Publications and Products

• Publications
• Data, Maps, and Media
• Tools & Techniques

Tools and Techniques

One of the science planning strategies of the Wildlife program for setting future research priorities is the development or adaptation and testing of new research techniques and technological tools. Identifications Guides and Keys, Metadata Clearinghouses, Surveys, Methodologies, Statistical Packages, and Geospacial Information Systems Tools used by USGS researchers to provide advanced scientific information to resource managers, are as much valuable products of the program research as the information and data, produced by means of these tools and techniques.

Bird Surveys

North American Breeding Birds Survey - cooperative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and the Canadian Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Research Centre to monitor the status and trends of North American bird populations. Provides past survey data, as well as learning tools and training programs for conducting BBS surveys. (PWRC)

Geospatial Information System (GIS) Tools

• Spatial Data Query and Visualization Tool - spatial data query and visualization tool for analyzing data sets from Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center about the biological and physical characteristics of the Upper Mississippi River System. (UMESC)
• Habitat Needs Assessment GIS Query Tool for the Upper Mississippi River System - extension for ArcView® software that assists with habitat needs assessments for the Upper Mississippi River System. (UMESC)
• GIS Tools from the Alaska Science Center - four ArcView® software extensions designed by Alaska Science Center: Animal Movement, Spatial Tools, Population Viability Analysis, and Oceanographic Analyst. (ASC)

Identification Guides and Keys

• Patuxent - Tools for Learning about Birds - identification guides, photographs, and songs of North American and Central American birds. Also includes clickable maps of bird abundances in North America. (PWRC)
• Northeast Amphibian Species - description of the salamanders, toads, and frogs that occur in the Northeast United States.(PWRC)
• Tadpoles of the United States and Canada: A Tutorial and Key - key for the tadpoles of the United States and Canada featuring a different format and approach to identifying frog larvae. More details of ontogenetic variation are included than in many keys, and more attention is paid to using characteristics of living tadpoles. A tutorial examines morphological traits, and color photographs are included to simplify the identification process. (PWRC)

Metadata and Clearinghouses

NBII Metadata Clearinghouse - metadata clearinghouse that provides metadata for books, maps, journal articles, and other resources from diverse biological fields. Metadata can be searched from a geographic perspective, temporal perspective, or simply via keywords.

Methodologies

• Avian and Sea Turtle Necropsy Manuals for Biologists in Remote Refugees - English, Spanish, and Italian versions of necropsy manuals in PDF format developed by USGS biologists from Hawaii Field Station of the National Wildlife Health Center. (NWHC)
• Waterfowl Management Handbook - a single source of information about the management of waterfowl and their habitat. The information in each handbook chapter does not represent a thorough synthesis of all pertinent literature, but rather highlights important information for developing a conceptual framework for wetland managers. (FORT maintains the electronic version of the original Fish and Wildlife Leaflet 13, produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Statistical Packages

• Blossom Statistical Software - program designed to make statistical comparisons with distance - function based permutation tests and for testing parameters estimated in linear models with permutation procedures. (FORT)
• CloseTest - program for testing capture/recapture data for closure, where closure means no individuals were added to or lost from the population of interest over the sampling period. (FORT)
• BOOTCLUS: Cluster Analysis Program (BOOTCLUS) -“ program designed to read a standard species abundance data file and produce an agglomerative, hierarchical cluster analysis and bootstrap each linkage to test for significance. (GLSC)
• Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP) - accounting program that uses the area of available habitat and Habitat Suitability Index (HIS) to compute the values needed for Habitat Evaluation Procedures (HEP). (FORT)
• Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) - system of programs that uses mathematical models to compute an HSI value for selected species from field measurements of habitat variables. (FORT)
• Time Series Library Software (TSLIB) - programs that provide for the data entry, analysis, and display of daily or monthly stream flow or habitat values. (FORT)