Coetzer, WillemMoodley, DeshendranGerber, Aurona Jacoba2017-10-312017-11Coetzer, W., Moodley, D. & Gerber, A. 2017, 'A knowledge-based system for generating interaction networks from ecological data', Data and Knowledge Engineering, vol. 112, pp. 55-78.0169-023X (print)1872-6933 (online)10.1016/j.datak.2017.09.005http://hdl.handle.net/2263/62982Semantic heterogeneity hampers efforts to find, integrate, analyse and interpret ecological data. An application case-study is described, in which the objective was to automate the integration and interpretation of heterogeneous, flower-visiting ecological data. A prototype knowledge-based system is described and evaluated. The system's semantic architecture uses a combination of ontologies and a Bayesian network to represent and reason with qualitative, uncertain ecological data and knowledge. This allows the high-level context and causal knowledge of behavioural interactions between individual plants and insects, and consequent ecological interactions between plant and insect populations, to be discovered. The system automatically assembles ecological interactions into a semantically consistent interaction network (a new design of a useful, traditional domain model). We discuss the contribution of probabilistic reasoning to knowledge discovery, the limitations of knowledge discovery in the application case-study, the impact of the work and the potential to apply the system design to the study of ecological interaction networks in general.en© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Notice : this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Data and Knowledge Engineering. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. A definitive version was subsequently published in Data and Knowledge Engineering, vol. 112, pp. 55-78, 2017. doi : 10.1016/j.datak.2017.09.005.Semantic heterogeneityOntologiesBayesian networkKnowledge discoverySemantic architectureInteraction networkEcological interactionsData miningEcologyNetwork architectureKnowledge based systemsDomain modelEcological dataEcological interaction networksProbabilistic reasoningPostprint Article