Transcript Biodiversity and Ecosystem Informatics

BDEI
Workshop on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Informatics
Sponsored by NSF, NASA, USGS
June 22-23, 2001
http://bdi.cse.ogi.edu
IDM 2001
David Maier
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BDEI
What is Biodiversity Data Like?
IDM 2001
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BDEI
Geo-Referenced
 Most of it is connected to a place
 But can be imprecise: North America
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BDEI
Species-Referenced
Most data also connected with species
 Genetic: by species & subspecies
 Invasions and Extinctions
 Ecosystems: number and distribution of
species
Incomplete, 2 for 1, 1 for 2
Like cartography in the 15th century
 Unmapped areas
 Disagreement on Names
 Agree on names, disagree on place
Seems like earth is changing, but mostly it’s
our knowledge of it
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BDEI
Other Classifications
• Vegetative cover
• Plant community
• Soil type
All vary by time, place, discipline
But need to access past observations
that make use of old schemes
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BDEI
Flux
Looking at change in range,
distribution, genetics, populations
over time
Not spanned by one data set
When were the various exogenous species of
shellfish introduced into each Great Lake?
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BDEI
Historical Information
A least last 250 years of information
is important
– books, journals
– field notebooks
– observation files
Sometimes handwritten
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BDEI
How to Digitize a Daisy?
750 Million natural
history specimens in
the US
Would like at least to
capture labels
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BDEI
Small-Scale Features in Large Regions
Kudzu in western
US: Plots of 1/4
and 1/8 acre in 1
million sq. miles
••
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BDEI
Data is Never as Complete as Desired
Some research or management
question will always benefit from
more data
–
–
–
–
Over a larger area
Sampling regimen at smaller granularity
Shorter or longer time interval
Census versus sample
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