Biodiversity Informatics Facility Blog

The American Museum of Natural History’s (AMNH) Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) seeks a person with training and knowledge of applications of remote sensing, Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and modeling to biodiversity conservation. The Biodiversity Informatics Specialist will assist in the implementation of a strong collaborative research program with American Museum of Natural History curators, Center for Biodiversity and Conservation staff, and other partners.

Qualifications:
Candidates should have a Master’s degree or equivalent, and advanced experience in remote sensing and GIS applications to biology- and/or conservation and or wildlife management-related projects. Working knowledge of more than one of the following software packages is preferred: ERDAS, ENVI, ARC/INFO, ArcView and open source alternatives. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in conservation biology and remote sensing. Technical skills in database design and management, programming and scripting languages, systems administration, and GPS technology would be an advantage. Must work well independently and have strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Responsibilities and Duties
The Biodiversity Informatics Specialist, together with the Biodiversity Informatics Facility Manager and CBC Director will assist in the implementation of a program applying remote sensing, GIS, and modeling to biodiversity conservation. Responsibilities of this job include data management, data processing and visualization (raster, vector, and tabular), species distribution modeling, provision of technical and scientific training for staff and partner institutions, and maintenance of lab hardware and software resources (data, computers, and equipment). Some travel for fieldwork and training will be required.

Applications, including curriculum vitae, a narrative statement of program interests and full contact information for three references should be sent, by July 18th to:

Associate Director
American Museum of Natural History
Center for Biodiversity and Conservation
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, N.Y. 10024
Email address: farengo@amnh.org

The American Museum of Natural History is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Museum does not discriminate due to age, sex, religion, race, color, national origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other factor prohibited by law. Qualified candidates of diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds are encouraged to apply for vacant positions at all levels.

We are happy to announce the newest release of eVis, The Event Visualization Tool (0.7.0), compatible with QGIS Io (0.10.0). eVis has been developed to easily view geocoded images, referenced through attributes of features, in the QGIS mapping environment. Images can be loaded from a local disk or remotely using the http protocol. Features can be any vector type readable by QGIS and eVis can be used to connect to a database to build new point layers based on the results of a SQL query.

Changes and new features in version 0.7.0:

• Numerous bug fixes. Special thanks to Tim Sutton, John Tull, and Magnus Homann for their feedback and patches.

• (new!) Load supporting documents (e.g., doc, avi, mp3 etc), referenced through attributes of features, with external applications

• (new!) Additional parameters allow the user to adjust or completely override path information stored in attribute

• (new!) Compass offsets (i.e., correction for magnetic declination) can be manually entered or read from an attribute

• (new!) Online documentation

• (new!) Binary version of plugin for Linux, Windows XP/Vista, and Mac OSX (Leopard)

The plugin can be downloaded at the following URL:
http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org/open_source/evis/download.php

We are interested in hearing how you are using eVis in your projects. If you are willing to participate in a follow up interview, please send us your contact information by filling out the form at the bottom of the download page!

We recently (April, 2008) completed teaching two short courses at the AMNH’s Southwestern Research Station in Arizona. During the first week, participants from a variety of backgrounds, including graduate students, professors and conservation professionals, were introduced to practical remote sensing techniques. In addition to learning how to acquire, visualize and analyze satellite imagery, participants were encouraged to create a small project to apply these remote sensing skills to data from their focal areas around the world so that they could take advantage of the small class setting and interact with the instructors and other participants.  Ranging from landcover change in Southeast Asia to archaeological exploration in the Yucatan peninsula, both participants and instructors alike were able to learn from each other.  Offering this short course directly before the second week’s Species Distribution Modeling course was a great opportunity for students attending both weeks to better understand the environmental layers that are the basis of any good model.

Our Modeling short course has continued to be very popular.  Over 50 applicants applied for the only 15 available spots in the course, and we were once again greatly encouraged by the diverse geographical and academic range of interests exhibited by the participants of the most recent course. The course participants were also encouraged to undertake an individual project that incorporates the species modeling methods that were being discussed with data from and pertaining to their areas of interest. From species future range predictions, incorporating IPCC future climate scenarios, to studies in ecological niche distribution and endemism, this course’s participants provided a good representation of the exciting applications to which this rapidly developing field can be applied.

We plan to offer both of these courses at a yet to be determined time. Please keep an eye on our site for future updates.

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation’s Biodiversity Informatics Facility is starting a blog!