LaMNA Incoming Dataset Processing Flow

Contents Justification What we do How we do it The challenges ahead How you can help

Contents Justification

New challenges... Global climate change means local phenomena affected by regional or continent-wide processes Management challenge: solutions that make sense at various scales (esp. regionally) Need datasets that span geographic AND time scales The Avian Knowledge Network: gather and compile avian datasets under a single format

New challenges... Typical avian monitoring data: presence/absence or counts......expect where species may go extinct......but we don’t know WHY populations are changing. Bird banding data include detailed metrics: sex, age, body condition, reproductive status Bird banding data provide information critical to UNDERSTANDING WHY bird populations will change

LaMNA joined the Avian Knowledge Network...we aim to compile, preserve and make widely accessible banding datasets through: Proper documentation (data about data, or “metadata”) Safe archiving Eased data accessibility and use (“use it or lose it”) - esp. for multi-scale analyses One of LaMNA’s goals LaMNA estimate: Very short half-life of banding data: 5-8 years (due to personnel changes, misplaced files, lack of interest, improper databasing methods) Loss amount: $5 million (10% of annual monitoring budget) WE ARE LOSING POTENTIALLY VERY IMPORTANT DATA VERY RAPIDLY!

Contents What we do

LaMNA and the AKN LaMNA curates and “advertises” datasets via the AKN locally and globally Dataset LaMNA documents & curates AKN curates & advertises National Biodiversity Information Infrastructure Global Biodiversity Information Facility Data owner controls how data are shared and used Data sharing policy:

Contents How we do it

Data flow through LaMNA Cooperator contacts LaMNA with interest in documenting, preserving and advertising data LaMNA collects and maintains information about cooperator in “metadata” database Metadata documentation begins...

LaMNA metadata documentation Simple but thorough process: LaMNA requests all or sample dataset LaMNA experts review data contents LaMNA follows up with brief questionnaire Only data on cooperator and essential additional information requested

LaMNA metadata documentation Institution & contact information Station locations Years operated Data access and sharing level All correspondence tracked, permits, sampling protocols...

Cooperator sends full dataset in any format LaMNA data processing Dataset (dBase) Dataset (Excel) Dataset (hard copy) Dataset (Paradox) Dataset (Word) Dataset (FoxPro) Dataset (Simple text) LaMNA documents & curates Each “dataset” should comprise 4 data files: Banding data Effort data Location data Sampling protocol Banding: Species Sex Age... Effort: Station Date Bander... Location: Latitude Longitude Datum Sampling protocol: Narrative of methods

LaMNA data processing LaMNA tracks each file received

LaMNA data processing Effort data example: Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory Effort data example: Fort Hunter Leggett Environmental Location data in GIS database (display: Google Earth) Sample protocol text: Sekercioglu Las Cruces 2007 Protocol

LaMNA data processing LaMNA experts process datasets Output: single flat table holding cooperator data in AKN data exchange format (515 fields!) web accessible LaMNA database tools Single dataset in AKN’s data exchange format (515 fields!) Sampling protocol Location data Effort data Bird data Cooperator dataset

LaMNA data processing LaMNA developed tools to track progress of data processing

LaMNA data processing Follow status per cooperator & protocol

Contents The challenges ahead

LaMNA current status 4,800,000 6,700,000 5,500,000 7,300,000 4,900,000 “Banding universe”: ~790 stations run avg years avg. ~2,000 records/year

LaMNA current status Data Universe (30 x 10 6 banding records) Data files received: effort, birds, location curated “as is” (518,789 Bird records) Data reviewed by LaMNA (296,103 Bird records) Data processed: all data properly linked into single table “view” (273,815 Bird records) Data processed: formatted to fit AKN’s data exchange format (203,621 Bird records) Dataset fully documented, curated and posted in web-based access system (180,600 Bird records)

Contents How you can help

OUR GOAL: PROPERLY DOCUMENT PRESERVE AND MAKE AVAILABLE EVERY BANDING DATASET Our work has just begun... We need YOUR HELP Contact LaMNA to see how you can help: LaMNA current status Click here