Proto-OKN Theme 1: Exploiting Federal Data and Beyond: A Multi-modal Knowledge Network for Comprehensive Wildlife Management under Climate Change

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

This Prototype-Open Knowledge Network project seeks to create a comprehensive, integrative knowledge network for the management of wildlife in the context of climate change, called KN-Wildlife. Effective wildlife management is essential for safeguarding biodiversity, ecosystem health, and economic stability of any region. The looming threat of climate change can disrupt the distribution, behavior, and population dynamics of many species, particularly those that are invasive or threatened or economically important. While Species Distribution Models (SDMs) have been used to predict species responses to climate change, their predictive capability can be hampered by the omission of several influencing factors like interspecies competition, changes in land use, or the migration ability of various species. A number of data sources are available that are relevant to these considerations including the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. However, the effective use of these data is currently impeded by factors associated with the heterogeneity, spatial and temporal discrepancies, and varying quality and completeness of the data. KN-Wildlife will address this problem by providing an open-access platform that couples data with visualization tools and predictive models to distill complex multimodal data into an intuitive, unified representation of managed species. KN-Wildlife would help inform decision-making processes and while providing stakeholders with actionable insights. The project will begin by providing comprehensive knowledge and predictive models for species of concern to stakeholders in these two US states, viz., Indiana and Florida. Project collaborators include stakeholders from the Fish and Wildlife Commissions (FWC) and Departments of Health (DoH) from both of these states. KN-Wildlife will initially focus on around 3,000 managed species of interest to the stakeholders, encompassing a broad taxonomy from fungi and bacteria to fish and mammals. Working in collaboration with the Lucy Family Institute at the University of Notre Dame, the project will integrate use of KN-Wildlife into the NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Traineeship for Socially Responsible and Engaged Data Scientists (iTREDS) program and the Summer Education and Engagement for Data Science (SEEDS) Program. These initiatives are specifically designed to provide undergraduate data science training centered on societal challenges, and also provide K-12 training opportunities for those from under-resourced schools and communities. All KN-Wildlife resources will be publicly available. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.