Biological Data Sources

• National Biological Information System  - The NBII is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII links diverse, high-quality biological databases, information products, and analytical tools maintained by NBII partners and other contributors in government agencies, academic institutions, non-government organizations, and private industry.
  • Geographic Perspectives, Regional Nodes: These links provide information for different geographic areas of the country. There are many data sources under each location and they will differ based on the regional issues. Many list GIS data as a separate category.
  • Current Biological Issues: These links deal with the current Hot Topics in the Biological World, such as Invasive Species or wildlife diseases like Avian Flu.
  • Botany: Botany encompasses a wide range of databases, indexes, directories, species profiles, dictionaries, taxonomic information, collections, and organizations devoted to the study, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants, bryophytes, and fungi.
  • Fisheries: This section includes resources for species data, fisheries research and management, watershed health, and sport fishing, from federal, state, regional, academic, and non-profit sectors.
  • Systematics: Systematics is the science of describing, naming, and classifying organisms. This index includes comprehensive links to databases of scientific and common names for species within the five Kingdoms.
  • Reptiles and Amphibians: Comprehensive species information, including identification, habitats, and life histories, is available through this resource.
• Environmental Data Registry - The EDR developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is a comprehensive, authoritative source of reference information about environmental data. The EDR catalogs EPA's major data collections and helps locate environmental information of interest. It does not contain the environmental data itself, but rather information that describes the data to make it more meaningful.
• Great Outdoors Recreation Pages - GORP provides general information on Wildlife Refuges, Species and Habitats.
• Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy - Contains more than 1400 links to wildlife resources on the Internet, organized into 19 categories.
• NASA's Global Change Master Directory - GCMD is a comprehensive directory of descriptions of data sets of relevance to global change research. The GCMD database includes descriptions of data sets (DIFs) covering climate change, agriculture, the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere & oceans, geology, geography, and human dimensions of global change.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - The NOAA Coastal Services Center works with various branches of NOAA and other federal agencies to bring information, services, and technology to the nation's coastal resource managers. The Center is a partner in over 100 ongoing projects geared to resolve site specific coastal issues.
• Nature Conservancy - A valuable information resource for researchers and other conservation specialists.  The scientific and technical information presented is just a small fraction of that available from Conservancy science programs.
• NatureServe - A source for information about rare and endangered species and threatened ecosystems.
• Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission - The PSMFC is one of three interstate commissions dedicated to resolving fishery issues. Representing California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska, it serves as a forum for discussion, works for coast wide consensus to state and federal authorities. PSMFC addresses issues that fall outside state or regional management council jurisdiction.
• Raptor Center University of Minnesota - The Raptor Center is an international medical facility for birds of prey. Their mission is to preserve biological diversity among raptors and other avian species through medical treatment, scientific investigation, education, and management of wild populations.
• Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - SERC's research provides data, publications and expert consultation in support of conservation, environmental policy and management of natural resources.
• Up North Outdoors   - Provides links to all 50 State's Department of Natural Resources sites.
• USDA Forest Service -  Home Page
• USDA PLANTS National Database - a single source of standardized information about plants. This database focuses on vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories.
• USGS Biological Resources Division Home page -  The BRD is engaged in a cooperative effort to define biological data standards and protocols needed to facilitate the use and sharing of biological data. This effort is building on existing standards and protocols, where possible, as well as parallel national efforts for a National Information Infrastructure and a National Spatial Data Infrastructure.
  • BRD Science by State contains links to Biological Resources by State for Federal, State/County/City, Educational and Non-Governmental sources.
• USGS Marine Realms Information Bank - A distributed geolibrary that provides organized access to information about oceanic and coastal environments.
• United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) - Coordinates the research of ten Federal departments and agencies with active global change programs and provides liaison with the Executive Office of the President.
• Virginia Tech Fish and Wildlife Information Exchange  - The FWIE is a technical assistance center and information clearinghouse for fish, wildlife, and land management agencies and organizations. The FWIE also assists with the planning, development, implementation, and maintenance of information management and delivery systems.

For additional information regarding this Web page, contact Chris Lett, in the Division of Information Resources and Technology Management, at Chris_Lett@fws.gov

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Keywords=GIS, data, metadata, FWS, biological
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