informative citation was number 174016 which I proceeded to locate chronologically in Biological Abstracts. 

Example: Retrieved Citation with Abstract

174016. Dayton, Paul K.*, Mia J. Tegner, Peter B. Edwards and Kristin L. Riser. 1999 Ecological Monographs 69(2) May: 219-250. [Text : English; Summary : English].  Temporal and spatial scales of kelp demography: the role of oceanographic climate. - This paper integrates long-term descriptive and experimental studies of the effects of ocean climate on inter-and intraspecific competition, as expressed by recruitment, density, survivorship, growth and reproduction of the most conspicuous kelp species in the Point Loma kelp forest community off San Diego, California, USA. The species included Macrocystis pyrifera, etc...
*Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, 920-0201, USA.

This abstract (# 174016) proved to be extremely supportive of my search statement since it listed several environmental impacts that endangered the kelp off the coast of California.  Consequently, I became curious as whether or not any of these authors may have written other articles that would also be supportive. My next step was to use the CUMULATIVE AUTHOR INDEX V.106 Jan.-Dec. 1999 of Biological Abstracts.  In the alphabetical author index I located the following entries.

AUTHOR INDEX (Personal or Corporate Names)

              Name                                                                           Reference Number    

              Tegner, Jesper                                                                  123691

              Tegner, Mia J.                                                                  70998
                                                                                                         174016 (already used)
                                                                                                         297045

              Tegner, Y.                                                                         138565

***Please continue onto Biological Abstracts Part 2***