New Datasets Available Online at Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS)

Five new datasets have been submitted to the Biogeographic Information and Observation System (BIOS). BIOS is the California Department of Fish and Game hosted infrastructure in the state to provide access from a single location to key biological datasets for habitat conservation planning and other activities by researchers and managers. Four datasets from CalTrans San Diego of vegetation mapping and sensitive species surveys from 2006 were submitted as well as a dataset of Wandering Skipper survey data conducted by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).

(Photo: Screen capture of the BIOS online's California Department of Fish and Game - IMAPS Viewer)

Pacific Biodiversity Infromation Forum (PBIF) Pacific Islands Roundtable

The Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas met in Apia, Samoa, this past summer. A key topic for the meeting was the monitoring and reporting of conservation efforts in the Pacific. PBIF currently chairs the monitoring working group. PBIF also supports the monitoring effort by providing online access to the reporting form(s) and maintaining the database for review and analysis. The Roundtable reviewed the results and supports the nascent reporting program.

(Photo: Lobelias in the understory of a native Hawaiian wet forest, Puu Kukui, Maui. Image: Elizabeth Speith (Public Domain))

Pacific Basin Information Node and Social Media Resources

Social media resources and Web 2.0 technology have fast become a key component of data dissemination on the Web. The NBII Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) has created a new Social Media Resources Web site community to aggregate various social media resources for the Pacific Basin. This site, modeled on the USGS Social Media site, provides links and descriptions to relelvant RSS Feeds, YouTube Channels, Twitter Accounts, FaceBook pages, and Blogs that pertain to Pacific Basin conservation.

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

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)

USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) Releases Updated Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US)

PAD-US version 1.1 is a national geodatabase, hosted by USGS-GAP, that represents public land ownership and conservation lands, including voluntarily-provided privately protected areas. The lands included in PAD-US are assigned conservation status codes that both denote the level of biodiversity preservation and indicate other natural, recreational and cultural uses. This version of PAD-US contains updates to the Northeast, Northwest, California, and voluntarily-provided private preserves and conservation easements across the United States. In conjunction with the updated database, a new version of the Protected Areas online viewer has been released and can be accessed at http://gapanalysis.nbii.gov/padus. This new data source is built upon more than two decades of effort by the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) and Gap Analysis Program (GAP) to facilitate access to and use of biological and stewardship information.

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).

Southeastern Species in Greatest Need of Conservation

To address the broad conservation needs of the southeast, the Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) compiled GCN species lists from eight Southeastern U.S. states - Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi - into interactive species information. The species are searchable by species group (taxa) - amphibian, bird, fish, mammal and reptile - or by state and provide live information such as distribution, taxonomy, habitat, and images from a variety of resources.

Data sources include:
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
NatureServe
Google
State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP)
GAP Analysis Data
NBII ClearingHouse Metadata
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

OFWIM 2009 Conference and Annual Meeting

The Organization of Fish and Wildlife Information Managers (OFWIM), is an international non-profit association takes advantage of technology and information exchange to management and conservation of natural resources. OFWIM is holding its annual conference on September 14-17 in Seattle, Washington. For more information, go the the OFWIM website or visit the registration website.

OFWIM's mission is to:

"promote the management and conservation of natural resources by facilitating technology and information exchange among managers of fish and wildlife information."

(Photo: Great Egret (Ardea alba) Photographer: John J. Mosesso/NBII)