User's Manual for the National Water-Quality Assessment Program Invertebrate Data Analysis System (IDAS) Software: Version 3. National Water-Quality Assessment Program;Open-file rept

摘要

The purpose of this report is to provide information on the use and capabilities of the Invertebrate Data Analysis System (IDAS) software. This User's Manual explains how to acquire the software, load it onto a personal computer, and run the software. It discusses the relation between the NAWQA Program ecological database and the IDAS program, and provides instructions on how to use IDAS as a tool for exploring, analyzing, and exporting invertebrate data to other software programs. Though developed for processing invertebrate data downloaded from the NAWQA Program databases, the IDAS program will analyze any invertebrate data converted to the format specified in the User's Manual. Consequently, this program will be of value to non-USGS scientists looking for an efficient means of processing invertebrate data. The IDAS software was designed to provide a rapid, consistent, and efficient means of analyzing data stored in the NAWQA Program's Biological Transactional Database (Bio-TDB). The IDAS software was developed to help data analysts at the study-unit, regional, and national levels work either independently or in cooperation with one another, and it also facilitates the archiving of data analyses by providing procedures that automatically document the options used in the analyses. The IDAS software provides a set of standard, data-analysis procedures that are citable and that can be used by scientists within and outside of the USGS.