# How to read the living atlas

The catalogue contains 1,074 taxa: 862 trees and 212 shrubs. Every taxon has computed seed-history coverage. Most histories provide five saved dates during the first year; selected taxa also have longer histories or explicit seedling and supplied-stock starts. This coverage does not establish species calibration or complete 200-year validation.

Choose a history and a saved date to inspect one retained biological state. The Atlas, comparison, dossiers, projections, Sketchbook, Animation Studio and embedded viewer use that state's material and measurements. Its identity records the inputs, scientific source revision and checkpoint. Camera movement, drawing styles and exports do not advance biological time. Charts contain measurements verified from loaded checkpoints; unavailable dates are not interpolated.

The experimental development model retains axes, segments, buds, foliage cohorts and roots. New material competes for accounted resources and carries construction costs. Mature internodes retain their lengths; local thickening, bark, heartwood, wounds, turnover and mortality have separate state. Seed, newly emerged rooted seedling and supplied rooted inventory are distinct initial conditions. Stem, root and genet ages remain separate; an age or crown outline cannot supply a missing organ inventory.

Wood and root coordinates retain their stored metre scale. Basal diameter and diameter at 1.3 m are separate quantities; DBH is unavailable where no eligible stem section exists. Wood-only and over-bark measurements require different interpretations. Crown envelopes include empty space and are not wood volume, biomass or a surveyed crown.

Foliage in the 3D view uses area-preserving samples of retained cohorts. Drawing lessons and orthographic diagrams may represent a cohort by an area-equivalent circle. These symbols are not individually simulated leaves. Root axes and fine-root stocks are model outputs, not a complete resolved absorbing network or root survey. Botanical leaf, flower and seed plates, catalogue thumbnails and older sample films have separate illustrative provenance.

Garden and Landscape Studio use a common saved stand date, actual member positions and shared soil. Local scenario authoring accepts explicit biological starts, site, soil, reference weather and management inputs. Computation saves committed dates in browser storage and can resume matching requests. Older geometric designs remain layouts until actual starting conditions are declared.

To compute an existing Studio design, select one to five plants and declare their seed or rooted-inventory starts. The complete original design remains available. Buildings, surfaces and the original boundary appear as visual context; unselected plants appear as position markers. These context objects do not affect simulated shade, soil, water, wind or competition. Planning ages do not become biological ages.

The Water Lab is a separate fixed-area water-balance experiment. Its tree stays at one verified saved date while experimental water stores and fluxes change. It does not alter that tree's development history.

Model parameters include authored species and functional-group assumptions. Established proportions and full 0–200-year ensembles remain unresolved; the simulations are not calibrated species forecasts or independently certified botanical predictions. Keep the saved date, inputs, source identity and stated limits with any exported result.

[Open the plant catalogue](../catalogue.html) · [Landscape Studio](../landscape/) · [Water Lab](../water.html)