Thursday, July 29, 2010

NBII Staff and Partners to Participate in Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting

USGS National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) staff and partners will participate in the United States Virtual Herbarium (USVH) Workshop and host a booth at this year’s Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting, which will take place in Providence, RI, on July 31- August 4, 2010.  Ms. Elizabeth Sellers, NBII Botany Project, and Mr. Giri Palanisamy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will participate as members of the USVH Steering Committee and USVH Communications Infrastructure Task Force in the USVH Workshop.  Ms. Sellers will provide an overview of the new USVH Web site www.usvirtualherbarium.org, and Mr. Palanisamy will represent the Integrated Publishing Tool (IPT) as part of the NBII’s role as the U.S. Node to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Node managers Ms. Jennifer Carlino and Ms. Marcia NcNiff will represent the NBII’s contributions and participation in regional herbarium and collection networks, and Dr. Gerald Guala will represent the NBII-hosted Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

(Photo: Tropical waterlily (Nymphaeaceae). Credit: John J. Mosesso /life.nbii.gov.)

Monday, July 26, 2010

The NBII LIFE and the Gap Analysis Program Have Begun Uploading a Comprehensive Photo Collection of Southwest U.S. Habitats

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has just made available valuable data on the landscapes of the Southwest to a wider audience. The USGS coordinates both the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), which helps make biological data and other information available online, and the Gap Analysis Program (GAP), which identifies native animal and plant communities not adequately represented in existing conservation lands.  The NBII's Library of Images From the Environment (LIFE) staff recently worked with the GAP staff to extract images and data from the GAP database and load them into the LIFE. The first collection is now live and contains approximately 15,000 images of the different habitats of Utah, with data accompanying each on the composition of the landscape, date photographed, and more.  The GAP images are public domain images and thus are now free for use to a new audience consisting of researchers, educators, students, and the general public.  To see this collection, select the Special Collections tab on the LIFE home page, and then select the Gap Analysis Program.  The next state to be uploaded this summer is Arizona, followed in the fall by Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico. Adding this comprehensive collection of landscape images supports LIFE's mission of serving images to support research and education – and the mission of treating each image as scientific data.

(Photo: Barren Upland Cliff. Credit: Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project Field Crew/life.nbii.gov.)

Friday, July 23, 2010

USGS-NBII Staff To Participate in Ecological Society of America Conference

A number of USGS staff who work in the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Program office, will be participating in the Ecological Society of America (ESA) conference, in Pittsburgh, PA, July 30-August 6.  The themes of the ESA conference center around climate change, interdisicplinary work, and communication and education; NBII projects exist on multiple fronts on these themes. NBII staff will attend ESA sessions on these subjects, network with colleagues, and represent how the NBII supports these three fields. An exhibit booth will be continuously manned throughout the meeting by Bernadette LeMasters, Daniel Phillips, Lisa Zolly, Vivian Hutchison, and Dr. Annette Olson.  Dr. Olson, USGS Scientist and LIFE Lead, is also presenting a poster on the NBII Library of Images From the Environment (LIFE), specifically on how the high-quality biological images within LIFE serve as both interdisciplinary data resources and educational tools.


(Photo: This tree, the ´Ohi´a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha, with its characteristic red blossoms was photographed in the high-elevation montane mists of Kokee state park on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.  Credit: Randolph Femmer /life.nbii.gov.)

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Carlsbad Caverns National Park and John Muir National Historic Site

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Carlsbad Caverns National Park and John Muir National Historic Site has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/cave/index.html  and http://biology.usgs.gov/npsveg/jomu/index.html. 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 and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Carlsbad Caverns National Park and John Muir National Historic Site. 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-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 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: John Muir National Historic Site - is located in Martinez, Contra Costa County, California, which is approximately 20 miles northeast of San Francisco, California and encopasses 335 acres.)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

NBII Listed in Field Guide to Web Technologies for Bird Conservation

The Southeast Partners in Flight Web Technology Committee has just released their new Field Guide to Web Technologies. The guide provides one-page summaries of various web tools and applications used for information sharing and collaboration in bird conservation. Each summary includes highlights of strengths and weaknesses, examples of use in bird conservation, and links to more detailed information about each tool and application. NBII is listed as an example of a metadata repository (metabase) in this field guide.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Enhancements Underway for Butterflies and Moths of North America Database

Click to view larger: Ailanthus webworm 
moth on Goldenrod flowersAs part of a multi-Node effort supported by the NBII in 2009, the Big Sky Institute (BSI) continues to enhance the national Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) database. Most of the data has been transferred to the new database for the Drupal-based Web site that allows for listing of species information by family, subfamily, etc. Additional views are being developed including for images, which will allow users to sort images by family. In the geographic area, the benefits of updating the site include the addition of a filter box for displaying species information by states/provinces; by geographic area or by subfamily or other user specified parameters. The new Web site will be launched in Fall 2010. For current information, go to http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org


(Photo: Ailanthus webworm moth (Atteva punctella) on Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) flowersCredit: © 2008 Elizabeth A. Sellers, Courtesy of life.nbii.gov)

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).

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site and Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site and Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site 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 and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site and Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site. 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-four 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.

Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database Offers Interactive Species Maps

NBII Invasive Species Information Node (ISIN) partner, the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database, recently made some upgrades to its Web site. NAS now offers point distribution maps. These appear as a separate link from any species search and from the top of any species page. These new maps depict spatial accuracy of the point and species status at each location. The map background can be changed and various other spatial layers can be turned on/off. Additional environmental layers are planned for the future.

Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix)
Northern Snakehead fish (Channa argus)
Nutria (Myocastor coypus)

Also, the site has been converted from classic .ASP to .NET. As a result, all of the Web page addresses have changed.  However, the change is simple: the basic URL remains the same but will contain the letter X after any “ASP within the former URLs (as can be seen in the links above).

(Photo: Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix), exotic to United States with map showing points of distribution.  Photo by the Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures, Auburn University, Alabama.  Photo courtesy of the NAS Web site).

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)

Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) Assessment

Click to view larger: Wild crane's-bill (Geranium maculatum)Dr. Miriam Davis and Ms. Amber Conger were lead authors for two posters featuring SAIN that were presented at the University of Tennessee's (UT) 2010 College of Communication and Information Research Symposium, "Communication and Information in a Digital Age." The posters were co-authored by UT School of Information Science faculty, including Dr. Carol Tenopir, Dr. Vandana Singh, Dr. Suzie Allard, and Dr. Lorraine Normore. "Increasing Biodiversity Information Sources for the Southern Appalachian Information Node: Developing a Matrix for Environmental Decision-Making" presented a matrix identifying environmental decision makers in the Southeast, a key audience for SAIN information, which can be used at multiple levels of granularity. "Evaluating Usage of the Southern Appalachian Information Node: A Baseline Assessment" found that the NBII and SAIN staff are actively promoting SAIN to relevant scientific communities, and other scientists and unaffiliated organizations frequently point to SAIN as a resource of value.

(Photo: Purple Wild crane's-bill (Geranium maculatum) flowers beside a hiking trail in an eastern Appalachian forest.© 2009 Elizabeth A. Sellers, Courtesy of life.nbii.gov)

Invasive Species, Pollinators, and the Encyclopedia of Life (EoL)


USGS biological informatics scientists Elizabeth Sellers (NBII Invasive Species, Pollinators), Annie Simpson (NBII Invasive Species), and Gerald Guala (Integrated Taxonomic Information System, botany) have been invited to contribute their expertise on invasive species, pollinators, and botany at the Encyclopedia of Life's Taxonomic Triage Workshop, July 7-8 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. The workshop will inform and improve the EOL’s ability to prioritize content acquisition in the coming year and beyond. In particular, Ms. Simpson and Ms. Sellers will assist EOL in identifying key species and information gaps and priorities in EOL's taxonomic coverage of invasive and pollinating species - two groups for which more species information is needed for effective management and control in the case of invasive species; and for conservation in the case of pollinators, many of which are showing marked population decreases. Dr. Guala will provide his botanical and taxonomic expertise toward the overall task of determining what content is required for a rich species page and which vascular plant groups are a priority for inclusion in EOL.

Photo: Neon Cuckoo Bee (Thyreus nitidulus). © Elizabeth Sellers 2009).