Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation: 140+ million mapped species occurrences, 50+ map layers, includes ITIS-enabled search BISON: A national unified resource for discovery, linkage and reuse of species occurrence data. http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov Annie Simpson, Elizabeth Martin, & Elizabeth Sellers U.S. Geological Survey; Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, & Libraries (CSASL) Program Core Science Systems (CSS) Mission Area 15-August-2014

The BISON system Developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, & Libraries (CSASL) Program A species occurrence data aggregator providing 140+M species occurrence records for the U.S. and Territories including: Almost every US species (animals, plants, fungi) Various data types: observation-based, natural history collections (specimen-based), and literature-based Federal and non-federal data BISON is a species mapping application that aggregates more than 140 million occurrence records for taxa, and still growing. Our content covers all taxonomic groups, terrestrial and aquatic, and several different data types, from observations to museum specimens and literature based information. Although we contain federal and non-federal data, our priorities for new datasets are those created with federal funding and specialty data such as yours, for invasive species, and also for pollinator species. BISON includes data for more than 95% of known US species – smaller organisms are not as well represented.

BISON Goals Increase Data Accessibility, Exposure, Discoverability, and Quality Data Mobilization through integration and application of standards, open data technologies, machine readable access Our goals are simple.

What’s new in BISON? Search is now more than “exact match” of a name, so taxon groups can be searched, including synonyms Uses powerful name resolution ability of the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) We do have some new functionality in BISON.

Interface Our current Graphic User Interface often enables the user to detect patterns and relationships among species and ancillary information. In this case, the graphic shows our home page’s default all species search result with a heat layer map -- California having the most results of any state – and also the different types of map layers that can be selected to be displayed with your search results. Combine specimen and observation data with other data layers to detect relationships and patterns.

Search example – Acer spicatum & MAT Heat intolerant tree species distribution follows mountain ridge. 190 mountain maple occurrences & mean annual temperature If you search in BISON for Acer spicatum (mountain maple), and select the mean annual daily temperature layer from the map layer option, you will see how mountain maple prefers cooler climes, here following pretty closely along the ridge of the Great Smokey Mountains.

Search for Rudbeckia hirta in BISON Photo by Brynn ITIS-lookup enabled (732 points) Exact name match (339 points) you can see that the ITIS-enabled search (on the left) that there are xx more results This is because Rudbeckia hirta has had other recognized names in the past that are included in the ITIS-enabled search. The results on the right are from an exact match name search. This flexibility in search technique can be very valuable to BISON users.

Search example – Chiroptera Chiroptera in CA = 4,939 georeferenced records Chiroptera in CA (exact name match) 24 georeferenced records Ecosystems layer from GEOSS ITIS’ taxonomic lookup functionality allows BISON users to search for larger groups and to include all their children. The larger image is an ITIS enabled search for Chiroptera (bats), in California. It is displayed over an Ecosystems type layer provided by the Group on Earth Observations’ System of Systems, or GEOSS. That same layer is provided in the smaller image at the top right, which is the search result from BISON using an exact name match search for Chiroptera, which provides only 24 results for California.

What else is new in BISON? 40+ data fields now supported, including several verbatim from provider Support for voucher images, video, audio files, reference URLs So what else is new in BISON since last year?

Additional data fields are welcome/encouraged Darwin Core standard fields desirable Minimum fields necessary for new datasets to be successfully added into BISON Field provider - resource scientific_name decimal_latitude / decimal_longitude (or a place name e.g. state, county…) occurrence_date Who - What - Where - When - The minimum information required to share your data with us is small: who you are, scientific name, where the organism was seen or collected, and when. In addition to our emphasis on including federal species datasets, we accept most all US invasive species and pollinator occurrence datasets. Please see me during the break if you have any data you would like to share with us. Additional data fields are welcome/encouraged

BISON fields (43) BISON FIELD NAME valid_accepted_scientific_name calculated_county_name valid_accepted_tsn calculated_fips itis_common_name calculated_state_name basis_of_record centroid occurrence_date provided_county_name year provided_fips provider provided_state_name provider_url thumb_url resource associated_media resource_url associated_references occurrence_url general_comments catalog_number id collector provider_id collector_number resource_id clean_provided_scientific_name provided_common_name itis_tsn provided_kingdom provided_scientific_name calculated_tsn provided_tsn geodetic_datum latitude coordinate_precision longitude coordinate_uncertainty verbatim_elevation verbatim_locality verbatim_depth iso_country_code The number of fields in BISON has increased from 17 to 43.

Darwin Core Fields (148) occurrenceID associatedSequences locationAccordingTo identificationID type associatedTaxa locationRemarks identifiedBy modified eventID verbatimCoordinates dateIdentified language samplingProtocol verbatimLatitude identificationReferences rights samplingEffort verbatimLongitude identificationRemarks rightsHolder eventDate verbatimCoordinateSystem identificationQualifier accessRights eventTime verbatimSRS typeStatus bibliographicCitation startDayOfYear decimalLatitude taxonID institutionID endDayOfYear decimalLongitude scientificNameID collectionID year geodeticDatum acceptedNameUsageID datasetID month coordinateUncertaintyInMeters parentNameUsageID institutionCode day coordinatePrecision originalNameUsageID collectionCode verbatimEventDate pointRadiusSpatialFit nameAccordingToID datasetName habitat footprintWKT namePublishedInID ownerInstitutionCode fieldNumber footprintSRS taxonConceptID basisOfRecord fieldNotes footprintSpatialFit scientificName informationWithheld eventRemarks georeferencedBy acceptedNameUsage dataGeneralizations locationID georeferenceProtocol parentNameUsage dynamicProperties higherGeographyID georeferenceSources originalNameUsage catalogNumber higherGeography georeferenceVerificationStatus nameAccordingTo occurrenceDetails continent georeferenceRemarks namePublishedIn occurrenceRemarks waterBody geologicalContextID higherClassification recordNumber islandGroup earliestEonOrLowestEonothem kingdom recordedBy island latestEonOrHighestEonothem phylum individualID country earliestEraOrLowestErathem class individualCount countryCode latestEraOrHighestErathem order sex stateProvince earliestPeriodOrLowestSystem family lifeStage county latestPeriodOrHighestSystem genus reproductiveCondition municipality earliestEpochOrLowestSeries subgenus behavior locality latestEpochOrHighestSeries specificEpithet establishmentMeans verbatimLocality earliestAgeOrLowestStage infraspecificEpithet occurrenceStatus verbatimElevation latestAgeOrHighestStage taxonRank preparations minimumElevationInMeters lowestBiostratigraphicZone verbatimTaxonRank disposition maximumElevationInMeters highestBiostratigraphicZone scientificNameAuthorship otherCatalogNumbers verbatimDepth lithostratigraphicTerms vernacularName previousIdentifications minimumDepthInMeters group nomenclaturalCode associatedMedia maximumDepthInMeters formation taxonomicStatus associatedReferences minimumDistanceAboveSurfaceInMeters member nomenclaturalStatus associatedOccurrences maximumDistanceAboveSurfaceInMeters bed taxonRemarks And datasets that are more complex and compatible with the Darwin Core standard will be accepted and stored with up to 148 fields of information.

BISON Associated Media With our expanded fields, we now support media files at the record level, including Thumbnails for images that can either point to an onsite repository or to a provided URL. Especially with citizen science projects, we have found that including an image within a record gives the dataset much greater credibility and usefulness. We also now are able to include sound and video recordings.

USGS GeoPlatform A National and Federal focal point where governmental, non-governmental, private, 
and public data and applications can be visualized together to inform and address national and regional issues In the field of data sharing there is often frustration in the adoption of parallel and incompatible standards, such as different map projections. The USGS GeoPlatform is a National and Federal focal point where governmental, non-governmental, private, 
and public data and applications can be visualized together to inform and address national and regional issues. It provides a powerful framework for comparing disparate datasets. I wanted to point out that BISON is available in GeoPlatform, and we are working on several more projects to make our content even more accessible and interoperable through its infrastructure. As a result we are examining how we can combine BISON data with CropScape data using GeoPlatform infrastructure. With a little work and technical expertise, by the end of this year this will lead to much better modeling capability through mashups of different federal datasets of disparate data types. GeoPlatform.gov Conceptual Model

BISON Data Workflow Products Final Package – original dataset + BISON (enhanced) dataset + metadata record (linked and archived) + ReadMe file (record of BISON data modifications) Standardized data – Darwin Core format, Scientific Name mapping to ITIS, FIPS Code location references Data updates – ongoing for living datasets Data Quality – improvement reports/recommendations sent to Data Provider Web and Web Services access – inc. mapping and visualization, and integration with other data layers Multi-format data download – .csv, .kml, .zip Machine access – via API BISON products include a series of standardized data and metadata files for both sharing and storage. We accept updates, perform QA/QC, and provide Web services to aggregated datasets. Information is both displayed visually and available for download in various formats, and is machine accessible via our API.

BISON & ESA How can BISON help ecologists? “Submit-a-dataset” Smarter search including synonyms and children; search for host species and species groups Post BISON API search results on your Web pages as canned search results Use BISON data or visualizations in your publications http://bisonapi.usgs.ornl.gov/index.html I would like to briefly describe four ways you can use BISON in your work. If you are a BISON data provider we have an assortment of widgets that can be used by simply copy/pasting code so you can show your own data on your websites.

1. Submit a dataset to BISON [this is you] BISON GBIF (US) (Global) QA/QC All Data All Data US Data Consumer Access http://DataProvider.com Consumer Access via Web Services & Web http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov Machine Access BISON API Consumer Access http://www.gbif.org More and more research grants are requiring a data management plan as an integral requirement for funding. BISON offers you a place to put your species occurrence data, and a conduit to inclusion in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. This is a simple schematic to show you how this can be accomplished.

Future Attractions Addition of non-native status tags to species Automated species lists by protected area (e.g. refuge or park) In the near future, BISON will be able to accept media files at the record level. We are undertaking an interface redesign to make the web interface more user friendly. We will be tagging records as to their native/nonnative status. We will be able to offer an automated species list functionality for areas designated by the user.

Data Retrieval and Download Again, briefly, in summary: BISON is a mapping application for occurrence data, with more than 137 million records – and we would like to include yours. Search has been improved to assist the user in dealing with synonyms (naming errors), and larger taxonomic groups. Images and other media can be added to submitted datasets at the record level. Let’s talk about how I can help you fulfill your occurrence data management requirements.

For questions, additional information: bison@usgs.gov Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON): http://bison.usgs.ornl.gov For questions, additional information: bison@usgs.gov BISON Team (…@usgs.gov) Elizabeth Martin – elizabeth_martin Elizabeth Sellers – esellers Annie Simpson - asimpson Gerald (Stinger) Guala [Director] - gguala Derek Masaki - dmasaki Here are the names and contact information for all the members of the BISON data team. Thank you.