Mapping Western Hemisphere Fauna

1. Mapping Western Hemisphere Fauna Bruce E. Young bruce_young@abi.org Association for Biodiversity Information(http://www.abi.org)

2. Association for Biodiversity Information(ABI) Mission: To develop, manage, and distribute authoritative information critical to the conservation of the world’s biological diversity.

3. What Information do we Need for Conservation? • What is it? • Where is it? • How is it doing? • What are its requirements? • Where to conserve it? • At a site, what are the threats and how do we address them?

4. ABI: ~80 staff plus members of the Natural Heritage Network • A “spin-off” of The Nature Conservancy • 77 independent “member” programs • Common methodology • Each program: ecologists, botanists, zoologists, data specialists • Programs in 50 U.S. states, 10 Canadian provinces, and 10 Latin American countries

5. Organizational Homes for Natural Heritage Programs(US and Canada) • 78% State or provincial agency • 12% University • 5% Non-profit (e.g., Nature Conservancy) • 5% Other (Navajo Nation, National Park, District of Columbia)

6. What do Natural Heritage Programs Do? Gather, manage, analyze, and distribute information about the biological diversity found within their jurisdictions • Secondary sources & field inventories • Map & manage data • Conduct environmental reviews & assessments • Design, protect, and manage conservation areas

7. Element Occurrence Element Occurrence • is an area of land and/or water in which a species is, or was present. • has practical conservation value. • tracked for endangered species

8. Six generations to date of Natural Heritage database software

14. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Objectives • Digitize the ranges of all bird and mammal species (~5,600) of the Western Hemisphere • Disseminate the data to the conservation public

15. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project History • TNC-Wings “Setting Priorities” project (1,300 birds-at-risk) • WWF-US project in Southeastern Brazil (~800 birds) • MOU among CI-CABS, WWF-US, TNC-Wings, ABI

16. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Strategy • Gather existing digitized maps • Digitize remaining maps Quality Standards • Minimum 1 degree lat/long grid • Comparable base map • Up-to-date source

17. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Sources for Digitized Maps • TNC-Wings • WWF-US • Gerardo Ceballos (UNAM) • Patricia Escalante (UNAM) • Stuart Pimm (U. Tennessee) • Ross Keister (USFS) • Don McNicol (CWS)

18. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Data Sources Birds • North America:Birds of North America • Mexico, northern Central America: Howell & Webb • Southern Central America: James Zook • South America: Robert Ridgely • Caribbean: Raffaele et al.

19. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Data Sources Mammals • North America: Wilson & Ruff • Central America: Reid • South America: Eisenberg & Redford • Caribbean: Literature Expert Review: Bruce Patterson

20. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Details • ArcView 3.x • Digitize polygons & points (South American birds only) • ~1:5,000,000 • Degrade data as necessary

21. Polygon data fields File name: gggg_ssss_pl.xxx Family, genus &species, common name Migratory status Bird and Mammal Mapping Project

22. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Point data fields • File name: gggg_ssss_pt.xxx • Family, genus &species, common name • Migratory status • Location • Source type (specimen, observation) • Institution/Observer • Date • Locational Uncertainty • Comments

23. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Determine Source Digitize Map Expert Review Redigitize Data Roll-up

24. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Final Products • Compact Disk • Downloadable Data • InfoNatura (not funded yet)

25. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project • Status • Received: about 4,000 maps • Already digitized: about 1,400 • Remaining: digitizing, review, revision

26. Courtesy of R. Ridgely, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

27. Long-tailed Woodcreeper, Deconychura longicauda Courtesy of R. Ridgely, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia

28. Bird and Mammal Mapping Project Challenges • Variable precision of contributed maps • Variety of base maps used • Schedules of contributors • Taxonomic instability • Protecting unpublished information • Reflecting movement status • Funding for updates

29. www.infonatura.org

30. InfoNatura: Search by Name

31. InfoNatura: Search by Country

32. InfoNatura: Search by Status

33. InfoNatura: Search Results

34. InfoNatura: Report

35. InfoNatura: Distribution