“The Plant Science Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative (PSCIC) program is intended by NSF to create a new type of organization – a cyberinfrastructure collaborative for the plant sciences – that would enable new conceptual advances through integrative, computational thinking. To achieve this, we have developed the “iPlant Collaborative” (iPlant). iPlant will be fluid and dynamic, utilizing new computer, computational science and cyberinfrastructure solutions to address an evolving array of grand challenges in the plant sciences. It will be community-driven, involving plant biologists, computer and information scientists and engineers, as well as experts from other disciplines, all working in integrated teams. iPlant brings together strengths in plant biology, bioinformatics, computer science and high throughput computing as well as innovative approaches to education, outreach, and the study of social networks.”
Day: June 25, 2009
GIS in Polar Regions
Amongst the Icebergs, GIS Innovation Aids Antarctic Research- Scientific Research Uses GIS in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica
- Access Antarctica-The New Zealand Antarctic GIS
- Long-Term Environmental Monitoring at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Supported With GIS
- Mapping the Ayles Ice Shelf Break
- Eskimos and Ecologists Aided by Landfast Ice Mapping
GIS Visualization Clarifies Relationships between Soils, Topography, and Land Use
…from the Summer 2009 issue of ArcUser…
“Darrell G. Schulze, professor of soil science, and Phillip R. Owens, assistant professor of soil geomorphology and pedology, coteach the class Soil Classification Genesis and Survey. They incorporate the latest version of ArcGIS to study the relationships between soils, topography, land use, and geology.
“Using GIS in the classroom and in the field helps students better understand soils and the landscapes in which they occur and recognize geological features that indicate different soil types.”
Carbon Footprint Data Model for ArcGIS
The purpose of the Carbon Footprint data model is to provide a basic starter template to empower GIS users to tackle the basic problems of greenhouse gases that affect Global Climate Change. The data model suggests the feature classes that a GIS manager would build to support issues related to carbon dioxide production and sequestration.
The intent of the model is to be a starting point that can be extended to meet the needs of those whose task is to act on this problem. The model is the starting point for analysis, visualization, tracking change over time and auditing. Consider this as the Mission Data Set to locally address global climate change.
A key part is developing a Carbon Fabric – layers of sources and sinks that aggregate information from more detailed datasets.
This is an early draft of a data model and we are actively looking for projects to collaborate with to establish best practices. Please contact Steve Grise (sgrise@esri.com) for more information.
AquaMaps: Marine Environment Data Sets Available
The AquaMaps project has created standardized distribution maps for 9,000 species of fishes, marine mammals, and invertebrates.
“AquaMaps is an approach to generating model-based, large-scale predictions of currently known natural occurrence of marine species. Models are constructed from estimates of the environmental tolerance of a given species with respect to depth, salinity, temperature, primary productivity, and its association with sea ice or coastal areas.”
The AquaMaps team has made their depth, salinity, temperature, primary productivity, and sea ice concentration data sets freely available in Half-Degree Cell Authority File (HCAF) format.
- More about AquaMaps (Microsoft Word document)
Citation: Kaschner, K., J. S. Ready, E. Agbayani, J. Rius, K. Kesner-Reyes, P. D. Eastwood, A. B. South, S. O. Kullander, T. Rees, C. H. Close, R. Watson, D. Pauly, and R. Froese. Editors 2008 AquaMaps Environmental Dataset: Half-Degree Cells Authority File (HCAF). World Wide Web electronic publication, http://www.aquamaps.org/data, Version 01/2008.
GIS and Science 