ProvenanceMatrix: A Visualization Tool for Multi-taxonomy Alignments

Visualizing and analyzing the relationships between taxonomic entities represented in multiple input classifications is both challenging and required due to recurrent new discoveries and inferences of taxa and their phylogenetic relationships. Despite the availability of numerous visualization techniques, the large size of hierarchical classifications and complex relations between taxonomic entities generated during a multi-taxonomy alignment process requires new visualizations. This paper introduces ProvenanceMatrix, a novel tool allowing end users (taxonomists, ecologists, phylogeneticists) to explore and comprehend the outcomes of taxonomic alignments. We illustrate the use of ProvenanceMatrix through examples using taxonomic classifications of various sizes, from a few to hundreds of taxonomic entities and hundreds of thousands of relationships.