Statement of Work Curation of long-term avian data set for Guanica.pdf

US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Statement of Work

Contents Project General Information

1.0 Scope of Work

2.0 Background

Contractor Requirements

3.0 Technical Requirements / Tasks

4.0 Government Furnished

5.0 Deliverables / Schedule

6.0 Travel

7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel

8.0 Security Requirements

9.0 Data Rights

10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards Attachment

Project Curation of long-term avian data set for Guanica

General Information

1.0 Scope of Work

The Guanica Netting Project has generated 50 years of data documenting changes in abundance of migrant and resident birds in the Guanica State Forest. These data exist in different formats including published papers, paper files, spreadsheets, and field notes that are under the control of multiple researchers (John Faaborg and colleagues, Judith Toms, and Wayne Arendt). The primary goal of this work is to prepare a unified data set that meets requirements for submission to the appropriate Forest Service data archive and that contains sufficient support information to be accessible to future generations of researchers. The challenges in achieving this goal involve identifying the sources and formats of existing data, obtaining relevant data from the owners, homogenizing the data into a single format, verifying that the combined dataset matches the field data, and creating metadata that will allow interpretation and re-use of the data.

These challenges should be addressed in three steps: 1) determine the scope of the task by identifying all sources and formats of relevant data and metadata and assessing the effort required to produce a unified data set; 2) acquire all data and metadata, create common data and metadata formats, unify the data, and carry out Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) protocols to verify data and metadata; and 3) submit data and metadata to the Forest Service archive.

The deliverables for these steps will include a unified and verified data set accompanied by comprehensive metadata allowing future re-use of the data.

The timeline for this work goes as follows: step one should take approximately one month after project approval, depending on the availability of key data owners. The timeline for the second step of the project will be determined during the first phase and will depend largely on the ability to obtain data in a timely manner. Once data and metadata are obtained, it is anticipated that the creation of the unified data set should take no more than six months. Lastly, submission of the data set will depend on the requirements of the Forest Service archive.

The contractor must possess a PhD degree in Zoology and have a minimum of 30 years of experience working with large data sets, specifically avian population data. Demonstratable experience in data archive publications, bird banding techniques and procedures of the North American Bird Banding Program. At least 30 years of experience working in the tropics, preferably in Puerto Rico.

Familiarity with the Forest Service Data archive system.

2.0 Background

The Guánica Netting Project has generated annual measures of the abundance of resident and migrant birds since 1973, making it one of the longest-running studies of bird populations in the world. Data from this project exist in different formats (e.g., field notebooks, scanned documents, spreadsheets, and files from various statistical software packages) under the control of three individuals (John Faaborg, Judith Toms, and Wayne Arendt). The goal is to produce a unified and documented data set from these different sources that can be archived and made accessible to future generations of researchers through the USDA Research Data Archive.

The data needed to create the unified data set was collected by different investigators over different periods of time, including:

1. Data collected by Faaborg from Netline #1 (1972-1980) and Netline #2 (1973-1980)

2. Data collected by Arendt from Netline #2 (El Fuerte) from 1981 until 2017

3. Data collected by Faaborg and Arendt from 6 (1989), 7 (1990), or 8 (1991-2008) additional netlines

4. Data collected by Toms from 8 netlines from 2008-2017

5. Data collected by Toms and Bethany Woodworth for separate projects.

So far, for this project an assessment of the scope of steps and time estimated for the deliverables has been completed. It has been identified potential sources of data and developed an inventory that includes date, source, owner, file type, number of netlines, issues, and data fields included for each data source. some of these data files (both spreadsheets and PDFs) from various sources was already acquired and examined; and communications with Wayne Arendt and more recently with John Faaborg and Judith Toms was established. As a result, a clearer idea of the status of the data collected by Faaborg, Tomes, and Arendt was generated.

Additionally, publications, field notes, and e-mail trails to recover pertinent metadata to accompany the unified data set were also recently reviewed.

From all of these a list of deliverables was obtained and organized in three stages of work as described below:

- The deliverables will include a unified and verified data set accompanied by comprehensive metadata allowing future re-use of the data

- Steps: 1) determine the scope of the task by identifying all sources and formats of relevant data and metadata and assessing the effort required to produce a unified data set; 2) acquire all data and metadata, create common data and metadata formats, unify the data, and carry out Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) protocols to verify data and metadata; and 3) submit data and metadata to the Forest Service archive.

Contractor Requirements

3.0 Technical Requirements / Tasks

The contractor must complete the following tasks related to the Guanica Netting Project dataset:

1) Determine the scope of the work by identifying all sources and formats of relevant data and metadata of the Guanica Netting Project and assess the effort required to produce a unified data set.

2) Acquire all data and metadata from the multiple researchers who are in current control of the published papers, paper files, spreadsheets, and field notes, of the Guanica Netting Project.

3) Create common data and metadata formats, unify the data, and carry out Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) protocols to verify data and metadata of the Guanica Netting Project.

4) Format and prepare a dataset packet for publication in the Forest Service archive.

5) Submit data and metadata to the Forest Service archive.

Technical Requirements:

- PhD in Biology, Ecology, or Zoology

- At least 30 years of experience in studying migrant and resident Neotropical birds using mist netting techniques in the tropics.

- Experience with preparation and publication of long-term data sets, specifically using bird populations data.

- At least 30 years of experience working with Guanica State Forest and its avifauna, including both resident and migrant species.

- Experience with banding techniques and procedures of the North American Bird Banding Program.

- Experience in developing ecological databases.

- Familiarity with the Forest Service Archive data formatting.

4.0 Government Furnished

The Contractor will work directly with the Institute staff headquartered at the US Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry. Products and information generated will be products of the USFS International Institute of Tropical Forestry and recognize the support of all partners that contribute to the tasks. Products will be developed by the contractor working in collaboration with Dr. Grizelle González (US Forest Service) and the research team in the IITF R&D Unit. All products will be delivered to Dr. González at

IITF.

5.0 Deliverables / Schedule

Timely submission of deliverables is essential to successfully completing this requirement.

Key Deliverables

Item No. Deliverable Objective Due 1 Determination of the scope of the task Identification of all sources and formats of relevant data and metadata and assessment of the effort required to produce a unified data set

One (1) month after project approval

2 Acquisition of all data and metadata

Creation of common data and metadata formats, unification of the data, and carrying out Quality Assurance (QA)/Quality Control (QC) protocols to verify data and metadata

Two (2) months for data acquisition Six (6) months for the creation of the unified data

3 Submission of data and metadata to the Forest Service archive.

Formatting and preparing a data submission package with all associated paperwork

Three (3) months estimate but will depend on the requirements of the Forest Service archive, and reviewers’ comments.

6.0 Travel

N/A

7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel

The contractor will have experience in studying migrant and resident Neotropical birds using mist netting techniques in the tropics, experience with preparation and publication of long-term data sets, specifically using bird populations data. The contractor should have familiarity with Guanica State Forest and its avifauna, including both resident and migrant species, experience with banding techniques and procedures of the North American Bird Banding Program, experience in developing ecological databases. And Familiarity with the Forest Service Archive data formatting.

8.0 Security Requirements

N/A

9.0 Data Rights

Products and information generated will be products of the USFS International Institute of Tropical Forestry and recognize the support of all partners that contribute to the tasks. Products will be developed by the contractor working in collaboration with Dr.

Grizelle González (US Forest Service) and the research team in the IITF R&D Unit. All products will be delivered to Dr. González at

IITF.

10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards Any documents procured, shared, or created by the contractor and related to this contract will be property of the government.

Attachment N/A