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BEYOND DATA MANAGEMENT: HOW ECOINFOMATICS CAN BENEFIT ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROGRAMS
Citation:
HALE, S. S. AND J. W. HOLLISTER. BEYOND DATA MANAGEMENT: HOW ECOINFOMATICS CAN BENEFIT ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING PROGRAMS. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT (SPECIAL EDITION). Springer, New York, NY, 150:227-235, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
NCA data that were collected primarily to assess the ecological condition of the U.S. coasts can be used in innovative ways, such as biogeographical studies to analyze species invasions. NCA application of ecoinformatics tools leads to new possibilities for integrating the hundreds of thousands of NCA species records with other databases to address broad-scale and long-term questions such as environmental impacts, global climate change, and species invasions.
Description:
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Coastal Assessment (NCA), which has collected benthic macroinvertebrates and demersal fishes from thousands of stations around the U.S. coasts since 1990, is taking advantage of recent developments in ecoinformatics to manage, model, and analyze the species data. Rapid improvements in information technology and strong interest in biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems are driving a vigorous phase of development in ecological databases. Emerging data standards and protocols enable these data to be shared in ways that have previously been difficult. NCA data that were collected primarily to assess the ecological condition of the U.S. coasts can be used in innovative ways. We review how ecoinformatics is being used, and can be used, by the NCA and other environmental monitoring programs. NCA application of ecoinformatics tools leads to new possibilities for integrating the hundreds of thousands of NCA species records with other databases to address broad-scale and long-term questions such as environmental impacts, global climate change, and species invasions.