The Big Sky Institute at Montana State University is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to creating, applying, and communicating science-based knowledge. The BSI Ecological Informatics Lab brings together natural sciences, geographic information systems (GIS), statistics, modeling, information technology, and computational programming with a comprehensive goal of making ecological data more useful to society.
Mountain Prairie provides biological information organized by geography and by theme. Go directly to featured projects below, or use the menu to navigate the site.
Brucellosis Learn why this disease is of special concern of ranchers in this region and investigate the resulting implications for maintaining our free-ranging elk and bison herds.
Carbon Sequestration Learn about the promise of ongoing research and technologies to help mitigate for climate change through regional capture of carbon dioxide emissions.
Children's Butterfly Site Enjoy photographs, print coloring book pages, and explore the life cycle of butterflies and moths.
Climate Science Investigate how climate variability drives ecosystem structure and function, and learn how variability data can be used to assist decision-making.
Trumpeter Swans Track neck collars, use decision support models for management, and learn about the largest waterfowl in North America.
Whirling Disease Discover how a tiny European parasite with a complex life cycle is damaging ecosystems in the west.
Whitebark Pine Investigate monitoring efforts in Greater Yellowstone and learn about this ecologically important high-elevation species.
Conferences of Interest
There are currently no conferences.
Mountain Prairie Region
[Image: Aaron Jones, Big Sky Institute]
The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Office of the U.S. Geological Survey