Thursday, April 29, 2010

Updates from the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) Now Available for the Southwest

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) is an interactive, searchable, and updateable Web-enabled database of butterfly and moth records. The database houses over 270,000 records and more than 4,500 species. The Live Maps and Data page of Southwest Information Node (SWIN) now provides updates for the southwest region via RSS feed.







(Photo: Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus) on goldenrod flower. © 2009 Bruce Avera Hunter, , from the NBII LIFE gallery).

Best Data Management Practices Document Now Available Online

NBII Bird Conservation Node Manager Elizabeth Martín and Grant Ballard of Point Reyes Bird Observatory (PRBO) Conservation Science compiled a document on best practices and standards for data management that is now available online. The document, titled "Data Management Best Practices and Standards for Biodiversity Data Applicable to Bird Monitoring Data," provides general information from various sources and serves as a reference guide for the management of bird monitoring data. It was developed as part of the activities of the Database Management Team of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee, and was endorsed by the U.S. NABCI Committee at their January 2010 meeting. To access the document, please visit the NABCI Web site.

(Photo: Crimson rosella (Platycercus elegans) perched in a tree. © 2009 Elizabeth A. Sellers, from the NBII LIFE gallery).

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Linking Species Data Across Agencies - Initial Prototype of an Online Platform to be Demonstrated on the Mall on Earth Day

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), managed by the Bioinformatics Office of the Biological Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey, has been working to develop a data exploration tool along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and the Encyclopedia of LIFE (EOL), Smithsonian Institution.  This tool will provide both dynamic species pages and a geospatial platform through which users can explore North American species information linked to data on distributions, landcover, climate, protected areas management, research projects, and more.  On April 24th and 25th, a demonstration of the planned capabilities of this tool will be shown in the EPA's tent on the mall as part of the Earth Day celebrations.  The full, dynamic prototype is expected to become available online in August, with additional data layers.

(Image: from http://blog.usa.gov/)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

WDIN Attends Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Annual Conference


Dr. Joshua Dein, Project Leader for the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN), attended the TDWG Annual Conference in Montpellier, France, November 9-13, 2009.   Dr. Dein worked with the NBII Program Office to develop presentation and discussion sessions to explore the potential overlap between biodiversity and health informatics and how they can be used to ensure that environmental and species data can be easily integrated into emerging disease surveillance systems.

(Photo: Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos), by Robert E. Gill, Jr., USGS.  Photo from the Wildlife Disease Information Node's HEDDS page)

Monday, April 19, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Navajo National Monument

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Navajo National Monument has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - flightline index; project report - photointerpretation key, vegetation descriptions, vegetation key, photos of map class, and accuracy assessment; field data - graphic of field plots, plots field database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, geodatabase, and plot photos; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Navajo National Monument. 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 seventy-one 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.

Friday, April 16, 2010

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Partners with Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)

On March 23, 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) signed a partnership agreement with the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). As a USGS-led partnership of federal agencies, international partners, and non-governmental organizations, ITIS meets the shared need of scientifically credible taxonomic information by providing an easily accessible database with reliable information on species names and their hierarchical classification. The scope of ITIS is global, providing authoritative taxonomy of the world's biota with a special emphasis on North American species. ITIS has also dedicated resources to maintain accurate and current information on protected species, which is integral to supporting the mission of the USFWS and other Department of Interior bureaus. Other U.S. federal agencies in partnership with ITIS include the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).


(Photo: American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) near the surface of the water with turtles on its back. © 2008 Bruce Avera Hunter, NBII LIFE.)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Buck Island Reef National Monument

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Buck Island Reef 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, plots field database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, geodatabase, and plot photos; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Buck Island Reef National Monument. 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 seventy 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.


(Photo: Buck Island Reef National Monument Orthophoto 2006-2007)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

National Park Service Data Store Shares Records with NBII Metadata Clearinghouse

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) and National Park Service (NPS) have partnered to share NPS metadata records through the NBII Clearinghouse. Metadata records from the NPS Data Store have increased the holdings in the NBII Clearinghouse by nearly 17,000 -- resulting in increased ability for Clearinghouse users to access data from approximately 90,000 metadata records. To search for NPS data or data from other NBII partners, visit the NBII Metadata Clearinghouse. For more information on metadata and contributing to the NBII Clearinghouse, contact Viv Hutchison.

(Photo: Red mangrove islands (Rhizophora mangle).  Photo by Randolph Femmer, courtesy of the NBII LIFE).

Monday, April 5, 2010

NBII Briefs U.S. National Committee for the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)

On March 25, 2010, Mark Fornwall of the National Biological Information Infrastructure's (NBII) OBIS-USA provided a briefing to the US committee on the transition of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) to the IOC's International Oceanographic Data Exchange (IODE).  His remarks covered the results of a planning session convened last fall at the IODE headquarters in Belgium.  The adoption of OBIS by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) gives the world's most comprehensive data base on marine biogeographic data a permanent home and places it in an optimal position to integrate marine biogeographic data with other oceanographic data for use by ocean scientists and resource managers.  OBIS-USA is the U.S. regional node of the International Ocean Biogeographic Information System (iOBIS). OBIS-USA was organized by USGS under the NBII as a part of the mission to coordinate the development of the nation’s repository for data on national biological resources.


Photo: Green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), Hawaii. Photo by Paul Wang. Photo courtesy of USGS.