Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC)

Latest version published by United States Geological Survey on Mar 13, 2019 United States Geological Survey

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Description

The Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC) is a database and mapping application that provide geospatial information for non-native plant species in Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories. These products are the result of an ongoing cooperation among the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Natural Resources Plant Material Center, and Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) in support of the Alaska Committee for Noxious and Invasive Pest Management (CNIPM) and the Strategic Plan for Noxious and Invasive Plants Management in Alaska. ACCS administers the mapping application, database, and website associated with the project; project funding is granted by collaborators and contributed by users. These data are primarily intended to support the identification of problem species and infestations, thus promoting early detection and rapid response across Alaska and are additionally used in a variety of research and modeling activities. ACCS tracks all non-native plants known to occur in Alaska. In addition, ACCS has compiled biographies for over half of the 350 non-native plant species that are known or likely to occur in Alaska. In collaboration with biologists, land managers, and weed scientists across the state, ACCS has developed an invasive plant ranking system that helps evaluate the potential invasiveness and impacts of non-native plants to natural areas in Alaska (Carlson et al. 2008). With funding support from the US Forest Service, the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts, and the University of Alaska, we have ranked approximately 170 non-native plant species to date.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Eyler M (2017): Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC). v1.2. United States Geological Survey. Dataset/Metadata. https://bison.usgs.gov/ipt/resource?r=akepic&v=1.2

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is United States Geological Survey. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

GBIF Registration

This resource has not been registered with GBIF

Keywords

Metadata; non-native; non-native plants; invasive plants; weeds; Alaska; Canada

Contacts

Meghan Eyler
  • Originator
  • Student
United States Geological Survey
Elizabeth Sellers
  • Metadata Provider
  • User
  • Technical Information Specialist - Biology
United States Geological Survey
  • 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Mail Stop 302
20192 Reston
Virginia
US
  • +1 (703) 648.4385
Justin Fulkerson
  • Point Of Contact
  • Botanist and Primary Contact - AKEPIC
Alaska Center for Conservation Science, University of Alaska Anchorage
  • Beatrice McDonald Hall, 3211 Providence Drive
99508 Anchorage
Alaska
  • +1 907-786-6387
Nancy Norvell
  • Point Of Contact
  • Data Manager - AKEPIC
Alaska Center for Conservation Science, University of Alaska Anchorage
  • Beatrice McDonald Hall, 3211 Providence Drive
99508 Anchorage
Alaska
  • +1 907-786-6385
Annie Simpson
  • Biologist and Information Scientist
United States Geological Survey
  • 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Mail Stop 302
20192 Reston
Virginia
US
  • +1 (703) 648.4281

Geographic Coverage

Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories General spatial coverage: longitude -109.55 to -173.2613 and latitude 52.83194 to 69.36689

Bounding Coordinates South West [52.268, -168.75], North East [71.413, -103.359]

Taxonomic Coverage

Non-native plant species in Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories. There are 146,788 occurrences of 346 unique taxa.

Kingdom Plantae (Plants)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1900-08-01 / 2016-11-14

Project Data

The Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC) is a database and mapping application that provide geospatial information for non-native plant species in Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories. These products are the result of an ongoing cooperation among the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Natural Resources Plant Material Center, and Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) in support of the Alaska Committee for Noxious and Invasive Pest Management (CNIPM) and the Strategic Plan for Noxious and Invasive Plants Management in Alaska. ACCS administers the mapping application, database, and website associated with the project; project funding is granted by collaborators and contributed by users. These data are primarily intended to support the identification of problem species and infestations, thus promoting early detection and rapid response across Alaska and are additionally used in a variety of research and modeling activities.

Title Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC)
Funding U.S. Forest Service, the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts, and the University of Alaska
Study Area Description Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories

The personnel involved in the project:

Justin Fulkerson

Sampling Methods

Field data collection is generally designed to meet each user’s objectives. AKEPIC has no specific recommendations for sampling design; however, certain information is required for upload to the database. Required fields are denoted on the field data form and data entry form and are discussed in the ‘Entering AKEPIC Data in the Office’ section of this manual. Because records for which required fields are not populated cannot be added to the database, we recommend that potential contributors review these requirements prior to beginning field work. Found in: http://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/files/invasive-species/AKEPIC_UserManual_Oct2016.pdf

Study Extent The Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC) is a database and mapping application that provide geospatial information for non-native plant species in Alaska and neighboring Canadian Territories. These products are the result of an ongoing cooperation among the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Natural Resources Plant Material Center, and Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS) in support of the Alaska Committee for Noxious and Invasive Pest Management (CNIPM) and the Strategic Plan for Noxious and Invasive Plants Management in Alaska. ACCS administers the mapping application, database, and website associated with the project; project funding is granted by collaborators and contributed by users. These data are primarily intended to support the identification of problem species and infestations, thus promoting early detection and rapid response across Alaska and are additionally used in a variety of research and modeling activities. ACCS tracks all non-native plants known to occur in Alaska. In addition, ACCS has compiled biographies for over half of the 350 non-native plant species that are known or likely to occur in Alaska. In collaboration with biologists, land managers, and weed scientists across the state, ACCS has developed an invasive plant ranking system that helps evaluate the potential invasiveness and impacts of non-native plants to natural areas in Alaska (Carlson et al. 2008). With funding support from the US Forest Service, the Alaska Association of Conservation Districts, and the University of Alaska, we have ranked approximately 170 non-native plant species to date.
Quality Control We expect contributors to verify the quality of their data prior to submission. The accuracy of the location and taxonomic identity of the population rests entirely on the field observer and/or the representative submitting the data. Please ensure that all required data fields are populated and, when possible, that a unique site code is assigned to each infestation. Before submitted data are uploaded to the AKEPIC database, the database administrator performs a series of checks for completeness, logical consistency, and general quality of the data. If problems are discovered that cannot be rectified by the database administrator, the problem records will be returned to the contributor for correction. Found in: http://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/files/invasive-species/AKEPIC_UserManual_Oct2016.pdf

Method step description:

  1. User manual: http://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/files/invasive-species/AKEPIC_UserManual_Oct2016.pdf

Bibliographic Citations

  1. AKEPIC (2016) Alaska Exotic Plants Information Clearinghouse (AKEPIC) User's Manual. http://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/files/invasive-species/AKEPIC_UserManual_Oct2016.pdf

Additional Metadata