Highlights for October 3, 1997
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• Hyperspectral Imaging Used In Leafy Spurge Studies: On September 22-26, Ralph Root of CBI attended a hyperspectral imaging workshop and training session by ENVI (ENvironment for Visualizing Images) at Research Systems, Inc. in Boulder, Colorado. Hyperspectral imaging uses the simultaneous collection of spectral and spatial data to provide a high level of discrimination in remote sensing applications. By seeing what cannot be seen by the human eye, researchers and resource managers can better classify features (such as vegetation) and identify trends. This powerful tool is being used in the USGS-NPS-NASA Leafy Spurge Detection project. Steve Hager, of Theodore Roosevelt National Park--the NPS partner in the leafy spurge studies--also participated in the workshop. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303/202-4232)
  

• USGS Scientist Provides Assistance to LTER Snowpack Studies: On October 2, Ralph Root of CBI assisted Colorado State University with the generation of orthophotographs in the vicintiy of Niwot Ridge, Colorado, a Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) unit. In order to include an air photo image in a database, it must be in digital form, and ideally it should be ortho-rectified. Rectification removes the distortion in the photographic image that is associated with camera tilt and relief displacement introduced when the photo was taken. Unless the photographs are corrected, the photos will not have the vertical orientation of the other map data in the database. (This means that the photo features won't "line up" with those same features in another data layer.) Work at the LTER unit is being done in cooperation with the NOAA National Operational Hydrologic Remote Center. It is a continuation of a study for estimating moisture content of snowpack in two watersheds in the Colorado Front Range. (Ralph Root, Denver, 303/202-4232)
  

• USGS Participates in Vegetation Classification System Training: On September 29-October 1, Tom Owens of CBI participated in a training course on using the National Vegetation Classification System (NVCS) for vegetation mapping. The training was held at the USFWS National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV. Owens made a presentation on national applications of the NVCS, including the USGS-National Park Vegetation Mapping Program and the Gap Analysis Program. He also discussed using the BRD as a science resource for natural resource managers. Class participants were from the USFWS, BRD, and the Chesapeake Research Consortium. (Tom Owens, Denver, 303/202-4259)
  

• GAP Highlights: The following are recent Gap Analysis Program (GAP) activities. (Mike Jennings, Moscow, ID, 208/885-3565)
  • On October 27-30, GAP will be featured by the BRD in an invited exhibit at a National Academy of Sciences symposium on biodiversity in Washington, D.C.
    

  • GAP is assisting the Western Australia Environmental Protection Agency with the development of a GAP Project in that country.
    

  • After reaching agreements with GAP project leaders in Alabama, Ohio, and North Dakota to begin projects in those states, GAP is now either under way, completed, or being updated in each of the "lower 48" states.
    

  • GAP recently completed a Cooperative Agreement with the Oregon Natural Heritage Program (ONHP) to update most geospatial information system (GIS) datasets for the Oregon GAP Project, conduct an analysis of the data, and write the final report. The ONHP will also develop and maintain a state GAP data node on the Internet and provide GAP outreach and extension services to the public. This is a welcome role for the ONHP and the first of others to come.
    

  • In September, GAP staff and cooperators presented a session at the new Landscape Connections Conference at Washington State University, Pullman. The session included an overview of GAP relative to regional conservation initiatives, a primer on GIS and applications for GAP data, and a pilot Biological Decision Support System being developed for Teton County, WY, in partnership with National GAP and the University of Wyoming. A similar presentation was also made to the Western Planners and Idaho Planning Associations' annual meetings.
    

  • GAP received $150,000 in support from the Department of Defense to complete a State project prototype of the aquatic component of GAP over the next three years.
    

  • At the recent International Union for the Study of Social Insects meeting in Colorado, Dr. Gary Umphry of the University of Western Ontario presented a paper on Ants (Formicidae) and GAP: The Role of Mapping Ant Distributions in Conservation Planning." The paper was well received and is a significant step toward application of the Gap Analysis concept to the invertebrate component of biodiversity.

    Publications:

    Csuti, B., A.J. Kimerling, T.A. O'Neil, M.M. Shaughnessy, E.P. Gaines, and M.M.P. Huso. 1997. Atlas of Oregon wildlife: Distribution, habitat, and natural history. Oregon State University Press. Corvallis, Oregon. 492 pp.
    

    Groves, C.R., B. Butterfield, A. Lippincott, B. Csuti, and J.M. Scott. 1997. Atlas of Idaho's wildlife: Integrating Gap Analysis and Natural Heritage information. Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game, Boise, Idaho. 372 pp.
    

    Jennings, M.D., B. Csuti, and J.M. Scott. In press. Wildlife habitat relationship models: Distribution and abundance. Conservation Biology.
    

    Scott, J.M., and M.D. Jennings. In press. Large-area mapping of biodiversity. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
    

• BRD Participates in EPA ITIS Partnership Analysis: On September 29, Gary Waggoner (CBI) responded to questions from an EPA contractor with the Anteon Corporation who is conducting a business case analysis of the interagency partnership program developing and managing the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS; http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis). The EPA, one of the major partners in ITIS, is contracting for these studies on most of its major programs; ITIS was included because it was felt that the partnership could benefit from such an analysis. The final report should be available later this fall. (Gary Waggoner, CBI, 303/202-4222)
  
• ITIS Recommended as FWS Standard: On October 1, Gary Waggoner (CBI) discussed with Don Hunter (MESC) MESC's recommendation to the Fish and Wildlife Service that they adopt the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) as their nomenclatural standard in several FWS programs which currently use different nomenclatural authorities as sources of scientific names. Hunter's recommendation came after considerable evaluation of ITIS by his staff. (Gary Waggoner, CBI, 303/202-4222)
  
• State of New York Seeks MetaMaker Training: On October 1, Sharon Shin (CBI) met with Bruce Oswald of the Governor's Office for Technology for the State of New York via telecon regarding NBII MetaMaker, the National Biological Information Infrastructure software tool for documentation of metadata. New York State agencies have been mandated by their governor to create metadata and serve it through the State's clearinghouse. Local agencies are also participating because of the incentive of free data to cooperators. Shin and Oswald discussed setting up an NBII Metadata Workshop for State and local agencies. The workshop is tentatively scheduled for March 1998. BRD instructors may use this forum as a test of the procedures developed at the recent National Spatial Data Infrastructure State Implementation Workshop. (Sharon Shin, Denver, 303/202-4230)
  

IV. Press/Media Inquiries:

• TRED News Release: On September 26, the Association of Systematics Collections (ASC) issued a news release describing the Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory--TRED--developed by the ASC in collaboration with the USGS BRD and other Federal agencies. TRED provides a continuously accessible (http://www.nbii.gov/tred) database on taxonomists/systematists with expertise on specific taxonomic groups, habitats, and geographic regions in North America. The TRED is managed and served by the CBI. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)
  

• BRD Scientist Provides Information for ABC Discovery News: On October 1, Gary Waggoner of CBI provided exotic plant species information and expert sources, including the National Biological Information Infrastructure, for an upcoming Discovery News segment. (Gary Waggoner, Denver, 303/202-4222)
  

• NBII Clearinghouse News Release: On or about October 8, Dr. Dennis B. Fenn, Chief Biologist, will announce the new Internet-based clearinghouse (http://www.nbii.gov/clearinghouse.html) that can be used to search for and locate existing sources of biological data and information from a variety of sources. The clearinghouse is part of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, a cooperative effort led by the USGS to help create a distributed electronic federation of biological data and information maintained by several Federal and State government agencies, universities, museums, libraries, and private organizations. (Susan Stitt, Denver, 303/202-4234)