Tuesday, March 29, 2011

USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database Alert System: Five Years and Going Strong

Invasive Species Information Node (ISIN) partners at the USGS Southeast Ecological Research Station in Gainesville, FL, developers of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database (NAS), track the distribution of introduced aquatic organisms across the United States. In May 2004, the program developed an Alert System to notify registered users of new introductions as part of a national early detection/rapid response system. Users register to receive alerts based on geographic or taxonomic criteria. At the September meeting of the NBII Invasive Species Working Group, NAS manager and NBII partner Pam Fuller summarized the NAS alert system’s users and alerts by geography, taxonomy, year, alert level, and source of information.

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).

Monday, March 21, 2011

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Russell Cave National Monument

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Russell Cave National Monument has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and flight line index; project report - photointerpretation, GIS operations; accuracy assessment report - accuracy assessment methods and results; field data - graphic of field plots, field plots database, physical descriptive for plots, species list for plots, and plot and AA photos; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, geodatabase; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Russell Cave 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 one hundred seven 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: Russell Cave National Monument, courtesy of the USGS Vegetation Characterization website.)

Friday, March 18, 2011

WDIN’s Global Wildlife Disease News Map Promoted as an Educational Tool

The Global Wildlife Disease News Map, http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/wdinNewsDigestMap.jsp, developed by the USGS-NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node (WDIN), is available to educators through AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Education Repository.  Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the National Science Digital Library, AMSER is a searchable portal used by educators to find engaging educational materials and services on a number of math and science related topics.  The Disease Map, a popular resource, is currently being enhanced to improve the user experience.  A Beta version is available and can be viewed here, http://wildlifedisease.nbii.gov/newsmap.  After user feedback has been incorporated, the next version of the Map will be officially released.

(Photo: screenshot of the Global Wildlife Disease News Map, courtesy of the USGS-NBII Wildlife Disease Information Node).

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Public Lecture: Treasures of the USGS Library

Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 7:00 PM
Title: Treasures of the USGS Library
By Richard Huffine
(PDF of Flyer  824 KB)
Since its creation in 1882, the USGS Library has grown to become the world's largest library dedicated to earth and natural sciences, holding more than 1.5 million volumes and 800,000 maps. Richard Huffine, Director of the USGS Libraries Program, will highlight some of the rarest, most valuable, and significant materials held by the USGS. These include early maps of America, documents that establish the provenance of the Hope Diamond, and documentation of our exploration of the American West by Hayden, King, Powell and Wheeler.
(PDF of Flyer  824 KB)

The Library’s initiative to digitize their collection for online access will make these cultural and historic records available worldwide to anyone at anytime. Join us and learn how the USGS is using history to inform the future directions of USGS research and scholarship.


The lecture, Treasures of the USGS Library, will be given on Wednesday, April 6, 2011, at 7:00 PM by Richard Huffine in the Dallas L. Peck Memorial Auditorium at the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia.  See flyer for details.




(Photo: Title: Historia Mundi (1530).  This 479 year old volume is stored in a specially-made box that protects it from further damage by exposure to light. Photographer: Richard Huffine, U.S. Geological Survey

(Note: This article was originally published on the USGS Public Lecture Series web site)

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Internet Catches Updated Butterfly and Moth Website

Why should we care about butterflies and moths? Thanks to butterflies, bees, birds, and other animal pollinators, the world's flowering plants are able to reproduce and bear fruit. That very basic capability is at the root of many of the foods we eat. And, not least, pollination adds to the beauty we see around us.

Yet today, there is evidence of alarming pollinator population declines worldwide. Fortunately, science investigators of this crucial issue can use data collected and organized in the Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) database to monitor the health of our butterfly and moth population.

Backed by more than 287,000 verified sighting records and 3,239 images that describe 4,638 species, BAMONA is committed to collecting and providing access to quality-controlled data about butterflies and moths of North America. Dedicated volunteer coordinators, including national and internationally recognized Lepidoptera experts, verify each record. The goal is to fill the needs of scientists and nature observers by bringing verified occurrence and life history data into one accessible location.

To serve its broad range of users even better, BAMONA recently launched its re-tooled website. The site was developed at Montana State University (MSU) under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Network.

BAMONA’s latest innovations are aimed at improving technologies for both data collection and data dissemination. Users can now submit records – which typically include a photograph – via the site’s new user submission form, replacing an outdated submission process that required multiple e-mails with spreadsheet attachments.  As for data dissemination, verified records are now immediately available on the site’s home page. New, interactive Google-based maps enable the display of any verified sighting, including Canadian locations. Visitors can now zoom in or out and click on dots pin-pointing sighting locations on interactive maps, and see the details of each sighting record. All these features were not available previously.

For more information, go to www.butterfliesandmoths.org.

(Photo: The Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis).  Photographer, Bob Moul, 2007.  Courtesy of the BAMONA web site).

Monday, March 7, 2011

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Little River Canyon National Preserve

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Little River Canyon National Preserve has been completed and is available on the VCP Web site. Products include aerial photography - graphic of orthophoto mosaic, and flight line index; project report - photointerpretation, GIS operations; accuracy assessment report - accuracy assessment methods and results; field data - graphic of field plots, field plots 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 Little River Canyon National Preserve. 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 one hundred 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 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:Little River Canyon National Preserve, courtesy of the USGS Vegetation Characterization website.)