IGN 6-7 - IBEIS and NEON: From pixels to science to conservation

Wednesday, August 10, 2016
316, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Daniel Rubenstein, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, Charles Stewart, Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, Tanya Berger-Wolf, Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL and Jason Holmberg, Wild Me, Portland, OR
NEON enables scientists to systematically gather big data to monitor ecological change.  Since individuals ultimately shape the dynamics of populations, communities and ecosystems, adding data on ‘who’ does ‘what’, ‘when and ‘where’ should enhance the utility of NEON’s growing databases.  Using photographs taken by citizen scientists on strikingly marked whale sharks and less distinctively marked humpback whales, we show why IBEIS—a novel and powerful Image Based Ecological Information System—is the perfect tool for transforming NEON’s impact and democratizing its science.