The Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) has become a partner with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) / Biological Resources Division (BRD) in the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) web-based electronic information network. This has allowed IBP to make available on-line the annual reports of the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program. Previously these data have been published only in IBP's peer-reviewed publication Bird Populations. This avian demographics query interface includes the following components:
1. Regional between-year changes in adult population size
and productivity indices for 144 species from analyses of MAPS banding
data (1992-2003).
2. Regional annual adult apparent survival rate estimates
for 179 species from mark-recapture analyses of MAPS data (1992-2003).
3. MAPS Station information:
4. Cumulative, composite breeding status of each species captured, seen, or heard at each station during the years 1989-2003.
IBP ensures that species names provided through the web-based query interface conform to the taxonomic nomenclature provided by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
5. Metadata. IBP has developed metadata records for the MAPS database and geospatial data layers that are made available electronically. Metadata records follow the format of the Biological Data Profile of the FGDC Metadata Content Standard.
To make available on-line the annual reports of the MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) program.
MAPS protocol (DeSante, D.F., Burton, K.M., Velez, P., Froehlich,
D., and Kaschube, D. 2006. MAPS Manual: 2006 Protocol.
The Institute for Bird Populations, Point Reyes Station, CA. 75
p.) also requires station operators to record the probable breeding
status of all avian species seen, heard, or captured at each station
on every day of operation using methods similar to those employed
in breeding bird atlas projects; and to assign a composite breeding
status for every species at the end of the season based on those
records. In addition, a station map and standardized quantitative
habitat descriptions are prepared each year for each major habitat
type contained in the station by means of the MAPS Habitat Structure
Assessment protocol (Nott, M.P., DeSante, D.F., Michel, N. 2003.
Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) Habitat
Structure Assessment (HSA) Protocol. The Institute for Bird
Populations, Point Reyes Station, CA 42 p.). Finally, MAPS operators
are able to enter or import, verify, edit, and submit all their
data to IBP by means of MAPSPROG (Froehlich, D., Michel, N., DeSante,
D.F. and Velez, P. 2006. MAPSPROG Version 4.1. User's Guide
and Manual. The Institute for Bird Populations, Point Reyes
Station, CA. 172 p.), a specially designed Windows-based computer
program distributed free of charge for that purpose by IBP. MAPSPROG
has four modules that deal, respectively, with banding, effort,
breeding status, and habitat assessment data. The program includes
within- and between-record verification algorithms that substantially
improve the quality of the banding data, particularly age and sex
determinations. Importantly, it allows the persons who actually
collect the data to also verify and edit them. Moreover, this process
can be carried out during the field season, thereby allowing station
operators to learn from their errors in a very timely manner.