Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop Wildlife monitoring surveys...

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

Wildlife monitoring surveys in biodiversity informatics

How do people search and use information?

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center science

• Population monitoring programs• Wildlife survey design & analysis • Data management & dissemination for

wildlife surveys• Wetlands ecology• Wildlife contaminants• Endangered Species (e.g. whoopers)• Systematics

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

Patuxent’s products*• Scientific publications (journals, books)• Software: analytical tools• Web-based publications:

– Bird population trends– Vertebrate contaminants findings

• Web-based data management and dissemination– Wildlife survey management – Agency surveys (e.g. colonial waterbirds) from a variety of

sources– Map and text-based tools for searching & exploring data

* Generalized – Patuxent’s research program is broad and varied, and this presentation cannot adequately cover it in depth: focus on topics related to biodiversity informatics.

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

Examples of data searches, Patuxent datasets

• Trends for a single species in the Appalachian mountains

• Toxicology screens for compound X in ducks

• Breeding distribution for Kentucky Warbler in relation to Bird Conservation Regions

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

Common problems obtaining wildlife observational data from multiple sources

• Quality controls unclear (locations of landbirds in the ocean)

• Actual collection event often not visible

• Field method components ignored: 5 vs 10 minute counts

• Sampling scheme ignored: random vs stratified samples

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

How can our tools be more useful?• Allow people to use their favorite tools :

– GIS, SAS, population modeling software, desktop rdbms

– Corollary: allow developers to embed tools

• Eschew all-encompassing terms for tools, favoring specificity in name & description– Don’t make users search to unnecessarily– Partner with other fields: libraries face similar issues:

how do you tell a user which database to search for journal(s) of interest, especially if one ‘global search’ is unrealistic.

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

What would we like to see as a tool?

Integrated toolsets

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

What would we like to see as a tool?

Integrated toolsets

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

I would like to make users confident of…

• … having found the relevant data and searched major repositories

• …understanding the nature and source of the data

• …the quality controls on the data

• …the use & citation policies of providers

• …knowing how to duplicate search again later

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop

Patuxent Wildlife Research Center

Biodiversity informatics HCIL workshop