Highlights for January 21, 2000
USGS Center for Biological Informatics

I. Key Department News:

• CBI Participates in Invasives Exhibit. On January 20, scientists from the USGS Center for Biological Informatics contributed information, photographs, and maps for an invasive plants exhibit to be displayed on Capitol Hill. Ralph Root's collaborative work with NASA -- using advanced remote sensing techniques to detect leafy spurge in Theodore Roosevelt National Park -- was highlighted. (Susan Stitt, Denver, 303-202- 4234)

II. Agency Works on Presidential Initiatives:

• USGS Scientist Contributes to FGDC Vegetation Classification Standard. Maury Nyquist provided review comments on Proposed National Standards for the Floristic Levels of Vegetation Classification in the United States: Associations and Alliances (Part II of the Federal Geographic Data Committee Vegetation Classification Standards, FGDC-STD-005, October 1997) to the FGDC Standards Working Group. When completed, the proposed standard will incorporate Data Classification Standards (Data Standards), as well as Classification Methodology Standards and Data Collection Standards (Process Standards), as defined in the FGDC Standards Reference Model. These standards will be used to classify and catalog plant communities, and will be important for predicting ecological processes such as productivity, successional patterns, or other complex properties of natural phenomena. The classification will provide a consistent conceptual matrix for integrating, understanding, and communicating the ecological context for management decisions concerning biodiversity. It is expected that such a classification system will play a prominent role in guiding research and extrapolation of findings, in ecosystem management and planning, in resource conservation, and in predicting outcomes from environmental change. (Maury Nyquist, Denver, 303-202-4217)

III. Notable Congressional Activity: No report.

IV. Press/Media Inquiries: No report.

V. FOIA Requests: No report.