Invasive Species Forecasting System

- Visit the Invasive Species Forecasting System site

We propose to build an Invasive Species Data Service (ISDS) to provide customized, easily  accessible data products and tools to support invasive species management and policy decisionmaking. The ISDS will be a networked service that integrates a suite of NASA ESE data providers  with the data resources of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII). Aggregated  ISDS data will feed directly into the National Invasive Species Forecasting System, which is a core  component of an invasive species decision support capability being developed jointly by the USGS  and NASA. This activity will thus provide an efficient interface between existing ESE data  systems and decision support systems that are the province of federal agencies and other national  organizations. It builds upon previous ESE investments in this area and will significantly broaden the use of ESE data in managing the Nation's invasive species threat. In building the ISDS, we will  refine the notion of Web-based service interoperability using SEEDS principles to specialize EOS  Clearing House (ECHO) technologies. The result will be a tailored interface that combines  biological and earth science data to meet the specific needs of a large and expanding community of  ecologists and natural resource managers who deal with invasive species. A broadly representative  users group will help shape development of the ISDS and align its activities with current and  future needs. The work will contribute to NASA's plans for future ESE data systems by engaging a new client community that has a focused, thematic, and interdisciplinary data integration problem  of national importance. The ISDS will be made available through NBII and the USGS National Institute of Invasive Species Science. This work will lead to a fully operational capability of  national scope vital to understanding and managing the effects of invasive species on human  health, the economy, native biodiversity, and ecosystem processes.

We are working with the NASA Office of Earth Science and the US Geological Survey to develop  a National Invasive Species Forecasting System. These are the first steps toward a vision of a  national decision support capability for the management and control of invasive species, perhaps  the most devastating biological phenomenon of modern times. Building such a capability will  require groundbreaking advances across a range of science and technology fronts and a scaling up  of our ability to measure, model, and predict complex, interdependent physical and biological  processes. A key issue is the problem of searching and aggregating data across heterogeneous and often domain-specific repositories. For everyone, the essential task of bringing together the  georegistered satellite data and biological data required for invasive species work is a fundamental  bottleneck in developing new applications and pursuing new science questions in this area.   

We propose to address this key issue by creating an Invasive Species Data Service (ISDS).  The ISDS will be a networked center that integrates geo-referenced Earth Science Enterprise data  from a variety of sources with the biological data resources of the National Biological Information  Infrastructure (NBII). The merged data products will be designed to support the ecological  forecasting of invasive species and will feed directly into the National Invasive Species Forecasting  System and related applications. Over the next 10 years, we believe that these activities will provide  revolutionary capabilities vital to understanding and managing the effects of invasive species on  human health, the economy, native biodiversity, and ecosystem processes.

Dr. John L. Schnase - PI, NASA/GSFC
James A. Smith - co-PI, NASA/GSFC Thomas J. Stohlgren, co-PI, USGS