Data Package Metadata View Summary

Journey North - Common Loon and Ice-Out observations by volunteer community scientists across North America (1997-2020)

General Information

Data Package:

Local Identifier:

edi.1172.1

Title:

Journey North - Common Loon and Ice-Out observations by volunteer community scientists across North America (1997-2020)

Alternate Identifier:

DOI PLACE HOLDER

Abstract:

This data package contains Common Loon migration and ice melt data consisting of 9,800 total observational reports from 1997 - 2020 across North America. These data were collected by 1,437 community scientists for Journey North, a crowdsourced participatory science program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. The Journey North Loon and Ice-Out Project is an ongoing study of loon and ice melt phenology conducted at broad spatial and temporal scales. Since 1997, community scientists have tracked first arrival dates of Common Loons (Gavia immer) and ice that has melted from bodies of water in the United States. Observers also provide estimates of the number of birds sighted. However, observers do not follow standardized methods for counting species observed. Observers do not observe at set times of the day, do not repeat observations regularly, and are not required to provide the length of time during which a specified number of species observed were counted. Therefore, it is recommended that this dataset be analyzed to indicate presence not abundance. Researchers are encouraged to read the rich information provided by volunteers in their comments. These comments provide qualitative information about observational reports. Researchers are also encouraged to refer to submitted photographs that also provide context for observational reports. The Journey North Common Loon and Ice-Out Project Project dataset is hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Shared Web Hosting Service.

Publication Date:

2022-07-22

For more information:
Visit:	DOI PLACE HOLDER

Time Period

Begin:

1997-01-05

End:

2020-07-25

People and Organizations
Contact:	Sheehan, Nancy (University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Journey North Program, Program Coordinator) [ email ]
Creator:	Sheehan, Nancy (University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Journey North Program, Program Coordinator)
Creator:	Abarca, Maricela (University of Wisconsin - Madison, Data Manager (EDI Fellow))
Associate:	Weber-Grullon, Luis (Data Manager (EDI Fellow), Data Manager (EDI Fellow))
Associate:	Smith, Garrett (University of Wisconsin - Madison, Software Developer, Software Developer)
Associate:	Isenbarger, Annie (University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Data Verifier, Data Verifier)
Associate:	Abarca, Maricela (University of Wisconsin - Madison, Data Manager (EDI Fellow))

Data Entities
Data Table Name:	UWMadisonArb_JNorth_Project_LoonsIce_1997-2020
Description:	Journey North - Common Loon migration and Ice-Out phenology observational data across North America (1997-2020)
Other Name:	UW-MadisonArb.JourneyNorthProgram_Project_Initial-Subset-Cleaning
Description:	This notebook documents initial cleaning steps for each Journey North Project subset, such as changing sighting date format to YYYY-MM-DD, filtering for relevant dates, filtering each species column for relevant subset data, and creating copies of the species column to modify further in the dataPrep process in OpenRefine.
Other Name:	dataPrepProcess_loonIceOut_OpenRefine
Description:	This document outlines the steps taken in OpenRefine to standardize the variations of reporting categories submitted by volunteers to the categories currently implemented by Journey North.
Other Name:	UW-MadisonArboretum.JourneyNorthProgram_finalEDICleaning
Description:	Documentation of final cleaning steps for EDI publishing. These include: capitalizing proper nouns, dropping columns with sensitive information, replacing blank/empty cells with coded values, dropping records with missing coordinates, rounding coordinates for privacy, and filtering out records with coordinates that do not fall into the right geographic scope.

Detailed Metadata

Data Entities

Data Table


Data:	https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/1172/1/0bf47ef458acb947678cf2ebe53da91e
Name:	UWMadisonArb_JNorth_Project_LoonsIce_1997-2020
Description:	Journey North - Common Loon migration and Ice-Out phenology observational data across North America (1997-2020)
Number of Records:	9800
Number of Columns:	16

Table Structure

Object Name:

UWMadisonArb_JNorth_Project_LoonsIce_1997-2020.csv

Size:

2375907 byte

Authentication:

5a80c88c492010c0f651152ff09452a0 Calculated By MD5

Text Format:

Number of Header Lines:

Record Delimiter:

\r\n

Orientation:

column

Simple Delimited:

Field Delimiter:	,
Quote Character:	"

Table Column Descriptions

sighting_date

species

number

latitude

longitude

flag_location

comments

school

grade

image_url

customerid

number_old

flag_number

species_old

flag_species

Column Name:

sighting_date

species

number

latitude

longitude

flag_location

comments

school

grade

image_url

customerid

number_old

flag_number

species_old

flag_species

Definition:

A unique identifier for each sighting submitted.

Date when the sighting was submitted.

Designation for the type of sighting being reported.

Number of individuals observed per sighting category. Data review indicated errors in the number field: missing data/null values or "0" and/or numbers entered did not correspond with numbers reported in the comment field. The initial cleaning process for this field did not include filtering the comments for this data or extracting those reported numbers. It only replaced missing/null values or zeros with a "1". Because some observers reported actual numbers of species sighted, researchers are encouraged to read the comments.

Latitude in decimal degrees specified by the observer, determined using the "report sighting" user interface, in the submitted sighting.

Longitude in decimal degrees specified by the observer, determined using the "report sighting" user interface, in the submitted sighting.

A column designated to flag those locations (longitude and latitude) that their values were obtained based on different methods.

Any commentary or detail that the user wishes to include as part of their sighting.

The name of the school reporting the data.

The student or classroom grade where the data is reported by the school.

The journeynorth.org website URL to the image posted with the corresponding sighting

A unique identifier of the user who reported the sighting.

Original number of individuals observed per sighting previous data cleaning.

A column designated to flag those sightings that the values of their number column were changed from its original entry. Data review indicated errors in the number field: missing data/null values or "0" and/or numbers entered did not correspond with numbers reported in the comment field. The initial cleaning process for this field did not include filtering the comments for this data or extracting those reported numbers. It only replaced missing/null values or zeros with a "1". Because some observers reported actual numbers of species sighted, researchers are encouraged to read the comments. This column flags where the number has been modified by the data cleaning process.

Original designation for the reporting category prior data cleaning.

A column designated to flag those reporting categories that the value of their species column were changed.

Storage Type:

string

dateTime

string

integer

float

string

float

string

Measurement Type:

nominal

dateTime

nominal

ratio

nominal

ratio

nominal

Measurement Values Domain:

Definition

A unique identifier for each sighting submitted.

Format	YYYY-MM-DD
Precision

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	Ice-Out
Definition	A spring reporting category (January 1-July 31). Journey North specifically tracks the spring arrival of Common Loons. Observers report first arrival dates using this reporting category. Ice-Out A spring reporting category (January 1-July 31). Observers report when the ice cover melts from lakes, rivers, ponds and oceans. This event is known as "ice-out." Ice-out dates are a way to measure the advance of spring, and dates can be compared from year to year. Journey North defines "ice-out" as when the body of water is 90% free of ice. Researchers are encouraged to examine observer comments in this category for sightings where ice-out also coincides with a first Common Loon sighting.
Source

Code Definition

Code	Loon (FIRST sighted)
Definition	A spring reporting category (January 1-July 31). Journey North specifically tracks the spring arrival of Common Loons. Observers report first arrival dates using this reporting category.
Source

Unit	number
Type	integer

Unit	decimalDegree
Type	real

Unit	decimalDegree
Type	real

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	0
Definition	The location (latitude and longitude) was recorded using the zip code of the community scientist when they first registered online with Journey North.
Source

Code Definition

Code	1
Definition	The location (latitude and longitude) was recorded by the community scientists using the Google Maps location picker available on the Journey North web interface at the time of submission of the sighting.
Source

Definition

Any commentary or detail that the user wishes to include as part of their sighting.

Definition

The name of the school reporting the data.

Definition

The student or classroom grade where the data is reported by the school.

Definition

The journeynorth.org website URL to the image posted with the corresponding sighting

Definition

A unique identifier of the user who reported the sighting.

Unit	number
Type	real

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	0
Definition	no change
Source

Code Definition

Code	1
Definition	When the value was missing, a 1 was added as a new value.
Source

Code Definition

Code	2
Definition	When the value was zero, a 1 was added as a new value.
Source

Definition

Original designation for the reporting category prior data cleaning.

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	0
Definition	No change
Source

Code Definition

Code	1
Definition	Reclassification based on current reporting categories and or typos.
Source

Missing Value Code:

Code	-999999.999
Expl	The user did not include any value as it is not required.

Code	-999999.999
Expl	The user did not include any value as it is not required.

Code	-999999.999
Expl	The user did not include any value as it is not required.

Code	-999999.999
Expl	Not all sightings contain an image URL as a photo submission of the sighting is not required.

Code	-999999.999
Expl	The user forgot to include the number of sighted hummingbirds.

Code	-999999.999
Expl	Some sightings did not have any value as the reporting category.

Accuracy Report:

Accuracy Assessment:

Coverage:

Methods:

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:

UW-MadisonArb.JourneyNorthProgram_Project_Initial-Subset-Cleaning

Entity Type:

ipynb

Description:

This notebook documents initial cleaning steps for each Journey North Project subset, such as changing sighting date format to YYYY-MM-DD, filtering for relevant dates, filtering each species column for relevant subset data, and creating copies of the species column to modify further in the dataPrep process in OpenRefine.

Physical Structure Description:

Object Name:

UW-MadisonArb.JourneyNorthProgram_Project_Initial-Subset-Cleaning.ipynb

Size:

25623 byte

Authentication:

ac50a4433d3acdd69adf645e219d6276 Calculated By MD5

Externally Defined Format:

Format Name:

ipynb

Data:

https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/1172/1/3afc10ec47980a8394732608b2617593

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:

dataPrepProcess_loonIceOut_OpenRefine

Entity Type:

pdf

Description:

This document outlines the steps taken in OpenRefine to standardize the variations of reporting categories submitted by volunteers to the categories currently implemented by Journey North.

Physical Structure Description:

Object Name:

dataPrepProcess_loonIceOut_OpenRefine.pdf

Size:

110888 byte

Authentication:

44af0142055f3b66956e717fd1abae48 Calculated By MD5

Externally Defined Format:

Format Name:

pdf

Data:

https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/1172/1/09925f8fd1f343865ce036e26b77e970

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:

UW-MadisonArboretum.JourneyNorthProgram_finalEDICleaning

Entity Type:

ipynb

Description:

Documentation of final cleaning steps for EDI publishing. These include: capitalizing proper nouns, dropping columns with sensitive information, replacing blank/empty cells with coded values, dropping records with missing coordinates, rounding coordinates for privacy, and filtering out records with coordinates that do not fall into the right geographic scope.

Physical Structure Description:

Object Name:

UW-MadisonArboretum.JourneyNorthProgram_finalEDICleaning.ipynb

Size:

26450 byte

Authentication:

89c8be8fdeab372b48a24443e024dccb Calculated By MD5

Externally Defined Format:

Format Name:

ipynb

Data:

https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/1172/1/dae1bffdbdb70faf441452405b2bede2

Data Package Usage Rights

This information is released under the Creative Commons license - Attribution - CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) is required to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or co-authorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is." The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.

Keywords

By Thesaurus:
(No thesaurus)	citizen science, participatory science, wildlife migration, North America, loon, ice melt, Common Loon
LTER Controlled Vocabulary	phenology, birds, ice, albedo

Methods and Protocols

These methods, instrumentation and/or protocols apply to all data in this dataset:

Methods and protocols used in the collection of this data package

Description:

Data Collection: After registering with https://journeynorth.org/reg/, citizen community scientists (hereinafter volunteers or observers) enter their observations (or “sightings”) by visiting https://journeynorth.org/sightings/ and selecting the phenological event reporting categories that most fit their observations. The occurrence of a phenological event can be determined by a single date and time of a life cycle stage. For the Journey North program, the first arrival date of an oriole species in the spring is an example of such a phenological event reporting category. (As noted by USA-NPN: The definition of the term “phenological event” has not yet been standardized and varies among scientists. USA-NPN website.) Once a reporting category has been selected, the volunteers enter additional information about their observations (or “sightings”) including: • location of observations (based on known street address, Google Maps location picker, or known latitude/longitude coordinates) (required field) • number of individual species observed (optional field) • date of observations (required field) • comments describing ecological context (optional field) • photo voucher of observations (optional field) Once the information has been entered, volunteers click on “Submit Report” to complete the process. Journey North provides online support for volunteers. Protocols and identification tips are described on the website. Journey North also fields inquiries via a helpline.

Instrument(s):

Website for reporting a sighting: https://journeynorth.org/projects

Description:

Data verification: • Expert review by project staff. • Digital vouchers - photo submissions. • Contacting participants about unusual reports. • Participants known and qualified. • Data triangulation --corroboration from other data sources, e.g., remote sensing data, qualitative data, historical trend data. • Data quality documentation -- metadata documentation

Description:

Data processing and cleaning. • The identification and correction of any inconsistencies in formatting for each column of the dataset, while keeping the meaning of the data intact. • The creation of a copy of the original version of any column to be modified, as well as the creation of another column to flag - Filling in a "1" for rows in the number column where the record contained a zero or missing value. The assumption is that observers must observe at least one individual to report a sighting, however some observers reported the number of individuals sighted in the comments field. The initial cleaning process for this field did not include filtering the comments for this data or extracting those reported numbers. • Filling gaps for the ‘customerid’ column by using the emails of each observational report as a unique identifier, followed by the exclusion of the emails from the dataset to ensure the privacy of our volunteers. • Fixing typos on the reporting categories that occurred because some of the older data were entered manually in our system, rather than using our current drop-down menu option. • Replacing any empty value with a standard code ‘-999999.999’ given that not all of the information provided by the users are required fields on the online platform. • Ensuring that each column data type was in fact consistent with the type of data that it contained. • Rounding up longitude and latitude values to only 3 decimals after the dot to ensure the privacy of our volunteers. • Excluding any observational report that seems beyond recovery in terms of its reliability due to different reasons such as: a) missing latitude and longitude, b) missing email AND customerid together, c) dates of sightings seem to be extremely old (before Journey North foundation). • Ensuring that there were not any duplicates of any observational report.

Instrument(s):

MySQL Server, Jupyter Notebook (Python), OpenRefine, Git & Github.

People and Organizations

Publishers:

Organization:

Environmental Data Initiative

Email Address:

info@edirepository.org

Web Address:

https://edirepository.org

Id:

https://ror.org/0330j0z60

Creators:

Individual:

Nancy Sheehan

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Journey North Program

Position:

Program Coordinator

Email Address:

nsheehan@wisc.edu

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2632-0796

Individual:

Maricela Abarca

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Position:

Data Manager (EDI Fellow)

Email Address:

abarca.maricela@gmail.com

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0890-8887

Contacts:

Individual:

Nancy Sheehan

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Journey North Program

Position:

Program Coordinator

Email Address:

nsheehan@wisc.edu

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2632-0796

Associated Parties:

Individual:

Luis Weber-Grullon

Position:

Data Manager (EDI Fellow)

Address:

85281-2443

Email Address:

luisweberg@gmail.com

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6548-8268

Role:

Data Manager (EDI Fellow)

Individual:

Garrett Smith

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Position:

Software Developer

Email Address:

garrett.smith@wisc.edu

Role:

Software Developer

Individual:

Annie Isenbarger

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum

Position:

Data Verifier

Email Address:

annie.isenbarger@wisc.edu

Role:

Data Verifier

Individual:

Maricela Abarca

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Email Address:

abarca.maricela@gmail.com

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0890-8887

Role:

Data Manager (EDI Fellow)

Temporal, Geographic and Taxonomic Coverage

Temporal, Geographic and/or Taxonomic information that applies to all data in this dataset:

Time Period

Begin:

1997-01-05

End:

2020-07-25

Geographic Region:

Description:

North America

Bounding Coordinates:

Northern:	64.564	Southern:	25.941
Western:	-160.951	Eastern:	-59.58

Taxonomic Range:

General Coverage:

All birds were identified as species using their common name.

Classification:

Rank Name:

Kingdom

Rank Value:

Animalia

Common Name:

animals

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 202423

Classification:

Rank Name:

Subkingdom

Rank Value:

Bilateria

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 914154

Classification:

Rank Name:

Infrakingdom

Rank Value:

Deuterostomia

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 914156

Classification:

Rank Name:

Phylum

Rank Value:

Chordata

Common Name:

chordates

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 158852

Classification:

Rank Name:

Subphylum

Rank Value:

Vertebrata

Common Name:

vertebrates

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 331030

Classification:

Rank Name:

Infraphylum

Rank Value:

Gnathostomata

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 914179

Classification:

Rank Name:

Superclass

Rank Value:

Tetrapoda

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 914181

Classification:

Rank Name:

Class

Rank Value:

Aves

Common Name:

Birds

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 174371

Classification:

Rank Name:

Order

Rank Value:

Gaviiformes

Common Name:

Loons

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 174466

Classification:

Rank Name:

Family

Rank Value:

Gaviidae

Common Name:

Loons

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 174467

Classification:

Rank Name:

Genus

Rank Value:

Gavia

Common Name:

Loons

Identifer:

https://www.itis.gov
ID: 174468

Classification:

Rank Name:	Species
Rank Value:	Gavia immer
Common Name:	Common Loon
Identifer:	https://www.itis.gov ID: 174469

Project

Parent Project Information:

Title:

Common Loon and Ice-Out Observations in North America (1997-2020)

Personnel:

Individual:

Nancy Sheehan

Organization:

University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum

Position:

Journey North Program Coordinator

Email Address:

nsheehan@wisc.edu

Id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2632-0796

Role:

Journey North Program Coordinator

Abstract:

Launched in 1994, the Journey North program had three goals: 1) To understand how species respond, across spatial and temporal scales, to climate change. 2) To understand the migration patterns and distribution of species during breeding and overwintering, across spatial and temporal scales, to inform land management and conservation decisions (such as critical habitat designations). 3) To build public awareness of habitat requirements of migratory species that span their life cycles to spur conservation efforts.

Additional Award Information:

Funder:	Annenberg Foundation
Title:	Journey North Program

Maintenance

Maintenance:

Description:	This is an ongoing data set that is being maintained by the University of Wisconsin - Madison Arboretum, Journey North program.
Frequency:	asNeeded

Other Metadata

Additional Metadata

additionalMetadata
        |___text '\n    '
        |___element 'metadata'
        |     |___text '\n      '
        |     |___element 'unitList'
        |     |     |___text '\n        '
        |     |     |___element 'unit'
        |     |     |     |  \___attribute 'id' = 'decimalDegree'
        |     |     |     |  \___attribute 'name' = 'decimalDegree'
        |     |     |     |___text '\n          '
        |     |     |     |___element 'description'
        |     |     |     |     |___text 'Express latitude and longitude geographic coordinates as decimal fractions of a degree.'
        |     |     |     |___text '\n        '
        |     |     |___text '\n      '
        |     |___text '\n    '
        |___text '\n  '

Additional Metadata

additionalMetadata
        |___text '\n    '
        |___element 'metadata'
        |     |___text '\n      '
        |     |___element 'importedFromXML'
        |     |        \___attribute 'dateImported' = '2022-07-20'
        |     |        \___attribute 'filename' = 'loons.xml'
        |     |        \___attribute 'taxonomicCoverageExempt' = 'True'
        |     |___text '\n    '
        |___text '\n  '

Additional Metadata

additionalMetadata
        |___text '\n    '
        |___element 'metadata'
        |     |___text '\n      '
        |     |___element 'emlEditor'
        |     |        \___attribute 'app' = 'ezEML'
        |     |        \___attribute 'release' = '2022.06.04'
        |     |___text '\n    '
        |___text '\n  '

Copyright 2024 Environmental Data Initiative. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants #2223103 and #2223104. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Please contact us with questions, comments, or for technical assistance regarding this web site or the Environmental Data Initiative. Please read our privacy policy to know what information we collect about you and to understand your privacy rights.

EDI is a collaboration between the University of New Mexico and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Center for Limnology:

Data Package Metadata View Summary

Journey North - Common Loon and Ice-Out observations by volunteer community scientists across North America (1997-2020)

Data Entities

Data Table

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Data Package Usage Rights

Keywords

Methods and Protocols

These methods, instrumentation and/or protocols apply to all data in this dataset:

People and Organizations

Temporal, Geographic and Taxonomic Coverage

Project

Parent Project Information:

Maintenance

Additional Metadata

Additional Metadata

Additional Metadata

Recently Added

Recently Updated

Data Package Metadata View Summary

Journey North - Common Loon and Ice-Out observations by volunteer community scientists across North America (1997-2020)

+/- Data Entities

Data Table

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Non-Categorized Data Resource

+/- Data Package Usage Rights

+/- Keywords

+/- Methods and Protocols

These methods, instrumentation and/or protocols apply to all data in this dataset:

+/- People and Organizations

+/- Temporal, Geographic and Taxonomic Coverage

+/- Project

Parent Project Information:

+/- Maintenance

+/- Additional Metadata

+/- Additional Metadata

+/- Additional Metadata

Data Entities

Data Package Usage Rights

Keywords

Methods and Protocols

People and Organizations

Temporal, Geographic and Taxonomic Coverage

Project

Maintenance

Additional Metadata

Additional Metadata

Additional Metadata