Welcome to the Central Southwest Gulf Coast Information Node (CSWGCIN), your gateway to biological information for Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico, including the coastal areas of Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. This biologically diverse region is undergoing rapid population growth. CSWGCIN will address the biodiversity aspects of sustainable development within the region through research into the applications of new geospatial data analysis and visualization technologies. CSWGCIN will create the foundation of a standardized, accessible, and digital collection of useful biological information maintained by a variety of partners, including governmental agencies, non-governmental and private sector organizations, and academic institutions.
The Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity interactive mapping application explores the incredibly diverse habitat in the Gulf, displaying distribution information on benthos, plankton and other marine life groups as well as provide background data on parameters such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, and others. The Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity portal explores some of the diverse phyla represented in the mapping application and has discussion on species habitat, widespread range, and life history characteristics.
Regional Invasive Species Database
The CSWGCIN region includes many different introduction pathways for invasive species. It is also home to a diverse array of ecosystems ranging from humid, semi-tropical coastal habitats to bottomland forests, arid deserts and mountains. These combined factors lead to a large number of invasive species being found in the CSWGCIN region.
The CSWGCIN Regional Invasive Species Database provides information describing over 250 invasive species found in the CSWGCIN region, including introduction pathways, images, species fact sheets, taxonomic information provided by the USDA Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) and bibliographic citations.
Ecoregions of CSWGCIN
There are nine different Level 2 (as designated by the EPA) ecoregions within CSWGCIN. For each ecoregion, an informational page describing the unique physical and biological characteristics that comprise the region has been developed. The discussion highlights one endangered species, one invasive species and one species typical to that ecoregion.
The Ecoregions of CSWGCIN interactive mapping application provides access to geographic distributions of all threatened and endangered species, select invasive species, political boundaries, and baseline environmental data found within CSWGCIN.
Species of Greatest Conservation Need
Learn about species in need of conservation in the Central Southwest and Gulf Coast region, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Over 2,600 amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and plants have been identified by State wildlife agencies as species of Greatest Conservation Need (GCN). This interactive application provides resources from multiple authoritative sources including NatureServeand ITIS.
Edwards Aquifer
The Edwards Aquifer covers about 4530 square miles in parts of 11 counties in Texas. Water from the aquifer is used for municipal (54%), irrigation and recreational purposes. Edwards is the focus of this study due to its unique physical nature as a karst aquifer resulting in highly sensitive environmental areas that provide habitat to fourteen different threatened and endangered species.
The following pages discuss the variety of threatened and endangered species in the aquifer, and highlight changes in precipitation and surface water and groundwater quality and quantity in the Edwards Aquifer.
Texas Coastal Fisheries
The Texas Gulf Coast is home to a diverse array of organisms. Fish and wildlife resources provide some of the Gulf Coast's greatest economic, recreational and aesthetic assets. Bays and estuaries of the Texas Gulf Coast maintain important recreational and commercial fisheries for species of oysters, shrimp, crab, and finfish.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response
CSWGCIN's Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response portal, (www.nbii.gov/gulfoilspill) is temporarily unavailable.
Conferences of Interest
Partner Spotlight
In a non-partisan and collaborative manner, Houston Advanced Research Center
(HARC) is a conduit from basic research to action that fosters the implementation of policies and technologies based on rigorous principles of social science, natural science, and engineering. HARC's research themes support sustainability solutions in ecosystems, water, air & climate, clean energy, the built environment, and environmental health.
The National Wetlands Research Center
of the USGS is a source and clearinghouse of science information about wetlands in the United States and the world for fellow agencies, private entities, academia, and the public at large. Staff members obtain and provide this information by performing original scientific research and developing research results into literature and technological tools. They then disseminate that information through a variety of means.
The NBII Program is administered by the Biological Informatics Office of the U.S. Geological Survey
