Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wildlife. Show all posts

Friday, July 29, 2011

Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) to be Featured in The Wildlife Professional

On July 22, Dr. Gerald “Stinger” Guala, Director of Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), was interviewed by a writer-reporter from The Wildlife Professional about ITIS and its relevance to wildlife professionals. ITIS provides authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. The article will also feature others who can comment on the value of ITIS to their work. ITIS is one of the core components of the USGS Biological Informatics Program. The Wildlife Professional is distributed to all members of The Wildlife Society, whose members specialize in the management, conservation, and study of wildlife populations and habitats.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

WDIN To Demo Citizen Science Application

The USGS-National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) will host a Science Station at the upcoming University of Wisconsin Madison Science Expeditions event at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on Saturday, April 2, 2011.  The WDIN Science Station will demonstrate the citizen science application, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER), and give the WDIN an opportunity to engage the general public on the importance of efforts to track and report wildlife morbidity or mortality events during their everyday activities. (For more information, contact Josh Dein, UW Madison, Wildlife Disease Information Node).

Thursday, December 2, 2010

WDIN Invited to Present at International FAO Workshop

USGS National Wildlife Health Center scientist and NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) project leader Joshua Dein presented "Wildlife Disease Surveillance and Reporting" at an international workshop, "Challenges of National, Regional, and Global Information Systems and Surveillance for Major Animal Diseases and Zoonoses," in Rome, Italy, on November 23-26, 2010. The workshop was sponsored by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Dein's presentation is during the Session on Regional Animal Health Information Systems; he will be sharing expertise about integrating data on wildlife disease with livestock and human health data. The workshop is part of the FAO program on Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases, which works to provide information, training, and emergency assistance to countries to prevent, contain, and control the world’s most serious livestock diseases while also surveying for newly emerging pathogens.

Monday, November 15, 2010

WDIN Releases its Web Application, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter

WDIN, through its partners at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, the University of Wisconsin Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies, and HealthMap.org (Children’s Hospital Boston), has created an experimental Web application, the Wildlife Health Event Reporter (WHER), and has added the ability to report wildlife health events to a mobile phone application by HealthMap called Outbreaks Near Me. These tools will enhance public assistance in the surveillance of wildlife disease events. As a result of citizens using WHER and HealthMap’s mobile application, resource agencies will be able to assess the benefits of these tools through an increase in observational power that could potentially lead to a better understanding of both baseline and exceptional wildlife disease events. WHER can be accessed at http://www.wher.org. Individuals can obtain an account and provide feedback by contacting wdin@usgs.gov.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

NBII Partners With the National Climate Change Wildlife Science Center

USGS is taking the lead for DOI on selecting host institutions for these centers, and the NCCWSC will provide the initial staffing and start-up capabilities. The NCCWSC science agenda will focus on the linkage of global climate information with fundamental ecological knowledge, and the application of this understanding to the particular species, habitats, and ecosystems present in each region. The science to be conducted at these centers will be identified through a partnership steering committee in which Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and other management and science entities identify and prioritize key science needs to implement and monitor actions to adapt to climate change.

From February through July 2010, the NBII program dedicated one staff person, Viv Hutchison, to a full-time detail in the NCCWSC in Reston, VA. Viv’s role was to act as the lead for an NBII team of contributors in the development of several components of NCCWSC data management activities. The NBII planned and built an information-sharing portal that will be used for a variety of tasks, primarily to serve the needs of scientists by working to reduce the data management and administration required of modern science.

Features of the portal include a project registration wizard that allows scientists to register funded projects. The registration process results in a discovery-level metadata record, serving as a downloadable product the scientists can build on to develop a complete Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)-compliant metadata record before project close-out. Additionally, the portal will offer scientists collaboration space with discussion boards and document-sharing capabilities, and the ability to update Web pages about their project. Further, the portal will act as a gateway to national and regional datasets, in addition to NCCWSC funded datasets, downscaled climate models, and model outputs.

One of the important keys to the NCCWSC program is providing scientists the ability to find, access, and manipulate data in new ways that will foster innovative discoveries and/or develop models reflecting future climate change effects. Another result of the NBII staff detail to NCCWSC was the outline of a high-level system architecture design from which the program can build a data network. This document can be used as a foundation for the NCCWSC program as it moves forward in building a data-management program incorporating such technologies as Thematic Real-time Environmental Distributed Data Services (THREDDS) servers (middleware product that forms a bridge between data providers and users), and customized tools for accessing large data models.

In the coming months, the NBII will host the NCCWSC information-sharing portal.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Australian Wildlife Health Network Makes Use of the NBII's Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN)

Each week the Australian Wildlife Health Network (AWHN) distributes the AWHN Digest (via e-mail), which contains a summary of wildlife disease related news occurring both in Australia and internationally. Similarly, WDIN also publishes a wildlife disease news summary. Through its blog, the Wildlife Disease News Digest, WDIN staff provide almost daily reports of wildlife disease related issues and events that are making national and international news. The AWHN Digest has designated a section within its publication to highlight and reuse news items from the WDIN Digest. Both organizations recognize the potential for collaboration opportunities and are exploring the possibilities.



(Photo: American egret (Casmerodius albus egretta) standing in shallow water. Credit: Randolph Femmer /life.nbii.gov).

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

NBII Presents Resources of a Botanical Nature at Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting

Click
 to view larger: American skunkcabbage (Lysichiton americanus) The NBII will be well-represented at this year’s Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, and United States Virtual Herbarium Workshop, August 1-4, 2010 in Providence, Rhode Island. Ms. Elizabeth Sellers (Manager, NBII Botany Project) and Mr. Giri Palanisamy (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, an NBII partner) will represent the NBII at these meetings as members of the USVH Steering Committee and USVH Communications Infrastructure Task Force. In addition to staffing the NBII Exhibit, Ms. Sellers will present a Task Force report at the USVH Annual Meeting, including an overview of the new USVH Web site  www.usvirtualherbarium.org, hosted by the University of Tennessee SunSITE and developed with help from Mr. Palanisamy and other Task Force members. Mr. Palanisamy will also represent the NBII’s role as the U.S. Node to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) by providing his expertise on the Integrated Publishing Toolkit developed by GBIF.


Ms. Jennifer Carlino (Manager, NBII California, Pacific Northwest, and Mountain Prairie Information Nodes) and Ms. Marcia NcNiff (Manager, NBII Northeast Information Node) will also attend the meetings, representing the NBII’s contributions and participation in several of the regional herbarium and collection networks associated with the USVH project. And Dr. Gerald Guala will represent the NBII-hosted Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) at the meetings, the standard for taxonomy for NBII and numerous other Federal and non-Federal data systems. Plant specimens represent a valuable scientific resource that can help provide key information for addressing national issues such as climate change, land use effects, and invasive species. But access to these collections varies dramatically. The USVH project is the primary project of an alliance of U.S. herbaria, regional herbarium networks, universities, and other organizations and individuals to digitize and increase access to all botanical specimens held in U.S. herbaria. As a nationally recognized authority on bioinformatics, the NBII will provide expertise on biological data hosting, publishing and standards, and help guide the continued progress of the USVH project.

(Photo: Yellow flower of the American skunkcabbage (Lysichiton americanus).  Photo by © 2007 Ted Niehaus/NBII LIFE. Note: The Creator has granted the Source the authority to distribute the images: images may be used for any nonprofit purposes. Contact the Source to request a copy of the archival master, or for any commercial uses).

NBII, Including GAP, To Be Represented at International Congress of Conservation Biology

Click to view larger: Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)Forming partnerships with the conservation science community is of great importance to the NBII Program, including its Gap Analysis Program (GAP) component.  To promote such partnerships, the NBII and GAP have been working closely with the Society for Conservation Biology on a series of focus groups, three of which will be held during the International Congress of Conservation Biology (ICCB), which will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, from July 3-7.  An exhibit booth will also be continuously manned throughout the meeting by Meredith Lane, Ben Wheeler, Bernadette LeMasters, and Hugh O'Connor (NBII); and John Mosesso, Steve Williams, Jocelyn Aycrigg, and Matt Rubino (GAP).  Feedback and input from participants in the focus groups and at the exhibit booth will be sought, especially on Raptor (the NBII's new Web search engine), NBII LIFE (Library of Images From the Environment), and the GAP Online Analysis Tool.

(Photo: Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina) by John J. Mosesso. Photo courtesy of life.nbii.gov)

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

NBII Participates in 2010 Jamaica Bay BioBlitz

The 2010 Jamaica Bay BioBlitz, which was held on June 11th and 12th at the Floyd Bennett Field and adjacent areas including Plumb Beach and Dead Horse Bay, attracted hundreds of scientists and amateur naturalists. NBII’s Ricardo McClees-Funinan took part in the 24-hour marathon to catalog the biodiversity of the area and shared some of his photos with us.  Visit the NBII Facebook Fan page for images from the Jamaica Bay 2010 BioBlitz.

The Jamaica Bay Research and Management Information Network (JBRMIN), hosted by the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII)'s Northeast Information Node (NIN) at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), is the official Web site of the 2010 BioBlitz.  You can also follow the National Park Service (NPS) on Twitter at twitter.com/GatewayNPS.

(Photo: milkweed (Asclepias sp.) along trail leading towards Dead Horse bay.  Photo by Ricardo McClees-Funinan)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM) Annual Conference and Business Meeting

October 17-21 OFWIM Annual Conference and Business Meeting: Partnerships and Collaboration in Public Land Management -  The Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM), founded in 1993, is a non-profit association dedicated to the management and conservation of natural resources through technology and information exchange. OFWIM holds an annual conference and business meeting to bring together practitioners in the community to share activities and network with colleagues. The NBII has been actively involved in OFWIM to promote its data and technology sharing activities that support many of OFWIM’s member organizations. The 2010 OFWIM conference will take place on October 17-21 in Lake Barkley State Park at the Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky. The theme of the conference this year is “Partnerships and Collaboration in Public Land Management”. Submit your abstract for a presentation or poster by July 30th that highlights examples of successful partnerships dealing with any aspect of natural resource and public land management. Some of the areas that might be of interest as conference subtopics include:

• State Wildlife Action Plans Updates
• Climate Change
• Mobile Technology – GPS, GIS, Smart Phones, etc.
• Emerging Technology
• Interagency Cooperation
• Using Technology to Overcome Cutbacks

Lake Barkley State Park Resort is located in western Kentucky, approximately 2 hours northwest of Nashville, TN, which has the nearest major airport. In addition to general sessions, panels, and a poster session, the conference will also offer a field trip led by federal, state, and local agency managers that includes a boat ride to Duck Island in Kentucky Lake and a tour of the Land Between the Lakes, where the trip participants will get a first hand view of cooperative management efforts in the region.

Visit www.ofwim.org to submit presentations and posters, apply for travel grants, and get more information about the conference. Click here to register.

Friday, June 11, 2010

First Detailed National Map of Land-Cover Vegetation Released Will Help Determine Places with Habitat to Support Wildlife

The most detailed national vegetation U.S. land-cover map to date was released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The map will enable conservation professionals to identify places in the country with sufficient habitat to support wildlife.

The map, produced by the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP), can be viewed online and downloaded for free.


“These data are critical for determining the status of biodiversity, as baseline data for assessing climate change impacts, and for predicting the availability of habitat for wildlife,” said John Mosesso, Gap Analysis Program Manager. “Large datasets of this type are extremely important to land and wildlife managers because they allow for analysis and planning across extensive geographic areas.”

The GAP national land cover data, based on the NatureServe Ecological Systems Classification, is the most detailed, consistent map of vegetative associations ever available for the United States and will help facilitate the planning and management of biological diversity on a regional and national scale.

GAP’s mission is to keep common species common by providing information on the status of native species. The creation and dissemination of the national landcover dataset and online map viewer furthers that goal by putting crucial information into the hands of conservation professionals. Information about land cover is a key component of effective conservation planning and the management of biological diversity. 


Landcover Map Portrays Complex Data
The final version of the landcover map contains 551 Ecological Systems and modified Ecological Systems (the modified ecological systems represent 32 land use classes which depict developed and/or disturbed land cover classes). The map combines data from previous GAP projects in the Southwest, Southeast, and Northwest United States with recently updated California data. For areas of the continental United States where ecological system-level GAP data has not yet been developed, data from the LANDFIRE project compiled by Landscope was used. This allows for the construction of a seamless representation of ecological system distributions across the continental United States.

The map also meets natural resources agencies’ need for a way to characterize land cover. Finally, the new map furthers the mission of GAP to promote conservation by providing state, regional, and national assessments of the conservation status of land cover types to resource managers, planners, and policy makers who can use the map and its underlying data to make informed decisions.


Online Map Viewer Shows Data at Multiple Scales
The online map viewing interface has been designed to allow users to explore land cover data at three levels of complexity.  Level 1 contains eight classes: grassland, shrubland, forest, aquatic, sparse and barren, recently disturbed, riparian, and human land use. Level 2 contains 43 classes, and incorporates information on elevation and climate. Level 3 contains the full 583 classes. This online tool facilitates exploration of ecological system distribution patterns at multiple scales and allows users to calculate statistics on the types of vegetation occurring within a mapping zone, a state, or a county.

As part of the USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) — a collaborative program coordinated by the USGS to provide increased access to data and information on the nation’s biological resources — GAP data and associated analytical tools have been used in hundreds of applications, from basic research to comprehensive state wildlife plans, and from education projects in schools to ecoregional assessments of biodiversity.

GAP has developed land cover data since the 1980s — initially on a state-by-state basis and more recently on a regional basis. The national land cover map provides seamless coverage across political boundaries, facilitating its use by governmental agencies, researchers, conservation organizations and others.

(Photo: Online Map Viewer for Land-Cover Classification Map. The GAP (GAP Analysis Program) online map viewer shows land cover classifications at three levels. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey Multimedia Gallery)
(This technical announcement was originally published by the U.S. Geological Survey)

Thursday, May 20, 2010

NBII and USGS Represented at Congressional Pollinator Protection Caucus Launch

Ms. Elizabeth Sellers, Manager, NBII, Pollinators Project, and Steve Hilburger, Program Analyst, USGS Wildlife Program, represented NBII biological informatics and USGS research science on pollinators at a Pollinator Briefing held on April 12 in Washington, DC, at the Longworth House Office Building in conjunction with the launch of a new Congressional Pollinator Protection Caucus, co-chaired by Representatives Alcee L. Hastings and Timothy V. Johnson. Ms. Sellers and Mr. Hilburger are also active members of the Steering Committee of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC), one of the supporters of this event.

(Photo: Brown belted bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis) on thistle. Franklin Park, Purcellville, Virginia. Photo Credit: © Elizabeth Sellers. All Rights Reserved 2010).

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.)

Monday, March 15, 2010

The NBII Library of Images From the Environment (NBII LIFE) - Accessed by Users Worldwide

The NBII Library of Images From the Environment (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.

Contributors and images must meet certain criteria, including that the images are available for nonprofit use and that detailed information (e.g., date, location, and context) is attached.

These standards and subject diversity make LIFE a valuable resource – as research and user feedback have confirmed. One type of user we get feedback from are those who contribute images to LIFE; examples include Finding Species, different groups within the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. National Herbarium, Smithsonian Institution. But who in the broader community is accessing the site, and how do they use the images?

There are limits to what the U.S. government can record about users accessing government Web sites, but we know hundreds of thousands of people viewed millions of pages within the NBII LIFE in 2009, most from U.S. government computers. Globally, an average of 150 countries (out of 203 recorded) also had users entering the library each month. Leading countries include Canada, Great Britain, and India; but small countries such as Liechtenstein and Vatican City also accessed the NBII LIFE Web site.

Many organizations point to the NBII LIFE as a resource, including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Other federal sites include the USGS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and the Library of Congress. The Academy of Natural SciencesVireo Web site includes the LIFE under “Sites Worth Seeing” and Matcha College lists LIFE in an article, “100 Excellent Websites for Exploring the Ocean Online”.


LIFE is also finding that diverse organizations are using
photographs for exhibits, Web sites, publications, and research, including federal agencies such as the USGS (the biggest user), the USFWS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Smithsonian Institution. Local and state agencies (e.g., New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation) and nonprofits (e.g., the Defenders of Wildlife) have also used LIFE's images. One research project incorporating LIFE images is the Tree of Life project.


News and information organizations also have used NBII LIFE images to illustrate online articles, including Public Radio International, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, the Washington Post, and Science magazine. Also, hundreds of educational sites incorporate LIFE images into their lesson plans: students have used images for book reports and in computer modeling classes. Other users include libraries, museums, botanical gardens, film makers, artists, and bloggers. Users’ interests have been very diverse.

The NBII LIFE's images may soon be used in additional ways. The LIFE team is partnering with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to make image metadata available to more researchers, especially modelers. Metadata about a photograph of a rare bird at a certain place and time could be fed into models predicting the effects of climate change on species distributions. Schema development is under way.

The LIFE team looks forward to increased use and further feedback, with the Web site’s latest tools online, continuing image uploads, and a new strategic plan to increase capabilities.

Photos from the NBII LIFE: (from top) Cactus (Sempervivum sp., Echeveria sp.) Cactus rosettes fill a garden bed. Photo by © 2008 Elizabeth A. Sellers; U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) hydrologist making a mini-piezometer measurement on the Yakima River to determine if ground-water discharge is occurring in this salmon rearing area. Photo by W. Simmonds; American bullfrog floats among lily pads (Rana catesbeiana). Photo by © 2008 Bruce Avera Hunter (Copyright held by Creator); Blue Ridge Parkway with fall foliage. Photo by Tanya Schoenhoff; Print and online publications using NBII LIFE images; A male scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) ready to be released after receiving a metal leg band applied by a wildlife biologist. Photo by © 2009 Elizabeth A. Sellers.

This is a revised version of the article published in the Winter 2010 (Vol. 13, No. 1) issue of the NBII Access Newsletter.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

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:

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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).

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Species Mashups Now Available for Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest, California, Pacific Basin, Central Southwest/Gulf Coast, and Southwest Nodes

In 2009, a team of NBII staff and partners developed a process for displaying the Species of Greatest Conservation Need identified in the State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP) in a mashup format building on the Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) product. The mashups bring together data sources including the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and NBII Metadata Clearinghouse into a single integrated Web page. Mashups for species in states covered by the Mountain Prairie, Pacific Northwest, California, Pacific Basin, Central Southwest/Gulf Coast, and Southwest nodes are now available in the “Animals and Plants of the Region” sections. The mashups cover 28 states and 3 territories. Work continues to add the remaining regional nodes so a national mashup can be presented. Also, additional data sources are being considered for inclusion such as the NBII Library of Images from the Environment (LIFE).

Thursday, February 4, 2010

NBII Designated Home for National Fish Habitat Action Plan Data System

The USGS-NBII was designated by the National Fish Habitat Board to house the data delivery system supporting the National Fish Habitat Action Plan. The first phase of the data system will be completed by the end of 2010 to facilitate the transfer of data between and among the Fish Habitat Partnerships and the Board. This accomplishment will further the progress of development to enable visualization of these data and Web mapping capabilities, which will support the states, non-governmental organizations, industry, and federal agencies within and external to DOI that are working to improve the Nation’s fish habitat.

The National Fish Habitat Action Plan (PDF 2.2 MB) is an unprecedented attempt to address an unseen crisis for fish nationwide: loss and degradation of their watery homes.




(Photo: courtesy of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan website)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) Invasive Species Update

New invasive species content is now available at the Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) website. New content includes information about invasive plants, invasive animals, and invasive microorganisms and pathogens. Of note is information within the invasive microorganisms and pathogens community about the 2009 pandemic influenza virus. This content explains the relationships between wildlife, agricultural ecosystems, and emerging infectious disease. SAIN collaborated with the NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN) and the USGS National Wildlife Health Center to provide this content.


Photo: The Golden Apple Snail Database provides access to approximately three decades of literature on ecology, damage, and management options for Golden Apple Snail (Pomacea spp.). It includes over 400 GAS-related articles, and over 100 images. Photo credit: Rita T. dela Cruz.