Databases

The Alien Forest Pest Explorer (AFPE) is an interactive web tool which provides detailed spatial data describing pest distributions and host inventory estimates for damaging, non-indigenous forest insect and disease pathogens currently established in the U.S. The database is maintained as a joint effort of Purdue University, the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, and the U.S. Forest Service Forest Health Protection.

A centralized database covering all of the recorded invasive vertebrate eradications on islands and an important tool in helping improve the quality of eradications.

Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS) is a platform for invasive and pest species information and occurrence data including all taxa and environments, and provides a more accurate picture of the distribution of invasive species. EDDMapS will allow land managers, agencies, and others to set priorities for early detection and rapid response (EDRR), as well as formulate overall invasive plant management action plans. EDDMapS provides online tools for citizens to report invasive species sightings and maps these sightings to provide distribution information by species, state, and county. There are many tools available to help small, locally-based groups to map and manage their invasive and pest species populations.

Contains several databases: EPPO Codes, EPPO Global Database, EPPO Database on PP1 Standards – Efficacy evaluation of PPPs, EPPO Database on Diagnostic Expertise, and CAPRA (Computer Assisted Pest Risk Analysis).

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international network and data infrastructure funded by the world's governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.

Provides mapping functions for species globally. The GBIF network draws sources together through the use of data standards, such as Darwin Core, which forms the basis for the bulk of GBIF.org's index of hundreds of millions of species occurrence records. Publishers provide open access to their datasets using machine-readable Creative Commons license designations, allowing scientists, researchers, and others to apply the data in hundreds of peer-reviewed publications and policy papers each year. Many of these analyses—which cover topics from the impacts of climate change and the spread of invasive and alien pests to priorities for conservation and protected areas, food security and human health— would not be possible without this.

Note: USGS's BISON (Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation) which provided North American species occurrence data and maps moved away from the 10-year-old infrastructure of the previous BISON website (bison.usgs.gov) to a GBIF data portal for the U.S. provided by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The new site became live on October 1, 2021, and the previous BISON website was be taken down on December 17, 2021.

InvaCost is the most up-to-date, comprehensive, standardized and robust data compilation and description of economic cost estimates associated with invasive species worldwide. InvaCost has been constructed to provide a contemporary and freely available repository of monetary impacts that can be relevant for both research and evidence-based policy making.

Provides information on how to control many invasive plants common to the Midwestern U.S. Information was collected from both scientific literature and expert opinions and summarized by the Midwest Invasive Plant Network (MIPN), in partnership with the Mark Renz lab from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation is a state-of-the art facility for advanced research providing expertise in DNA sequencing and environmental and forensic DNA sampling. Environmental DNA (eDNA) can be collected from bodies of water and offers great potential for monitoring and detecting species of interest. The Center is designed for cross-agency partnerships to provide cost-effective and reliable genetic and genomic data for species monitoring.

Launched in 2015, the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is a continental program that monitors bats at local and range-wide scales. NABat monitoring efforts focus on the 46 species of bats shared by Canada, the United States and Mexico. NABat provides reliable data to promote effective conservation and long-term viability of bat populations and is jointly led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. Participating members include U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and other federal, state and provincial agencies in the U.S. and Canada, local and regional agencies, native Tribes, academic institutions, businesses and conservation organizations.

White-nose syndrome has killed over 90% of northern long-eared, little brown and tri-colored bat populations in fewer than 10 years, according to a new study published in Conservation Biology.
See also: Summing Up NABat Successes (U.S. Forest Service, CompassLive - Aug 5, 2021)

The Southeast (SE) Bat Hub was created in summer 2022 to coordinate North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABAT) survey projects in the Southeastern states. The Hub provides services, updates, and content to assist the NABat efforts across the region.

Since 2006, white-nose syndrome (a fungal disease) has been infecting bat populations across the U.S. This disease has killed some species of bats, such as the tricolored bat and northern long-eared bats at alarming rates.
See also: The Southeast Bat Hub Coordinates NABat Monitoring Efforts in the Southeast (U.S. Forest Service, CompassLive - Dec 12, 2023)

This collection houses Australia's most accurate and detailed listing of weeds within Australia and provides descriptions of their status in each Australian jurisdiction, as well as information about their physical and biological characteristics, diagnostic features, impacts, management strategies and methods, distribution and links to key resource and documents.

The Bureau of Land Management's National Invasive Species Information Management System (NISIMS) is designed to collect field data and store it in a standard database to allow for data sharing and reporting at the local, state and national levels. At this time, the system reports and tracks weed infestations only, Future versions of the system will report and track infestations by all taxa including weeds, birds, fish, and algae. The system also reports and tracks treatments of these invasive weed species infestations on public lands.

The Aquatic eDNAtlas Project supports effective conservation and management of freshwater biota during an era of rapid climate change, nonnative species invasions, and habitat loss. Rocky Mountain Research Station scientists have been at the forefront of investigating and applying eDNA sampling for aquatic species.

The eDNAtlas allows land managers, scientists, and the public to access results from samples collected from aquatic systems throughout the U.S. The eDNAtlas database contains results from thousands of sites.

DisMAP provides easy access to information to track and understand distributions of marine species in the U.S. Marine Ecosystems. Launch the portal to explore, visualize and interact with information on marine species distributions. The portal  is part of NOAA Fisheries ongoing efforts to increase the delivery and use of climate-related information to advance climate-smart science and management decisions.  The portal enables users to view, download, dynamically explore and visualize data and information on species distributions. Specifically, users can explore changes in species distributions on a map and view time series graphs showing changes in key metrics of a species distribution (e.g., average latitude, average depth) over time for over 800 species collected in NOAA bottom trawl surveys.
See also: NOAA Showcases New Mapping Tool for Marine Species: Data Reveals Fish are Shifting into Different Waters (News Release - Apr 19, 2022)

The species taxonomy defines groupings of biological organisms based on their shared characteristics. These groupings, called taxa (or singular taxon), are arranged based on taxonomic rank in which the deeper down the tree you are, the more granular the grouping characteristics are. This tree structure, with branches further down the line getting more specific, creates an overall hierarchy for categorizing life.

This database contains literature reviews of botanical characteristics, life cycle, habitat, succession, distribution, impacts, fire ecology, and fire effects for 1000 plant and animal species, including 67 non-native invasive species. Future plans include updating many of these "species summaries" and adding 30-40 more summaries of non-native invasives over the next 1.5 years.

The present database targets nonindigenous aquatic species that are not considered to have been native to any part of the Great Lakes basin. GLANSIS functions as a Great Lakes specific node of the USGS NAS national database.

NEMESIS is a resource for information on non-native (or exotic) species that occur in coastal marine waters of the United States. This relational database compiles detailed information on approximately 500 different non-native species of plants, fish, invertebrates, protists and algae that have invaded our coastal waters. The database identifies which species have been reported, their current population status (i.e., whether established or not), as well as when, where, and how they invaded; it also summarizes key information on the biology, ecology, and known impacts of each invader.

The PLANTS Database provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. The database includes names, checklists, automated tools, identification information, species abstracts, distributional data, crop information, plant symbols, plant growth data, plant materials information, plant links, references, and other plant information. The PLANTS database contains native and naturalized plants of the PLANTS Floristic Area (PFA), which consists of North America and all additional U.S. territories and protectorates.
Note: The Invasive/Noxious Weeds data in the previous PLANTS version were outdated and not migrated to the new PLANTS version (new site launched in Spring 2021). A new PLANTS Invasive/Noxious Weeds dataset has been developed and will be deployed to PLANTS in a later release.

Calflora provides a specialized mapping platform for plant locations as a public service. This platform consists of a geospatial database, and a set of web applications and phone applications. While originally developed to track native plant populations, the platform has also been used to advantage to track non-native populations.

The Entomological Society of America (ESA) Common Names database is an essential reference for anyone who works with insects. It includes more than 2,000 common names and is searchable by common name, scientific name, author, order, family, genus, and species.
See also: Better Common Names Project which aims to ensure common names are respectful, inclusive, and accurately descriptive.

National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) tracks environment and natural resources legislation to bring you up-to-date, real-time information on bills that have been introduced in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. Database provides search options by state (or territory), topic, keyword, year, status or primary sponsor. Topics include Wildlife - Legislation related to wildlife, including protected and invasive species, habitat restoration, migration corridors, trafficking, disease, etc. 
See also: Resources State Bill Tracking Database Archive (2009-2022); includes Wildlife-Invasive Species and Wildlife-Pollinators topics