80 FR 79354 - Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Geological Survey

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 244 (December 21, 2015)

We, U.S. Geological Survey, will ask the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) described below. As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, and as part of our continuing efforts to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, we invite the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this IC.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 244 (Monday, December 21, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79354-79355]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31984]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

[ Geological Survey
[GX16EN05ESB0500]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Request for Comments

AGENCY: U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of a new information collection, Climate Change Effects 
on Wildlife Virtual Library

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SUMMARY: We, U.S. Geological Survey, will ask the Office of Management 
and Budget (OMB) to approve the information collection (IC) described 
below. As required by the Paperwork

[[Page 79355]]

Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, and as part of our continuing efforts to 
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, we invite the general public 
and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on this 
IC.

DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive 
them on or before February 19, 2016.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this information collection to 
the Information Collection Clearance Officer, U.S. Geological Survey, 
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive MS 807, Reston, VA 20192 (mail); (703) 648-
7197 (fax); or [email protected] (email). Please reference 
`Information Collection 1028-NEW, [Climate Change Effects on Wildlife 
Virtual Library] in all correspondence.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Abigail Lynch, Research Fish 
Biologist, at (703) 648-4097 or [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Abstract

    Wildlife is an essential recreational, commercial, and cultural 
resource to communities worldwide, while also being vital to ecosystem 
health and function. For our purposes, the term wildlife encompasses 
mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds. As climate change and 
other anthropogenic activities continue to threaten wildlife at a 
global scale, continued research and increased understanding of the 
effects of climate change on organisms is imperative for future 
wildlife management and conservation. Researchers have been studying 
and speculating on the effects of climate change on wildlife for 
decades; thus, there is a large body of climate change and wildlife 
literature available. Traditional search engines provide large outputs 
of studies and reports that must be individually screened for relevance 
when searching for climate change effects on specific taxonomic groups. 
This large output can be burdensome and could result in the exclusion 
of some studies in analyses. Our goal is to streamline this process for 
researchers and the public by having a virtual collection of studies 
highlighting climate change effects (both projected and documented) on 
wildlife at a global scale. This collection would provide researchers 
with quicker and easier access to get the information they need in less 
time and with less effort.
    We plan to query research scientists belonging to professional 
societies and list servers via electronic correspondence and request a 
list of their already published references to include in the 
collection. We are specifically looking for published studies 
addressing projected and documented effects of climate change on 
wildlife. None of the information contains personal identifiable 
information. We plan to store all this information in a virtual 
bibliography that can be updated by a USGS point of contact as more 
studies are published and included in the database. Furthermore, some 
of this information may be used to generate external reports (i.e., 
scientific manuscripts), used in research data input, and in 
statistical analysis. Our information collection request directly 
aligns to the mission of the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife 
Science Center (NCCWSC). One of NCCWSC's goals is to deliver products, 
information, and tools to scientists and stakeholders on climate change 
and wildlife science, and this collection would do just that.

II. Data

    OMB Control Number: 1028-NEW.
    Title: Climate Change Effects on Wildlife Virtual Library.
    Type of Request: New information collection.
    Affected Public: English-speaking wildlife research scientists.
    Respondent's Obligation: None. Participation is strictly voluntary.
    Frequency of Collection: One time to occasionally. Scientists have 
the option to submit papers one time after the initial request and then 
periodically as they publish additional relevant papers.
    Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 500. Breakdown: 
Approximately 350 will be from academic institutions and 150 will be 
from state or federal agencies.
    Estimated Total Number of Annual Responses: 500.
    Estimated Time per Response: 5 minutes per response.
    Estimated Annual Burden Hours: 41.7 hours.
    Estimated Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'' Burden: 
None.
    Public Disclosure Statement: The PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.) 
provides that an agency may not conduct or sponsor and you are not 
required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a 
currently valid OMB control number and current expiration date.

III. Request for Comments

    We are soliciting comments as to: (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for the agency to perform its 
duties, including whether the information is useful; (b) the accuracy 
of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of 
information; (c) ways to enhance the quality, usefulness, and clarity 
of the information to be collected; and (d) how to minimize the burden 
on the respondents, including the use of automated collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    Please note that the comments submitted in response to this notice 
are a matter of public record. Before including your personal mailing 
address, phone number, email address, or other personally identifiable 
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire 
comment, including your personally identifiable information, may be 
made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your 
comment to withhold your personally identifiable information from 
public view, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Shawn Carter,
Senior Scientist.
[FR Doc. 2015-31984 Filed 12-18-15; 8:45 am]
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