FGDC Publishes a Fact Sheet on the WDIN Global Wildlife Disease News Map

In September 2009, Technical Manager, Megan Hines, and Node Manager, Jennifer Carlino, of the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) were interviewed about the WDIN Global Wildlife Disease News Map application by the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) Geospatial Line of Business group.

The Disease Map displays recently published media reports in a geographical context allowing users to see where news-worthy wildlife disease events are occurring around the globe. Before disease outbreaks become well-known, they often appear in informal sources, such as the news media. The Map visually organizes these news reports to show the global status of wildlife disease and to help government agencies and the general public stay abreast of ongoing developments. The Map also makes data freely available in compatible formats, which allows anyone to integrate this wildlife disease information with other applications, as seen in HealthMap.

The result of this interview generated a fact sheet on the project, highlighting the impact the application has had on WDIN internal business, as well as what the application has provided for external users from the general public to other government agencies. The fact sheet was recently made available on the Geospatial Line of Business website.

Links that may be useful:

• FGDC Geospatial Line of Business web page
• Other fact sheets
• WDIN Disease Map
  

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Petrified Forest National Park

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Petrified Forest National Park has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and spatial orthophoto data; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, spatial field plots data, field database, physical descriptive for plots and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, spatial vegetation data, spatial boundary data and plots and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, spatial AA points data, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Petrified Forest National Park. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for sixty-seven park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

Critical Habitat: Threatened and Endangered Species of the Edwards Aquifer in the Central Southwest and Gulf Coast

The Edwards Aquifer is a hydrogeologically sensitive Karst aquifer in central Texas that is home to a variety of threatened and endangered species. Degradation of water quality can detrimentally impact species that rely on the aquifer for habitat. For example, the San Marcos Gambusia (Gambusia georgei) is documented to be extremely sensitive to habitat alteration, particularly changes in water turbidity or temperature. Managing changes in surface water and groundwater quantity and quality is critical to the stewardship of these threatened and endangered species. To facilitate management, aquifer managers and the public need information that shows changes through time and is spatially explicit. The newly developed Edwards Aquifer portal gives users information describing surface water quality, groundwater quality, groundwater quantity, surface water quantity, precipitation trends, species information, and critical habitat areas of the threatened and endangered species of the Edwards Aquifer. The portal also allows users to download spatial data for the region.



Image: The Major Aquifers in Texas; map created by the Houston Advanced Research Center.

Bird Monitoring Data Management Paper Published

A paper summarizing results from a bird monitoring data management session led by Bird Conservation Node Manager Elizabeth Martín at the 2008 Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference is now published and available online as part of the Partners in Flight Conference Proceedings. The paper titled “Gathering, Organizing, and Accessing Data for Use in Bird Conservation across the Americas” can be accessed here; it was authored by Ms. Martín and NBII partners’ staff Bruce Peterjohn (USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center) and Steve Kelling (Cornell Lab of Ornithology). This paper and session, which identified data management needs for bird monitoring data in North America and provided recommendations for addressing those needs, served as an initial step for some of the bird monitoring data management activities now being undertaken by the U.S. Monitoring Subcommittee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI).

NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node Presents Activities at USGS and NOAA Seminars

Dr. Joshua Dein, NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) Project Leader, and Megan Hines, WDIN Technical Manager, will make presentations on WDIN projects and products next week. On March 4, at 12 noon, at the USGS Headquarters in Reston, they will present, "Promoting Access to Wildlife Disease Data and Information." This presentation will also be available through WebEx. It will also be a seminar on March 3 at the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Protected Resources in Silver Spring, MD.

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, spatial orthophoto data, and flightline index; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, field database, physical descriptive for plots and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphic of vegetation communities and geodatabase; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to National Park Service Information about Indiana Dunes. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for sixty-six park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Craters of the Moon National Monument

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Craters of the Moon National Monument has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and spatial orthophoto data; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, spatial field plots data, field database, physical descriptive for plots and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphic of vegetation communities, and geodatabase; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, spatial AA points data, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to National Park Service about Craters of the Moon. The goal of the VCP is to classify and map the vegetation communities of National Parks that have a natural resource component. Complete documentation is currently available for sixty-five park units and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife refuge units. The VCP is managed by the USGS Center for Biological Informatics in cooperation with the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program. The USGS Vegetation Characterization effort includes the management and upkeep of the VCP protocols, Web-based access to the standards, and the Web-based access to NPS Vegetation Characterization program finished products.