2015 Highlights from NCEAS Director
Dear NCEAS Community,
All of us at NCEAS wish you great success and happiness in 2016!
NCEAS has started the New Year running full speed with new funding, partnerships and synthesis Working Groups. We just issued our first Call for Proposals for LTER synthesis working groups and will release our next call for SNAP Partnership working group proposals in late February. If you have an idea for a proposal, please don’t hesitate to contact me (contact me) or SNAP Partnership Executive Director Craig Groves (Craig Groves) to explore the possibilities.
In 2016, we look forward to connecting with you, whether through a proposal submission, as a participant in a new Working Group, or in hosting your collaborative meetings at NCEAS. On a quarterly basis, we will keep you abreast of new funding opportunities and the important new developments at NCEAS. If you would like more frequent updates on new synthesis research finding, please sign up for our monthly newsletter.
NCEAS Highlights from 2015
SCIENCE
- 65 journal articles and 3 books published
- 29 active Working Groups
- 60 workshops and working group meetings
- $6.5 million in new awards
Scientists at NCEAS continue to publish influential research findings across a broad spectrum of ecology, environmental science and conservation. These works continue to range from deep disciplinary efforts such as “Cheaters must prosper: Reconciling theoretical and empirical perspectives on cheating in mutualism” in Ecology Letters, to multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary efforts including “Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean” in Science. We thank the more than 6000 scientists and experts who have participated in NCEAS synthesis Working Groups over the years.
Long Term Ecological Research Network Communications Office
In August, UCSB was selected to be the site of the first NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Communications Office (NCO). Marty Downs, a seasoned communications professional, has been appointed the Communications Officer and has lead responsibility for developing and coordinating communications across the LTER network.
Science for Nature and People (SNAPP) Partnership
The SNAPP Partnership of NCEAS, The Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society continues to grow. We now have 23 Working Groups including the 2015 additions of Coastal Restoration, Faiths and Conservation, BioCultural Indicators, and Ecosystems Services and Key Biodiversity Areas, as well as a second phase of work for the Evidence-based Conservation Working Group.
The SNAPP teams are beginning to publish their findings including:
- Reframing the sharing vs. sparing debate for tropical forestry landscapes. BW Griscom, RC Goodman.Journal of Tropical Forest Science, 5/2015
- Ecosystems and human well-being in the Sustainable Development Goals. SLR Wood, F DeClerck.
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 5/2015 - Blog posts on new Mapping Ecosystem Services and Human Well-being toolkit – here and here
- China must act decisively to eradicate the ivory trade. Li Zhang, Nature. 11/2015
- Media coverage in the Washington Post and National Geographic
- Sustainability: Map the evidence. M. McKinnon, S. Cheng, R. Garside, Y. Masuda, D. Miller Nature Comment, 12/10/2015
Ocean Health Index (OHI)
The Ocean Health Index is the comprehensive framework used to measure ocean health from global to local scales. OHI is a collaborative effort including contributions from more than 65 scientists and ocean experts, several of whom are NCEAS resident scientists. OHI+ assessments tailored for local and regional application were recently completed for China and the Gulf of Guayaquil, Ecuador. All the code and data used for the Index is available at OHI-Science.org. The 2016 global assessment will lead to 5 years of global data and an opportunity to spot trends.
- Best practices for assessing ocean health in multiple contexts using tailorable frameworks. J. Stewart Lowndes, E. Pacheco, B. Best, C. Scarborough, C. Longo, S. Katona, B. Halpern. PeerJ, online 12/10/2015
Lead by NCEAS resident scientists, the Ocean Tipping Points project is developing practical tools to help managers predict, avoid or recover from abrupt ecosystem shifts. The team recently completed a global review of management responses to tipping points and is sharing management practices interactive case study map. They will kick off 2016 with a session at AAAS in February and meetings with policymakers on Capitol Hill.
- Using Ecological Thresholds to Inform Resource Management: Current Options and Future Possibilities. Foley Melissa M, Martone Rebecca G, Fox Michael D, Kappel Carrie V, Mease Lindley A, Erickson Ashley L, Halpern Benjamin S, Selkoe Kimberly A, Taylor Peter, Scarborough Courtney. Front. Mar. Sci., 11/9/2015
2015 was the first full year for our two Gulf of Alaska working groups and postdoctoral associates engaged in synthesizing 25 years of data about the effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. One team is evaluating the signals of climate, oil spill impacts, and interspecific interactions on salmon and herring populations, while the other is looking for clues in the past dynamics to help improve predictions of future response to natural and anthropogenic change. NCEAS has renewed its intensive data gathering efforts to collect, clean, describe and publish as much of the historical data collected as possible.
INFORMATICS
The DataONE federated network now includes 32 Member Nodes comprising over 396,000 publicly accessible data objects (see graph). The team also launched DataONE Search, a web based data search and discovery tool that enables users to easily discover the data and metadata objects held by DataONE. 2015 also marked the start of the monthly DataONE Webinar Series with guest speakers to increase data management awareness and literacy across a broad audience at all stages of the data life cycle. In January 2016, version 2 of the DataONE infrastructure was released and enables sign in through ORCID, Google or University affiliations, provides individualized data metrics and user profiles, and streamlines access for client tools such as R.
The KNB, Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity, is an efficient way to share, discover, access and interpret complex ecological data. The foundation of the KNB is the rich, detailed metadata provided by researchers, which promotes both automated and manual integration of data into new projects. The NCEAS team has continued to improve the KNB search interface, and improved access including a simplified login for people contributing data via R and Matlab. The KNB now enables researchers to track their upload and download histories on a personalized summary page.
Looking Forward in 2016
NCEAS will be issuing at least two new Calls for Proposals in 2016 for: 1) LTER Synthesis Working Groups – proposals due March 23; and 2) the 2016 SNAP Partnership Request for Proposals will be issued in late February with proposals due the end of April. Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter (@NCEAS) to be alerted about when the Calls for Proposals take place.
In addition to new LTER and SNAP Working Groups, we are anticipating a couple new programs to get off the ground in the first half of the year – one for arctic data management and the other related to Alaskan salmon (stay tuned for a call for proposals in Summer 2016).
Stay Connected! Our monthly newsletter provides updates on recent publications, Working Groups activities, and Roundtable discussions. Join us for our weekly Roundtables on Wednesdays at 12:15 Pacific – virtual participation is now available.
We are looking forward to seeing you in the coming year!
Sincerely,
Frank Davis
NCEAS Director