ATBI 4/7 Agenda
Daniel Janzen
djanzen at SAS.UPENN.EDU
Tue Apr 13 15:28:57 CDT 1993
ATBI WORKSHOP, 16-18 April 1993 Part 4 of 7
FULL AND ANNOTATED AGENDA for the NSF-sponsored
"Workshop to explore the feasibility, protocols and costs of an All Taxa
Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI)" at the University of Pennsylvania, 16-18
April 1993.
_________________________________________________
Day 1 (Friday 16 April 1993)
I. A SENSE OF PURPOSE
8:30-9:00 Who are we and why are we having this workshop?
Public introduction of individuals will be covered by a handout that has a
descriptive paragraph on each, gotten from each before the workshop;
everyone has label badges. Brief plenary discussion of the "mission
statement" for this particular workshop, and discussion of the workshop
schedule itself. Both will have been circulated to participants in late
March, and discussed before by FAX and e-mail. Selection of raconteurs.
Will be 1-2 observers/participants from the world of marine inventory
present in the workshop
9:00-9:30 Discussion of the draft global mission statement for an "All
Taxa Inventory" (ATBI), and a draft fuzzy definition of an ATBI.
Agree on a draft statement to be revisited at the end of the workshop
(various versions of these two documents will be circulated to workshop
members for discussion in the second half of March). One workshop
participant will be responsible for annotating and documenting the
evolution of this mission statement and definition during the workshop.
1) The mission statement will treat both the overall challenge of
biodiversity loss and the specific place of an ATBI in this challenge;
assumes that inventory is one of several key aspects of the introjection
of biodiversity into society.
2) The fuzzy definition of an ATBI will deal with the basic framework
characteristics that we need to take as given in order to produce a
meaningful and contextful result from this workshop
a. finite large money ($20-$30 million budget)
b. large area (50,000-200,000 ha)
c. the large area is biodiverse at level of species, higher taxa,
habitats and ecosystems, with lots of overlap among habitats and ecosystems
d. short time frame (e.g., five years)
e. conducted to meet the needs of users throughout society
f. part of a world-level network of various kinds of biodiversity
inventory and monitoring actions
g. very heavy national participation at all levels
i. what are the sufficient products (clean taxonomy, what is there,
where it is, framework for natural history beginnings, known universe, roots of
an electronic lineage for an LTER) and in what formats?
h. designed technically and philosophically to answer to the above
eight characteristics
3) The administrative characteristics of an ATBI:
a. transparent to all viewers from all walks of society
b. it should be fully participatory, e-mail, Internet, have its own
Gopher node
c. the event as well as the results should be heavily documented
d. consistent with and/or complementary to extant processes of
inventory and data management
e. should enhance a variety of science processes and topics already
in process
f. inventory should be phased in, phased out and its processes staggered
g. planned for full site continuity and process evolution
9:30-10:00 Coffee break (and flex time for overrun)
II. NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT TRAITS OF AN ATBI AND ITS SITE
10:00-11:00 Science/operative logistic needs for an ATBI site (all
requirements are rubbery)
a. All weather road access to within one day of walk and packanimal
of areas to be sampled (more access is better)
b. 110 v (or 220v) regularily available on some of the all-weather
access roads
c. on-site living facilities for visiting and permanent researchers
(including cooking or feeding facilities)
d. near site or on-site access to Internet, telephones and similar
electronic communication
e. what are the lessons from LTERs?
f. weather stations and other kinds of permanent recording systems
g. access to highways and airports.
h. actual site choice and site ranking are not activities for the
workshop.
11:00-12:00 am Administrative and social context needs for an ATBI site
a. a national INBio-like process to administrate and coordinate the
entire ATBI
b. a national INBio-like process to be the central recipient and
management system for the specimens and associated data.
c. the ATBI site itself has permanent conservation status (National
Park or similar category of land use)
d. the ATBI site itself has an administration that is fully
supportive of and integrated into the ATBI
e. what are the lessons from LTERs?
f. is there a mechanism for the project to generate in-country
science capacity?
g. desire by owner country to have an (or more) ATBI site?
h. actual site choice and site ranking are not activities for the
workshop.
12:00-1:00 Lunch, brought in.
1:00-3:00 The baseline data recording processes for an ATBI site
1/2 hour spent on making a list that everyone can think of and
grouping them, and then divide the participants into groups to develop and
summarize these groups for one hour, then have a 1/2 hour to report
results to plenary session. The electronic data manager people are spread
evenly through the participant groups (see evening assignment).
Categories:
a. Network of standard rainfall and temperature recording stations
b. GIS system of attribute layers on basic topographic maps
c. Soil is essential and collectable during the inventory
d. Anthropogenic (and other, volcanic) history of use
e. basic habitats, vegetation types (variety of classifications),
actual vegetation
f. lat-long, national coordinate systems (Lambert, UTM); through GPS
and maps
g. gazeteer of sites, with map of their locations and locations
indicated on the ground as well
h. what are the lessons from LTERs
Sources:
a. literature on the area
b. capture of extant specimen-specific data from international and
national collections
c. on-site new records
d. equivalent or similar from other equivalent or similar sites
e. NASA and other remote sources by other people
f. inference from neighboring areas (Bioclim)
Variance
a. Spread over all habitats and ecosystems vs. in-depth study of
variance
b. historical accumulation of photographs, met data, and other layers
c. probability and costs of data run breaks
NOTE: Biological traits of an ATBI have been placed at the end of the
afternoon of the second day.
3:00-3:30 coffee break
III. PROCEDURES OF THE ATBI
3:30-6:00 Evaluation of all major taxa according to completeness of
inventory in species and/or completeness in area that is truly possible
within the ATBI time and money framework.
The electronic data manager people are spread evenly through the
participant groups (see evening assignment).
Four one hour of plenary, each person responsible for a taxon states the
level of completeness in taxa or area that can be accomplished, with an
approximate cost. Prepare these sheets beforehand, according to whom they
have been assigned. Then the taxa are grouped according to similarity of
sample process or philosophy (e.g., vertebrates, vascular plants, soil
organisms, non-soil invertebrates), and participants spend an hour in
smaller groups discussing and refining. 1/2 hour plenary session
presenting results to all.
Primary questions:
a) how complete is complete?
b) what are the causes of incompleteness?
c) who decides when enough is enough?
d) what does the cost versus completeness curve look like in relative
and absolute terms?
e) completeness of taxonomic coverage versus completeness of coverage
of finished products?
f) subsets of taxa versus subsets of geographic (habitat, etc.) coverage?
g) when should the inventory of a given taxon start, in relation to the
other taxa and in relation to the start date?
h) what to do about orphan taxa?
i) how best to involve the taxonomists and their abilities?
6:00-8:00 pm, break for dinner at hotel or other close place
8:00-10:00 pm
a) Each of the baseline data groups meet together for one hour to discuss
the implications of this day, and then for one hour to prepare an interim
reply to the question of "Is an all-taxa inventory of a large biodiverse
area, in a restricted time frame with a major budget, possible". Reply to
be presented next morning.
b) The electronic data management participants meet for one hour to
analyze the implications of this day, and then for one hour to prepare an
interim reply to the question of "Is an all-taxa inventory of a large
biodiverse area, in a restricted time frame with a major budget,
possible". Reply to be presented next morning.
----------------------------------------------
Day 2 (Saturday, 17 April, 1993)
8:30-9:00 am Report by background data groups reply to the question of
possibility of an ATBI.
9:00-9:30 am Report by electronic data management participants on the
question of possibility of an ATBI.
9:30-10:00 Plenary brainstorming session on technologies of Temporary
Taxonomies until
a) species have been identified,
b) species have been described,
c) later taxonomic work can be incorporated (that is to say,
updating; joining to extant species-files)
d) pertinence and problems of electronic data management for each of
the above
e) specimen vouchering systems for taxonomy
f) specimen vouchering systems for natural history and ecological
processes
Result will be a list of protocols and methods; participants will be asked
to arrive at the workshop with suggestions in writing for their particular
taxa.
10:00-10:30 Coffee break
10:30-12:00 How does inventory of one taxa facilitate inventory of other
taxa?
(This includes the question of inventoriers of one completed group moving
on to help with other groups, as well as co-collecting, versus going micro
or macro). (This also includes synergisms among researchers.) Accompanied
by parallel question of how inventory of one taxon damages inventory
chances for other taxa (and solutions).
Half hour plenary session to generate a list of ways and group them,
followed by one hour of division into groups to polish and summarize
replies; electronic data management participants spread evenly among
groups. Each participant will have been asked to bring with, in writing,
a statement on facilitation and debilitation for his or her taxa by other
inventory activities (e.g., "I refuse to sample spiders where the herp
people have been collecting"; "I can only do animal gut bacteria if the
inventoriers bring me live material").
12:00-1:00 Lunch, brought in
1:00-3:00 pm What are the add-ons (ecology, behavior, chemistry, genetics,
biodiversity prospecting - all based on other budgets) that are likely and
possible, and how can they be attracted as projects, and how can they be
added in to the ATBI without increased cost? Does the taxonomist go into
more detail, become an ecologist or switch to another taxon as inventory
approaches completion?
Begin with 1/2 hour plenary listing, break into groups, discuss for an
hour as groups, 1/2 hour for plenary report by groups; electronic data
management participants have the specific assignment of thinking out the
data management process for these add-ons.
3:00-3:30 pm Coffee break
3:30-6:00 pm Biological characteristics of a site?
a. How large is large enough?
b. Costs and benefits of being small?
c. How much human disturbance is desirable or permitable?
d. One ecosystem or several?
e. Habitat replication?
f. How much is already known about it (go for known or unknown)?
1/2 hour plenary session to generate a list of biological traits and group
them, 1 hour in groups to refine these groups and think of more, and 1
hour plenary session presenting results. Computerization and information
management participants have the special responsibility to ask how their
area of specialty is pertinent to and influences each of these decisions,
which will have the tendency to be answered in the context of traditional
non-electronic inventory support.
6:00-8:00 pm: dinner near campus.
8:00-10:00 pm: evening plenary session to discuss and present the content
(and their implications) of the ERIN workshop 1-5 March, 1993, Canberra,
Australia, and set in context of other workshops recently convened and
convening (October 1992, Smithsonian US Jan 1993; marine inventory March
1993; June England 1993, Norway May 1993, etc.), followed by context of
world-level structural reorganization of taxonomy (data base the big
museums, GEF support for world-level taxonomy, Internet everything) and
implications of full electronic democratization of biodiversity science.
Day 3 (Sunday, 18 April)
IV. OUTPUT, PRODUCTS OF AN ATBI
8:30-10:30 am
What are the best outputs, electronic, hard copy, and others; monographs
versus regional faunas and reference collections; how made compatible, and
how do inventories facilitate monographs? feed into the taxonomic layer;
what is the user community? How to document all results.
While the workshop assumes uses and users to exist, a major consideration
is how to fine-tune products serve many kinds of users simultaneously.
Begin with 1/2 hour plenary listing, break into groups, discuss for hour
as groups, 1/2 hour for plenary report by groups; electronic data
management participants have the specific assignment of thinking out the
data management process for these outputs.
10:30-11:00 am Coffee break.
10:30-12:00 noon
What are the sample and collection methodologies, and data processing
methodologies, that need to be calibrated, developed, refined for each of
your groups? How do these relate to producing a known universe to be
connected to other ATBIs and other specific research efforts? How do these
relate to producing a better product? Total species counts are viewed as
byproducts of producing a known universe for many different users.
This is a one hour plenary session of listing, followed by a half hour
plenary discussion of how this list relates to the outlinks to specific
projects, to other ATBIs, and to the overview world-level layer of
taxonomists. Computerized data management has a special responsibility to
see that it is fully used and developed for each methodology.
12:00-1:00 pm Lunch, brought in.
1:00-3:00 pm
How best to involve nationals, national education processes, national
science process, local government, volunteers, parataxonomists,
paraecologists, graduate students, tourists, local employees - what are
the tradeoffs? How gain the benefits and minimize the costs of an
international effort conducted in a national context? This is a one hour
plenary session of listing of the involvement processes and their
conditions (requirements, traits, costs, adjustments necessary,
benefits/products), followed by one hour placing of these processes and
their conditions at various points in time and space in the inventory
model. Computerized data management has a special responsibility to see
that it is taken into account in each case.
3:00-3:30 pm Coffee break.
V. COSTS?
3:30-6:00 pm
What is an ATBI and its context going to cost? Dollar, time and
intellectual budget. The results of the workshop will by now be a list of
needs and processes; this budget exercise will be a first cut at placing
dollar, time and personnel costs on these needs and processes. This will
be a one hour plenary session rapidly costing all needs and processes,
followed by one hour in three breakout groups to discuss particularly
knotty aspects, followed by a half-hour plenary session with these three
groups giving a rapid overview of their conclusions. One group will be
the computerization and electronification of the data basing, data
manipulation and data distribution. The other two groups will appear
spontaneously.
6:00-8:00 pm Dinner (vicinity)
VI. WRAP IT UP
8:00-10:00 pm
Overview presented by raconteurs (selected at the beginning); revisit the
draft ATBI mission statement, the draft ATBI definition statement, and the
interim replies from second morning of whether an ATBI is possible; at
least two 15-minute discussions of specific thorny topics as assigned
during the workshop; selection of the editorial committee to work on the
report.
All plenary. Will we be tired? Yes, of course we will be. Planning a
war is a not a casual thing.
Day 4 & 5 (Monday & Tuesday, 19 and 20 April). Available for anyone who
wishes to stay on and continue discussing or working on any aspect of the
workshop (budget can cover room and board); Janzen and Hallwachs fully
available for this purpose during these two days. Volunteer editorial
committe goes home with firmly assigned tasks. The final report must be
finished by 1 August 1993, if not earlier.
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For further information, please contact
D. H. Janzen and W. Hallwachs
Department of Biology
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
Tel 215-898-5636
FAX 215-898-8780
e-mail: djanzen at mail.sas.upenn.edu
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