Inventory Design Report
ATBI 1998 Meeting -Inventory Design In-Group
In Attendance:
P. White -Group Leader
J. Morse -Group Leader
G. Carroll
C. O'Conner
M. Schwartz
C. Thompson
M. Houston
R. Brown
B. Dellinger
M. Whited (recorder)
M. Jenkins (recorder)
P. White: Described objectives of group meeting: develop mission statment,
timeline, funding needs.
C. Thompson: The group needs to find away to bridge methodologies
between disciplines.
R. Brown: Some collecting methods yield to quantification and ecological
integration, some do not. Some taxa and difficult to quantify.
sp;How do we get more than a list of species from such things as light traps
for moths?
P. White: We need to start general and work down to more specialized
methodologies, not all groups will be at the same level.
C. O'Conner: Especially when not all groups are covered by TWIGS.
C. Thompson: We need to get the ball rolling and than bring in other
groups. We need a boot strap organization to start with and focus on
selected taxa.
G. Carroll: We still need a TWIGS for bacteria, nematodes, and numerous
other groups.
C. Thompson: Time is an important issue, we need to get going by March
1st.
J. Morse: Our major issues are qualitative vs. quantitative sampling,
missing TWIGS, will experiment design be site specific? Will we focus
per taxa, for example, aquatics will only be sampled in streams.
R. Brown: We need to have specific areas for the collection of quanti-
tative data. Systematics work may be done in other places. We need
specific areas with some uniformity in habitat types.
P. White: Permanent plots exist, we need reference sites that are strat-
ified by environmental and historical variation. We need to create a
Users Guide (web based?) to the GRSM landscape to help stratify sampling. &
nbsp;This could include information on geology, forest history, precip-
itation, temperature, elevation. A scoreboard of work done and work
planned could be provided.
C. Thompson: Scoreboard should include negative information=8Bwhat was'nt
found where to avoid duplicate efforts.
J. Morse: Would this be a GIS effort?
P. White. Yes. This guide could ID over and under collected are
as. ATBI needs to keep track of who=B9s done what where and keep it post-
ed to avoid duplicate efforts and to help someone find study areas for
associated species.
J. Morse: This could be done as GIS overlays on the web.
M. Houston: This type of information will allow us to predict
what taxa will be found where. This will be very useful for managers.
We need to lay the basis for continues monitoring, This should not
be an insular effort.
P. White: What information do we need per specimen?
M. Houston: What is the minimum information we need, qualitative vs.
quantitative.
P. White: Structure must be flexible to incorporated standardized
sampling with chance encounters.
Minimum Data:
Date/Time
"Precise location" coordinates, lot number (taxa dependant).
Habitat: microhabitat, host
Method/Duration
Collector
Species/determinant
G. Carroll: We need reference points.
C. Thompson: How much movement will collecting permits allow?
B. Dellinger: Just provide the best information you have.
P. White: Landscape reference areas should represent chunks of the park
landscape. Within these areas we will have biodiversity reference
points.
R. Brown: We can't take a GPS point every time time an insect is
collected. Collecting is done in lots, points may be 0.5 mile apart.
M. Houston: We need information on population size, number of individuals
observed, whether the species is locally rare.
C. Thompson: Let's focus on the overall design. We're getting
away from what we can do now.
P. White: Proposed mission statement: Organize biological inventory
to maximize usefulness of information (1st draft). We also need to
have modeling and prediction ability and some type of quality control.
J. Morse: Proposed mission statement: Organize scientifically
defensible structure for obtaining specimens, observations, and related data
in support of the ATBI mission.
M. Houston: This is too weak, we need to say what structure should do,
we need to integrate traditional taxonomy with inventory and monitoring to
tell us:
1.where they are
2.where they could be
3.provide information needed for future conservation
and management
4.estimate completeness of the inventory for each
taxonomic group and for each habitat type.
P. White: We need information that will let us know where we are with-
in a group. We need to create species/time/effort curves.
M. Houston: On to the timeline, how much of this guide can we put
together for this year?
P. White: March 1st to get first version w/basic information on Park
with the rest filled in with time.
M. Houston: So, by March 1st we will synthesize existing information
regarding geology, vegetation, etc.
P. White: We may need to hire a short-term GIS specialist.
M. Houston: My agency may be able to provide funding for GIS specialist.
J. Morse: We still need to decide how many plots we're going to have
and where they will be.
P. White: We can use GIS to pick places in part that integrate land
types and watersheds. It will take a while to pick landscape reference
areas and biodiversity reference points. We should be able to choose
preliminary area(s) by March 1st and have a final list by the next meeting.
R. Schulz (web out-group summary: web and publishing group will tie in
with guidebook, publish field guides.
Carl Nordman (taxonomy out-group summary): Each TWIG has different needs
and objectives. We need document collection methods and associations
across groups.
Phil Francis (business/funding out-group summary): Create a business
plant for each part of the project. This will help us sell project to
gain funding.
P. White: Phil, what about housing?
P. Francis: Short-term we will hire a director and Jody for two years
to pursue housing and other needs. We also plan to obtain low-cost or
donated hotel rooms.
Long-term: Build the Twin Creeks lab, integrate Purchase Knob,
build a science nature center.
J. Morse: Richard (Schulz), can GIS be integrated onto the web?
R. Schultz: May be done with software from ERISI.
J. Morse: Back to the reference points, we need some type of reference
(GPS) points, could we have markers on trail, if not, do we have funding for
the purchase of topo maps?
P. White: Reference areas may be catchments instead of blocks
(catchments suggested by C. Parker).
J. Morse: Catchments are easily definable areas. How will we
quantify areas?
M. Jenkins: We can incorporate some of the park's long-term vegetation
monitoring plots into the ATBI to serve as reference points.
C. Thompson: Useful base information on sites will attract collectors.
G. O'Conner: Areas must be large enough to encompass all needs.
J. Morse: We also need to segregate out assessable educational plots.
M. Jenkins: We also need to segregate within an area to avoid incompatible
sampling methods (i.e., searching through duff layer could alter herbaceous
vegetation).
P. White: There's the time dimension, we must wait a certain period
before resampling. We will have certain groups done in detail, we should
examine area/abundance, time/abundance relationships to know what we have
at a given point.
M. Houston: When does inventory become monitoring? We need to know
when we are nearing completion.
P. White: "Stopping rules" will be developed.
J. Morse: When should stopping rules kick in?
C. Thompson: Best left to TWIGS.
M. Houston: We still need to develop a basic design structure, should
we focus our efforts on one place initially?