Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: North Carolina
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

We propose to develop an analytical framework that integrates multiple data sources to efficiently and effectively understand current and future avian distribution patterns and the potential for sustaining populations. Arriving at these inferences will be dictated, in large measure, on the availability and suitability of a variety of data sources to populate models. In recent years, non-traditional data gathering approaches (e.g., citizen science) have gained impetus and prominence due to their appeal and acceptance by the public. Cumulative data raises the prospect of its potential to supplement or complement other data sources (e.g., BBS, ARMI, NAAMP), and thus, improve inferences about species distribution and responses to a changing environment if used rigorously. The framework will also be useful to identify critical information gaps and provide guidelines to collect data in ways that reduce specified uncertainties in model inferences, and will be applicable to other taxa.