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Climate Change Database Clearinghouse: Combined Biological and Physical Data
FEDERAL AGENCIES
Organization: U.S. Forest Service
Contact: David Wear
Email: dwear@fs.fed.us
Web address: http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/sustain/index.htm
Database name: Southern Forest Resource Assessment
Description: The Southern Forest Resource Assessment documents and analyzes the many factors that are affecting the forests of 13 Southern States. The goal was to answer 23 specific questions about southern forests and their uses, and, in the process, to create a comprehensive base of information about them. Questions range from “What are the history, status, and projected future of terrestrial wildlife habitat types and species in the South?” to “How have abiotic factors including environmental stressors such as air pollution influenced the overall health of the South's forests and what are future effects likely to be?” Each question was addressed by subject experts who comprised the Assessment Team, and their work is presented as individual chapters in the Assessment’s Technical Report. Data used in the Assessment have been assembled and made available through a public Web site.
STATE AGENCIES
Organization: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (VA-DCR)
Contact: n/a
Email: pco@dcr.virginia.gov
Web address: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/dbsearchtool.shtml
or http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural_heritage/nhrinfo.shtml
Database name: Natural heritage resources: natural communities, rare, threatened, & endangered animals and plants
Description: Nearly 10,000 occurrences of over 1600 natural heritage resource elements are documented in Virginia. A searchable database on the Internet allows users to produce lists of resources that occur in specific counties, watersheds or physiographic regions. You can search for information on individual or groups of resources, by scientific or common name, taxonomic group, federal or state legal status, global or state rarity rank. All searches return HTML formatted lists including the scientific/common names, taxonomic group, global and state heritage rarity ranks, federal legal status under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and Virginia state legal status. These reports are not site specific and are NOT to be substituted for a project review or for on-site surveys required for environmental assessments of specific project areas.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Organization: University of Virginia (UVA): The Shenandoah Watershed Study (SWAS)
Contact: Rick Webb
Email: rwebb@virginia.edu
Web address: http://swas.evsc.virginia.edu/
Database name: Shenandoah Watershed Study & Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study
Description: The Shenandoah Watershed Study (SWAS) program involves measurement of precipitation and stream-water properties to determine the concentration and flux of chemical material along hydrologic pathways in the forested mountain watersheds of Shenandoah National Park and the mid-Appalachian region. The monitoring and research priorities of the SWAS program have been concerned with factors that most directly affect the composition of stream waters. Among these are atmospheric deposition, insect infestation, and forest regeneration. Through the effort to detect, understand, and predict stream-water change associated with these and other causative factors, the SWAS program has created a framework of hydro-biogeochemical information that supports a broad range of ecosystem monitoring and research. The SWAS program was begun in 1979 as a cooperative undertaking of Shenandoah National Park and the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. SWAS data collection within Shenandoah National Park is coordinated with the Virginia Trout Stream Sensitivity Study (VTSSS), which extends watershed research and monitoring to native brook trout streams throughout the mountains of western Virginia. Regional-scale analysis has allowed identification of biologically important trends that are obscured on less extensive scales by variation due to lithology, forest disturbance, and other local factors. The integrated SWAS-VTSSS data collection framework represents (1) spatial variation through a site selection strategy based on differences in landscape properties, and (2) temporal variation by collecting data at different frequencies.
Organization: University of Virginia (UVA) - Virginia Coastal Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research (VCR/LTER)
Contact: John Porter
Email: jhp7e@virginia.edu
Web address: http://www.vcrlter.virginia.edu/data/query/text/datasets/BPH8801B.html or http://www.vcrlter.virginia.edu/home/index.php?module=ContentExpress&file=index
&func=display&ceid=7&meid=8
Database name: Long Term Ecological Research
Description: hurricane records (1667-1976); long term precipitation for the Virginia coast reserve (1837-1987); Physical data (weather data, tides data); Biological data (biodiversity database, bird, fish, vegetation, aquatic invertebrates, small mammal).
The Virginia Coast Reserve Long-term Ecological Research Project focuses on understanding the relationships between physical, biological and anthropogenic forces on the dynamic ecology of a coastal barrier island, lagoon and mainland system. Primary study sites are located on Hog Island, Parramore Island, and mainland marshes near Nassawadox VA. The VCR/LTER maintains a laboratory facility in Oyster, VA
Organization: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
Contact: n/a
Email: n/a
Web address: http://instar.vcu.edu/
Database name: Interactive Stream Assessment Resource (INSTAR)
Description: INSTAR (INteractive STream Assessment Resource) is a dynamic and interactive internet application built on ESRI’s ArcIMS platform and supported by dedicated servers at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Environmental Studies. INSTAR allows users to access and manipulate a comprehensive (and growing) database representing over 2,000 stream and river collections statewide. Accessible data represent fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages, instream habitat, and stream geomorphology. The application supports user-driven database queries, mapping functions, and quantitative biological assessments of stream reaches and watersheds, using algorithms and ecological models that compare user-selected sites to appropriate regional reference conditions. INSTAR is accessible from most computers via the internet and navigation throughout the application is relatively easy. Program began in 2003. |
