S11 - Invasive Species Experts’ Panel: Breaking Information Silos

Unsolicited contributions considered? No

Abstract

New Zealand and Australia are global leaders in developing coordinated and early response to biological invasions for successful invasive species control, but in spite of our best efforts worldwide, the economic impact of invasive species at a global level remains overwhelming. Leading scientific experts in sharing invasive species data (from the region and the globe) will briefly describe their successes and challenges in standards development, outreach, coordinating citizen scientists, and creating prioritized species checklists. The session will end with a general Q/A and discussion among panelists and participants.

Format

Panelists will briefly describe a success and a challenge related to their work with invasive species data, followed by a 20-minute discussion.

Topics/Panelists

• “Leveraging citizen science data to monitor invasive species Belgium” Quentin Groom, Botany and Information Technology, Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium.
• “Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species: challenges with classification” Shyama Pagad, IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Invasive Species Specialist Group, New Zealand.
• “Using Collections to Extract Valuable Invasives Species Information” Mark Allen Wetter, Wisconsin State Herbarium.
• “Vocabulary challenges with invasive species data sharing” Annie Simpson.

Bios

• Quentin Groom is a researcher based at the Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium. He works on the digitization and dissemination of biodiversity data, but is also interested in the use of these data for biodiversity monitoring, particularly for invasive species.

• Shyama Pagad is the Programme officer of the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group, based at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her main area of work currently is the development of the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) and invasive alien species related biodiversity indicators.

• Annie Simpson is an entomologist and information scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, based in Reston, Virginia, USA, and formerly convener of the Invasive Species Information Systems Interest Group of TDWG. She recruits federal and invasive species datasets for inclusion in the USGS Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON) online species mapping application.

• Mark Allen Wetter is a Senior Curator at the Wisconsin State Herbarium, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He has been involved with a variety of digitization projects encompassing a wide variety of taxa (lichens, bryophytes, fungi, and vascular plants), and is interested in tracking potentially invasive and invasive species in ecosystems.