Colin Talbert
Biography
Colin Talbert is an ecologist and data scientist at the Fort Collins Science Center. He received a Master of Science degree in ecology from the Colorado State University Graduate Degree Program in Ecology. Since joining the USGS in 2006 he has specialized in landscape scale analyses, spatial data processing, scientific workflows, data visualization, and data management and decision support tool (DSS) development.
Partners
- North Central Climate Science Center
Science and Products
Documenting, Mapping, and Predicting Invasive Species Using the Fort Collins Science Center's RAM (Resource for Advanced Modeling)
The Resource for Advanced Modeling room provides a collaborative working environment for up to 20 scientists, supported with networked, wireless computing capability for running and testing various scientific models (e.g., Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees, Logistic Regression, MARS, Random Forest) at a variety of spatial scales, from county to global levels. Models use various predictor layers...
Facilitating the USGS Scientific Data Management Foundation by integrating the process into current scientific workflow systems
Increasing attention is being paid to the importance of proper scientific data management and implementing processes that ensure that products being released are properly documented. USGS policies have been established to properly document not only publications, but also the related data and software. This relatively recent expansion of documentation requirements for data and software may...
Forecasting an invasive species’ distribution with global distribution data, local data, and physiological information
Understanding invasive species distributions and potential invasions often requires broad‐scale information on the environmental tolerances of the species. Further, resource managers are often faced with knowing these broad‐scale relationships as well as nuanced environmental factors related to their landscape that influence where an invasive...
Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Talbert, Marian; Talbert, Colin Minimizing effects of methodological decisions on interpretation and prediction in species distribution studies: An example with background selection
Evaluating the conditions where a species can persist is an important question in ecology both to understand tolerances of organisms and to predict distributions across landscapes. Presence data combined with background or pseudo-absence locations are commonly used with species distribution modeling to develop these relationships. However, there...
Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Aldridge, Cameron L.; Brown, Cynthia; Kumar, Sunil; Manier, Daniel J.; Talbert, Colin; Holcombe, Tracy R. Crossing boundaries in a collaborative modeling workspace
There is substantial literature on the importance of bridging across disciplinary and science–management boundaries. One of the ways commonly suggested to cross boundaries is for participants from both sides of the boundary to jointly produce information (i.e., knowledge co-production). But simply providing tools or bringing people together in the...
Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Cravens, Amanda E.; Miller, Brian W.; Talbert, Marian; Talbert, Colin; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Fink, Michelle; Decker, Karin; Odell, Eric
Community for Data Integration 2016 annual report
The Community for Data Integration (CDI) represents a dynamic community of practice focused on advancing science data and information management and integration capabilities across the U.S. Geological Survey and the CDI community. This annual report describes the various presentations, activities, and outcomes of the CDI monthly forums, working...
Langseth, Madison L.; Hsu, Leslie; Amberg, Jon J.; Bliss, Norman; Bock, Andrew R.; Bolus, Rachel T.; Bristol, R. Sky; Chase, Katherine J.; Crimmins, Theresa M.; Earle, Paul S.; Erickson, Richard; Everette, A. Lance; Falgout, Jeff T.; Faundeen, John L.; Fienen, Michael N.; Griffin, Rusty; Guy, Michelle R.; Henry, Kevin D.; Hoebelheinrich, Nancy J.; Hunt, Randall J.; Hutchison, Vivian B.; Ignizio, Drew A.; Infante, Dana M.; Jarnevich, Catherine; Jones, Jeanne M.; Kern, Tim; Leibowitz, Scott; Lightsom, Francis L.; Marsh, R. Lee; McCalla, S. Grace; McNiff, Marcia; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Nelson, John C.; Norkin, Tamar; Preston, Todd M.; Rosemartin, Alyssa; Sando, Roy; Sherba, Jason T.; Signell, Richard P.; Sleeter, Benjamin M.; Sundquist, Eric T.; Talbert, Colin B.; Viger, Roland J.; Weltzin, Jake F.; Waltman, Sharon; Weber, Marc; Wieferich, Daniel J.; Williams, Brad; Windham-Myers, Lisamarie Evaluating simplistic methods to understand current distributions and forecast distribution changes under climate change scenarios: An example with coypu (Myocastor coypus)
Invasive species provide a unique opportunity to evaluate factors controlling biogeographic distributions; we can consider introduction success as an experiment testing suitability of environmental conditions. Predicting potential distributions of spreading species is not easy, and forecasting potential distributions with changing climate is even...
Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Sheffels, Trevor R.; Carter, Jacoby; Systma, Mark D.; Talbert, Colin Integrating remote sensing with species distribution models; Mapping tamarisk invasions using the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM)
Early detection of invasive plant species is vital for the management of natural resources and protection of ecosystem processes. The use of satellite remote sensing for mapping the distribution of invasive plants is becoming more common, however conventional imaging software and classification methods have been shown to be unreliable. In this...
West, Amanda M.; Evangelista, Paul H.; Jarnevich, Catherine S.; Young, Nicholas E.; Stohlgren, Thomas J.; Talbert, Colin; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey; Anderson, Ryan Evaluating methods to establish habitat suitability criteria: A case study in the upper Delaware River Basin, USA
Defining habitat suitability criteria (HSC) of aquatic biota can be a key component to environmental flow science. HSC can be developed through numerous methods; however, few studies have evaluated the consistency of HSC developed by different methodologies. We directly compared HSC for depth and velocity developed by the Delphi method (expert...
Galbraith, Heather S.; Blakeslee, Carrie J.; Cole, Jeffrey C.; Talbert, Colin; Maloney, Kelly O.
Development of a decision support tool for water and resource management using biotic, abiotic, and hydrological assessments of Topock Marsh, Arizona
Topock Marsh is a large wetland adjacent to the Colorado River and the main feature of Havasu National Wildlife Refuge (Havasu NWR) in southern Arizona. In 2010, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Bureau of Reclamation began a project to improve water management capabilities at Topock Marsh and protect habitats and species. Initial...
Holmquist-Johnson, Christopher; Hanson, Leanne; Daniels, Joan; Talbert, Colin; Haegele, Jeanette
User's manual for the upper Delaware River riverine environmental flow decision support system (REFDSS), Version 1.1.2
Between 2002 and 2006, the Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted field surveys, organized workshops, and performed analysis of habitat for trout and shad in the Upper Delaware River Basin. This work culminated in the development of decision support system software (the Delaware River DSS–DRDSS, Bovee and...
Talbert, Colin; Maloney, Kelly O.; Holmquist-Johnson, Chris; Hanson, Leanne
Metadata Wizard: an easy-to-use tool for creating FGDC-CSDGM metadata for geospatial datasets in ESRI ArcGIS Desktop
Creating compliant metadata for scientific data products is mandated for all federal Geographic Information Systems professionals and is a best practice for members of the geospatial data community. However, the complexity of the The Federal Geographic Data Committee’s Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata, the limited availability of...
Ignizio, Drew A.; O'Donnell, Michael S.; Talbert, Colin B. Data management challenges in species distribution modeling
An important component in the fields of ecology and conservation biology is understanding the environmental conditions and geographic areas that are suitable for a given species to inhabit. A common tool in determining such areas is species distribution modeling which uses computer algorithms to determine the spatial distribution of organisms....
Talbert, Colin; Talbert, Marian; Morisette, Jeffrey T.; Koop, David
MODIS phenology image service ArcMap toolbox
Seasonal change is important to consider when managing conservation areas at landscape scales. The study of such patterns throughout the year is referred to as phenology. Recurring life-cycle events that are initiated and driven by environmental factors include animal migration and plant flowering. Phenological events capture public attention,...
Talbert, Colin; Kern, Tim J.; Morisette, Jeff; Brown, Don; James, Kevin
Metadata Wizard 2.0
The is a useful tool designed to facilitate FGDC metadata creation for spatial and non-spatial data sets. It is a cross-platform desktop application built using an open-source Python architecture.
SmartRiver GIS
Smart River GIS allows simultaneous views of river hydraulics, species-specific habitat, and fish population simulations, for a better understanding of complex ecological interactions. We used existing data sets from the South Platte River in Colorado to develop a multi-layered geographic information system (GIS) that resource managers can use to improve their understanding of river...
Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling Package for VisTrails (SAHM: VisTrails) v.1
The Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling for VisTrails has been created to both expedite habitat suitability modeling and help maintain a record of the various input data, pre- and post- processing steps, and modeling options incorporated in the construction of a species distribution model.