The U.S. map on the left indicates the location of the Mid-Atlantic region (white area in the black circle).
[Image: Bill Herrington, CMI]
The outline map on the right shows the region in more detail. The Mid-Atlantic region encompasses (clockwise from top):
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
District of Columbia
Virginia
West Virginia
Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic Information Node
Blue Heron [Copyright: NBII Digital Image Library]
The Mid-Atlantic Information Node (MAIN) is a regional node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) encompassing Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Our primary mission is to facilitate access to and use of the biological resource information that is available for the region.
To learn more about the MAIN and our mission, please visit our About the Node page.
Data Wizard
An important component of the MAIN project is our Data Wizard, which lets you search for map services and datasets that are relevant to our region.
Other MAIN projects in the region include:
Compiling available baseline data and information for biological resources in the region
Supporting the creation of a centralized database for bird conservation programs in the Atlantic Flyway
Assisting data coordination efforts in the Central Appalachians
Promoting the collection, storage, and sharing of regional fisheries data
Developing decision support tools to support the prioritization of land use decisions
Creating an online catalog for aerial photographs from across the region
2nd Annual Blogger BioBlitz! Sept 20 - 28, 2008
This is a great citizen science effort that can lead to wider engagement of the public with conservation and natural history; it also has the potential to provide a rich and ongoing observational biological dataset at national and continental scales.
During the first Annual Blogger BioBlitz, conducted last fall, people around the country went out into their local neighborhoods, recorded the flora and fauna they observed, and blogged individually about all of the species they encountered. The NBII and Encyclopedia of Life are both lending support to this effort.
