Linking Species Data Across Agencies - Initial Prototype of an Online Platform to be Demonstrated on the Mall on Earth Day

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), managed by the Bioinformatics Office of the Biological Resources Discipline of the U.S. Geological Survey, has been working to develop a data exploration tool along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and the Encyclopedia of LIFE (EOL), Smithsonian Institution.  This tool will provide both dynamic species pages and a geospatial platform through which users can explore North American species information linked to data on distributions, landcover, climate, protected areas management, research projects, and more.  On April 24th and 25th, a demonstration of the planned capabilities of this tool will be shown in the EPA's tent on the mall as part of the Earth Day celebrations.  The full, dynamic prototype is expected to become available online in August, with additional data layers.

(Image: from http://blog.usa.gov/)