Update on an EPIIC Summer
We hope you were able to spend time this summer enjoying the wonders of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE). Yellowstone Ecological Research Center’s staff and collaborators did, sometimes in the field, sometimes behind a computer translating these wonders into an exciting data sharing project.
Cowboy camping on the Yellowstone River, not far from RiverNET data collection sites
Our recently launched initiative, Ecosystem Prognosis Impact Information Cooperative, expands our YellowstoneNET program in a way we believe lives up to the initiative’s acronym, EPIIC.
As many of you experienced firsthand this summer, the GYE contains complex natural and cultural systems. EPIIC is designed to provide the data YERC collects about rivers, soil, and wildlife to stakeholders in the region; whether they be a college student interested in the animals she sees hiking in Yellowstone National Park, a rancher curious about soil moisture, or a political candidate trying to better understand impacts on streamflow. EPIIC brings people together through data, which drives better decisions for our ecosystem.
To date, 2020 was filled with events that underscored the importance not only of non-partisan data, but also of the timely delivery of this information to decision makers. Bob Crabtree, YERC’s chief scientist and executive director, draws an analogy between COVID-19 tests that take two weeks to yield results and ecological data that becomes available a year after it is collected—the information comes too late to make a difference. The GYE is constantly evolving, which means more recent data is more relevant to our community. Thanks to YERC’s field work and EPIIC’s open-source, cloud-based architecture developed by diverse volunteers from Topcoder, our data can be used by people around the world to protect and restore rivers, landscapes, and wildlife in near real-time.
EPIIC’s mission is to discover and deliver raw ecological data that will benefit you. Our researchers process the data initially before it is made available on Amphora Data Exchange, which you can access and use as a collaborator. Topcoder and Amphora enable YERC’s data to be rapidly delivering to a wide-audience, solving a major challenge in acting upon scientific research (we are so excited about this that we decided to focus our next Field Notes post on the partnership behind EPIIC - keep an eye out).
Screenshot of the EPIIC user interface
Check it out by going to YERC’s website, navigating to the RiverNET program page, which contains instructions for how to view the data on Amphora. Keep an eye out for updates—our team and collaborators have big plans for EPIIC, and we can’t wait to share them with you as they come online!
Ava Kunze, YERC Marketing Intern