1. Invasive Species Information Systems A New TDWG Interest Group Presented at the Taxonomic Databases Working Group Annual Meeting St. Louis Missouri, USA 15 October 2006 Annie Simpson National Biological Information Infrastructure asimpson@usgs.gov

2. Overview  Why a TDWG Invasive Species Information Systems Interest Group?  Why should GISIN affiliate with TDWG?  What Products are Anticipated?

3. What Are Invasive Species  Organisms introduced by humans to ecosystems beyond their natural range  Cause significant negative impact to biodiversity, economy, or health  Three main scientific communities:  Health  Agriculture  Biodiversity

4. Why a TDWG Invasive Species Interest Group?  Invasive species issue has spawned numerous information systems  Emerging issue -- few agreed standards  Providers typically have limited IT support/knowledge  Existing TDWG groups don’t address all relevant invasive species issues  Global Invasive Species Information Network (GISIN) requests an interest group

5. What is GISIN?  Global Invasive Species Information Network  A collaboration of like-minded invasive species information managers interested in sharing data globally  Needs standards and protocols  Formed in 2004; loose affiliations with GBIF, CBD, US-NBII, ISSG, CABI, BioNET- INTERNATIONAL, GISP, others  Steering Committee with 11 members from 10 countries:  Argentina, China, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Malaysia, Morocco, New Zealand, United States, Zambia

6. Invasive Species Information Systems on the Web  GISIN study found 350 information systems, still growing  Great diversity in types of information  Gaps identified:  Expertise  Methods: prevention, management, modeling  Predictions of impact  Invasive terrestrial fauna

7. Why should GISIN affiliate with TDWG?  Internationally renown group for developing standards for biodiversity information  Some elements of various TDWG standards are applicable to the invasive species issue  Many GISIN members are TDWG members

8. What Products Are Anticipated?  Improved Invasive Alien Species Profile Schema  Vocabulary Matrix with possibly broader applications  Tools for implementation of data registry and cross search using TAPIR protocol  Global checklists of invasive species  Maps of existing invasions  Models of potential invasions