NBII Named "Portal of the Month" By NOAA

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) was named "portal of the month" in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) monthly e-newsletter, Information Exchange for Marine Educators. The newsletter is distributed to formal and informal science educators.

The newsletter mentions the NBII's focus on wildlife biology and issues surrounding wildlife such as ecosystems, land cover, habitats, and how each topic major category (Plants, Animals & Other Organisms, Habitats, Ecological Topics, Geographic Perspectives, and Toolkit) opens to a myriad of useful resources.  Ecological Topics alone includes bird conservation, fire ecology and management, invasive species, threatened and endangered species, and more.  NOAA also highlights OBIS-USA under the topic Habitats-Marine. OBIS-USA is a one-stop source for biogeographic data collected from U.S. waters and oceanic regions.  It gives the world's most comprehensive data base on marine biogeographic data a permanent home and places OBIS-USA 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 NBII mission to provide the nation with a mechanism for accessing the vast amount of existing biological resources data, information products, and analytical tools that support and enhance science-based decision-making.

Along with biological information on wildlife and other issues, the NBII provides access to a host of images, which are available for most noncommercial uses. NBII Library of Images From the Environment (NBII LIFE) offers different categories, special collections, and even a kids section with games, stories, coloring pages, projects, and more. NBII LIFE is a collaborative platform for agencies, organizations, and individual partners to share high quality, authoritative images of our natural world. Subjects cover species, species interactions, landscapes, research, management, and environmental topics. The goal is to manage images as scientific records and ensure they are useful for future research and decision-making.

Thank you, NOAA, for recognizing the NBII as "Portal of the Month."

(Photo: Sea angel (Clione limacina), the most common shell-less pteropod of arctic waters. Courtesy of the census of Marine Life Arctic Ocean Diversity project, © Kevin Raskoff.)