TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where
Research ranging from land use planning to ecology benefits from integrating spatial and temporal environmental data. Analyses on multiple environmental datasets are enhanced when there is a common set of variables, improving the ability of researchers to collaborate across a wide variety of project...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Ecological Informatics |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124005168 |
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| author | Ariel Levi Simons Hector Baez Neha Acharya-Patel Caren C. Helbing Jim Jeffers Julie Stanford Rachel S. Meyer |
| author_facet | Ariel Levi Simons Hector Baez Neha Acharya-Patel Caren C. Helbing Jim Jeffers Julie Stanford Rachel S. Meyer |
| author_sort | Ariel Levi Simons |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research ranging from land use planning to ecology benefits from integrating spatial and temporal environmental data. Analyses on multiple environmental datasets are enhanced when there is a common set of variables, improving the ability of researchers to collaborate across a wide variety of projects. Addressing the need, we developed TerraDactyl, an online tool hosted on eDNA Explorer (ednaexplorer.org). TerraDactyl intakes user-provided geospatial coordinates and dates to extract environmental values from a series of datasets hosted on the Google Earth Engine (GEE). We demonstrate the utility of TerraDactyl with two case studies. The first study aims to classify protected areas in the US and Canada given only TerraDactyl data. In the second study we reanalyze published community compositional variation California environmental DNA (eDNA) samples to test whether variation is more strongly associated with environmental factor groups such as soil and topography when more variables are added by TerraDactyl. While some current limitations remain, such as the gaps in data available in polar and coastal regions, TerraDactyl offers a robust integrative tool to assist biodiversity and environmental research that has potential for expansion to include more datasets. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7115b99510db4be3ad3a7b8832b41952 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1574-9541 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecological Informatics |
| spelling | doaj-art-7115b99510db4be3ad3a7b8832b419522025-01-19T06:24:42ZengElsevierEcological Informatics1574-95412025-03-0185102974TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and whereAriel Levi Simons0Hector Baez1Neha Acharya-Patel2Caren C. Helbing3Jim Jeffers4Julie Stanford5Rachel S. Meyer6Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; eDNA Explorer Inc., Mountain View, CA 94041, USA; Corresponding author at: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; eDNA Explorer Inc., Mountain View, CA 94041, USADepartment of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaDepartment of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, CanadaeDNA Explorer Inc., Mountain View, CA 94041, USAeDNA Explorer Inc., Mountain View, CA 94041, USADepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA; eDNA Explorer Inc., Mountain View, CA 94041, USAResearch ranging from land use planning to ecology benefits from integrating spatial and temporal environmental data. Analyses on multiple environmental datasets are enhanced when there is a common set of variables, improving the ability of researchers to collaborate across a wide variety of projects. Addressing the need, we developed TerraDactyl, an online tool hosted on eDNA Explorer (ednaexplorer.org). TerraDactyl intakes user-provided geospatial coordinates and dates to extract environmental values from a series of datasets hosted on the Google Earth Engine (GEE). We demonstrate the utility of TerraDactyl with two case studies. The first study aims to classify protected areas in the US and Canada given only TerraDactyl data. In the second study we reanalyze published community compositional variation California environmental DNA (eDNA) samples to test whether variation is more strongly associated with environmental factor groups such as soil and topography when more variables are added by TerraDactyl. While some current limitations remain, such as the gaps in data available in polar and coastal regions, TerraDactyl offers a robust integrative tool to assist biodiversity and environmental research that has potential for expansion to include more datasets.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124005168Protected areasRandom forestRandom forest ensemble modelGeospatial toolMap extractionCitizen science |
| spellingShingle | Ariel Levi Simons Hector Baez Neha Acharya-Patel Caren C. Helbing Jim Jeffers Julie Stanford Rachel S. Meyer TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where Ecological Informatics Protected areas Random forest Random forest ensemble model Geospatial tool Map extraction Citizen science |
| title | TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| title_full | TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| title_fullStr | TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| title_full_unstemmed | TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| title_short | TerraDactyl: A tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| title_sort | terradactyl a tool for connecting environmental data to when and where |
| topic | Protected areas Random forest Random forest ensemble model Geospatial tool Map extraction Citizen science |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1574954124005168 |
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