Tuesday, December 21, 2010

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

Invasive Species Information Node (ISIN) partners at the USGS Southeast Ecological Science Center in Gainesville, Florida, developers of the Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) database, 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 2010 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. To sign up for the NAS Alert System, visit the NAS web site.

(Photo: Black and White Tegu (Tupinambis merianae), courtesy of http://nas.er.usgs.gov/)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

NBII Data Access Wizard Provides Access to New Data Available for the Mid-Atlantic Region

The USGS-NBII Program's Data Access Wizard was updated with updates to the map services for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, National Wetlands Inventory data in the Mid-Atlantic states from the Natural Lands Trust, new weather data map services, aerial photos for south-central Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania oil/gas locations, illegal dump sites, decadal climate maps through the Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas project, and 2008 National Agriculture Imagery Program for states of the Chesapeake Bay. You can search the Data Access Wizard on the Mid-Atlantic Information Node (MAIN) web site to access these data.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Guilford Courthouse National Military Park 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 Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. 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 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: Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, courtesy of the USGS Vegetation Characterization Program website.)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Regional Invasives Database

The Central Southwest Gulf Coast Information Node (CSWGCIN) region includes many different introduction pathways for invasive species. It is also home to a diverse array of ecosystems ranging from humid, semi-tropical coastal habitats to bottomland forests, arid deserts, and mountains. These combined factors lead to a large number of invasive species being found in the CSWGCIN region. The CSWGCIN Regional Invasive Species Database  provides information describing nearly 300 invasive species found in the CSWGCIN region. Information includes introduction pathways, photographs, species fact sheets, taxonomic information provided by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and bibliographic citations. The database interface uses mash-up technology to retrieve and display information from several different data sources.

(Photo: Russian knapweed (Rhaponticum repens) (L.) Hidalgo.  Credit: Steve Dewey, Utah State University.  Photo courtesy of invasive.org)

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Vegetation Characterization Products Now Available for Canyon De Chelly National Monument and Chicksaw National Recreation Area

USGS-National Park Service (NPS) Vegetation Characterization Program (VCP) documentation for Canyon De Chelly National Monument and Chicksaw National Recreation Area 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, spatial field plots, field plots database, physical descriptive for plots, and species list for plots; geospatial vegetation information - graphics of vegetation communities, spatial vegetation data, spatial boundary data, geodatabase, and plot and AA photos; accuracy assessment information - graphic of accuracy assessment points, spatial accuracy assessment data and contingency matrix; metadata, and a link to NPS information about Canyon De Chelly National Monument and Chicksaw National Recreation Area. 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 ninety-nine 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: Chickasaw National Recreation Area, courtesy of the Vegetation Characterization Program web site.)

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.