#1: Biodiversity informatics tools and resources for biogeography and global change

Robert Guralnick, University of Colorado
Rosemary Gillespie, University of California, Berkeley
David Bloom, University of California, Berkeley
Walter Jetz, Yale University

An unprecedented amount of biodiversity-related data is emerging with the potential to provide biogeographers with information about the present and past distribution of organisms and environments within which they lived and their physiological and genetic adaptations to changing conditions. This data comes from disparate sources; natural history collections and associated morphological, physiological and genomic data, climate layers, sensor networks, etc. The importance of informatics tools that can manage this data, provide geographical representations of distribution, and integrate multiple layers of temporal and spatial data, is apparent, though much remains to be done.

This workshop tackles both conceptual and practical issues in dealing with the massive quantities of biogeographic data that are coming to light through digitization efforts, or being produced through studies of historic or extant specimens, and the tools and resources being developed to deal with the problem.  We will present an overview of emerging data and knowledge repositories, their contents, limitations, and how they might be integrated and analyzed to enhance biodiversity research.  The workshop will investigate multiple domains relevant to biogeographers, discuss issues of spatial uncertainty and taxonomic biases, how to improve the data and assess their fitness for use, and demonstrate how to enhance long-term research programs and the ability to leverage funding by contributing data to these resources.  Pragmatic examples of the use of these resources in focused exercises will take concepts and make them more concrete while providing useful code and examples for future use.

Presentations will be given by each of the 4 organizers (Guralnick, Jetz, Bloom, Gillespie), as well as additional presenters, in a format that will combine lecture and workshop style settings. This topic is particularly timely because of the wealth of data that is becoming available, and the potential it offers for biogeographers. The workshop will provide participants with an understanding of the diversity of data types, and the limitations of access, integration, and interpretation.

Potential Topics:

1. Data sources (GBIF, IUCN, ETI, eBird, FishBase, Neotoma, etc)
2. Organization, analysis, work flow (BiSciCol, LIMS, etc)
3. Coordination & funding (iDigBio, NSF ADBC)
4. Georeferencing, spatial data uncertainty and quality control
5. Data availability & sharing – crowd sourcing, citizen involvement
6. Mapping tools & integrating specimen data into spatial layers
7. Integration & added value (Genbank, Geophylobuilder)
8. Analytical tools (how to use the data being generated for answering questions in biodiversity)
9. Quantifying limits of data quality, scale and bias on analysis and inference

#2: Biogeography of Stress

Leslie Rissler, University of Alabama)
Michael Hickerson, City College, CUNY
Michael Angilletta, Arizona State University
Michael Hood, Amherst
Justin Calabrese, Smithsonian

An “ideas-lab” to stimulate discussion of the geographic patterns and environmental and evolutionary processes impacting neuroendocrine stress responses, disease susceptibility, and genetic diversity in natural populations.

The study of stress is important for a wide diversity of questions ranging from:  what limits species range distributions; how does the environment of a developing organism influence susceptibility to disease later in life; are abiotic or biotic factors more important in limiting adaptation at range edges. This topic is particularly novel and ripe for study because it integrates mechanistic approaches to understanding organismal fitness with landscape level approaches to understanding species range distributions. In so doing, we aim to mesh proximate and ultimate reasons for observed biogeography.  We believe the engagement of scientists from diverse fields will provide new insights.

Leslie Rissler will introduce the session and provide a general overview of the need for an integration of various disciplines in studies of the biogeography of stress.  Each of the invited speakers will introduce their specific discipline and place the big questions in their field within a biogeographic context. The presentations will be short, on the order of 10 min. A question and answer period with the panel and audience will ensue after the presentations. Break-out groups lasting around 40 min will be assigned for more in-depth discussion and brainstorming of ideas, and groups will reconvene to discuss ideas and the future of the field. At the end of the session the panelists will convene to develop a review paper on the important, emerging questions on the biogeography of stress. New collaborations may ensue. The biggest benefit to the IBS community will be the engagement of biologists that do not normally place their work within a biogeographic context.

Workshop #3: Communicating Biogeography

Rob Whittaker – Oxford University, UK

The workshop will provide an overview of how to put together a paper for journal submission (adopting an appropriate writing style, organization of material, structuring a convincing narrative, pace of referencing, importance of identifying core questions/hypotheses, use of tables, figures, etc.), what happens in the peer review process, what reviewers and editors are looking for, the role of co-authors, etc. Participants will be given some draft manuscript material and specific tasks to work on (e.g. how to write Aims statements, writing abstracts, editing texts, preparing legends). The template for the exercises will be the Journal of Biogeography format and guidelines, but the workshop is intended to be of general value in how to prepare manuscripts for submission to any scientific journal. We will also look at the other side of the coin: the role and responsibilities of the manuscript reviewer.

#4: Popular Science Writing

Sarah Perrault – University of California, Davis

Making science accessible to the general public is both difficult and important, and this workshop will help you learn how to write about science for a variety of non-specialist audiences.

As any professional writer knows—and all scientists are professional writers—learning to write well in new genres takes time and practice. Therefore, this workshop will not try to teach you a set of ready-mix skills that will turn you into David Quammen or E.O. Wilson or Elizabeth Kolbert. Instead, it will equip you with a set of skills for identifying, understanding, and using strategies that contribute to effective and engaging science communication. Topics include choosing the genre that works best for your communication needs; showing what you know without showing off; explaining technical concepts in non-technical language; being clear without being condescending; and framing scientific issues in ways that engage readers’ interest using narrative, metaphor, and other prose techniques.

#5: An Introduction to Bayesian Statistical Analysis

Brian Beckage – University of Vermont

This workshop will introduce participants to the theoretical basis of Bayesian statistics and then will guide participants through a set of applications to illustrate the mechanics of Bayesian statistics.   We will briefly review likelihood methods before introducing both simple and hierarchical Bayesian models.