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IAN Press is committed to producing practical, user-centered communications that foster a better understanding of science and enable readers to pursue new opportunities in research, education, and environmental problem-solving. Our publications synthesize scientific findings using effective science communication techniques.
Publications
Australia
Caribbean
Chesapeake Bay
Guam
War in the Pacific National Historical Park
Gulf of Mexico
Atchafalaya and Vermilion Bays
Mississippi and Atchafalaya Plume
Hawaii
Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail
Kalaupapa National Historical Park
Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park
Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic Site
Maryland
Maryland Coastal Bays
Mexico
Mid Atlantic
Antietam National Battlefield Park
Chesapeake and Ohio National Historical Park
Integration and Application Network
Monocacy National Battlefield Park
Mid West
North Atlantic
Kennebec and Androscoggin River
St. Croix River and Cobscook Bay
Pacific Coast
Bellingham and Padilla and Samish Bays
Central San Francisco and San Pablo and Suisun Bays
Palau
Panama
Philippines
Samoa
National Park of American Samoa
South Atlantic
St. Andrew and St. Simons Sounds
St. Catherines and Sapelo Sounds
St. Marys River and Cumberland Sound
South Caucasus
Virginia
George Washington Memorial Parkway
Manassas National Battlefield Park
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
West Virginia
agricultural aquatic assessment australia battlefield chesapeake bay chester climate change coastal coastal bays communication conceptual diagrams conference conservation coral creek dissolved oxygen document ecological ecosystem environmental estuarine federation fisheries flood forecast global habitat harbor harmful algal blooms health impacts indicators loading maps marine menhaden monitoring nitrogen nutrient ocean overall oyster park partners patuxent pollution predicted reef report card restoration river seagrass sediment solving spatially studies study threats tidal water quality watershed workshop zone
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You are browsing all 68 presentations
Tools for effective science communication 
Author(s): Dennison WC and Carruthers TJB
Bill Dennison and Tim Carruthers presented a Webinar on tools for science communication for the Ecosystem Based Management Tools Network. Bill was also presenting to a live audience at the State of the Hudson River Watershed Conference in Hyde Park, NY. The web audience included participants from 23 US states and 12 countries, and was followed by a lively discussion on methods and approaches to science communication.
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Conceptual Diagrams: tools for effective science communication
This presentation is part of a mini-workshop conducted at the Society for Technical Communication's Technical Communication Summit on June 4, 2008.
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Watershed condition assessment for Rock Creek Park in the National Capital Region 
National Parks Service: Water Resource Division - Aquatic Professionals meeting. Fort Collins, Colorado, Feb 2008
This 50 slide presentation presents preliminary results for an ecosystem assessment of the status of Rock Creek National Park. The park is a forested oasis in a rapidly developing urban landscape and hence has a multitude of pressures, however maintains a range of ecosystem services. The presentation provides a habitat framework as a potential mechanism to assess multiple and diverse landscapes.
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Fine scale patterns of water quality in three regions of Maryland's Coastal Bays: assessing nitrogen source in relation to land use
Author(s): Beckert K, Fertig BM, O'Neil JM, Carruthers TJB, Dennison WC and Fisher T
This presentation by graduate students Ben Fertig and Kris Beckert introduces preliminary results from a detailed assessment of nitrogen sources. Focusing on St.Martin River, Johnson Bay, and Sinepuxent Bay, oyster bioindicators and a suite of water quality measurements suggest that these coastal bays are vulnerable to nitrogen loads from various land uses. Trends indicated degraded water quality, high turbidity, increasing total nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, high natural isotope abundance (δ15N), and low dissolved oxygen. While terrestrial anthropogenic pressures vary within subwatersheds, water quality in these coastal bays is also influenced by differences in flushing and nutrient cycling abilities.
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Do retreating marshes create seagrass habitat? The importance of sand, plant morphology, and hydrodynamics
Caroline Wicks and Evamaria Koch
Sea level rise leads to marsh loss due to increased frequency of flooding. Additionally, waves make these marshes more vulnerable to erosion leading to marsh retreat. Over time, marsh retreat may create potential seagrass habitat. In the field, seagrasses were absent from the sub-tidal marsh substrate adjacent to a retreating marsh, but were present when sand (2-15 cm) overlaid the marsh substrate. Lab experiments indicated that sediment organic content was not limiting seagrasses, but that plant morphology and anchoring capacity of seagrass roots may determine the presence of seagrasses adjacent to eroding marsh shorelines. The combination of sediment characteristics, plant morphology, and hydrodynamic conditions seems to determine the growth and distribution of seagrasses adjacent to retreating marshes in Chincoteague Bay, Maryland. Retreating marshes can create new sub-tidal areas, but the local sediment and hydrodynamic conditions determine if these areas are suitable as seagrass habitat.
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National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment: A Decade of Change
Author(s): Bricker S, Longstaff BJ, Dennison WC, Jones AB, Boicourt K, Wicks EC and Woerner JL
This presentation describes the methods used in the NEEA and focuses on the national results. It also describes the Mid-Atlantic results and International case studies. The presentation was given at the 2007 Estuarine Research Federation conference.
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2006 Chesapeake Bay health report card
Ben Longstaff, Michael Williams, and Bill Dennison in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Program
This presentation highlights the process that occurred to produce the 2006 Chesapeake Bay report card. The background information on the report card is discussed, as well as the methods used to produce the scores for each tributary. Additionally, the results and conclusions from 2006 are presented and solutions to cleaning up the Bay are touched upon. This effort is in collaboration with the Chesapeake Bay Program.
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From the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean: defining seagrass habitats to assess system processes
Horn Point Laboratory Seminar, UMCES, October 25, 2006
This 56 slide presentation provides a brief evolutionary context to seagrass communities and assesses frameworks for synthesizing our understanding of these communities. Genera based and geographic frameworks are discussed and the development of a process based framework, using examples from SW Australia and the Caribbean, is presented.
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A global crisis for seagrass ecosystems?
International Seagrass Biology Workshop 7, September 10-15, 2006, Zanzibar, Tanzania
This 27 slide presentation provides a brief evolutionary context to current stresses on seagrass systems, as well as management and restoration efforts. Despite increasing effort, broad communication about issues affecting seagrasses is lagging behind other coastal systems.
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Modeling Atlantic menhaden recruitment in Chesapeake Bay: Is the striped bass recovery a problem?
Author(s): Zhang X, Wood RJ, Houde ED, Townsend, H and Wicks EC
This presentation discusses a modeling approach to formally test the often-referenced role of striped bass predation on Atlantic menhaden recruitment in Chesapeake Bay. In addition, this presentation also briefly discusses some preliminary results from on-going research on the menhaden stock recruitment issue.
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About
"Writing crystallizes thought and thought produces action." Paul J. Meyer
Goals
A goal of IAN Press is to empower scientists to directly communicate their ideas and concepts. Publications from IAN Press are designed to transform the uninterested to interested; the interested to involved and the involved to engaged.
IAN Press products are designed to be examples of good science communication principles, and the hope is that others will employ these principles so that scientific understanding can be disseminated widely as possible. The production of IAN Press communication publications involves experimentation with communication techniques and, as such, provides various ideas for science communication that can be emulated.
The comparisons and contrasts that IAN Press provides on environmental subjects intend to stimulate scientists, managers, practitioners, policy makers, students and other readers to think more broadly and expansively about the region and issues that they face. The extensive use of visual elements accesses a broader cultural diversity as well, which allow for more global perspectives.
The conclusions and recommendations presented in IAN Press publications are crafted to empower actions, plant seeds of ideas and provide justification for people to take appropriate action to find solutions to environmental problems. The conclusions are made as explicit as possible by employing active titles and featuring them prominently (e.g., front section of books or back cover of newsletters).
On costs
IAN Press does not provide author royalties and the design and layout of the publications conducted by a talented team of Science Communicators is underwritten by various grants and contracts. Marketing is limited to the internet and word-of-mouth, also reducing costs. Thus, the price of IAN Press publications is solely to reimburse the actual printing costs entailed. The intent is to provide the broadest possible readership, thus keeping costs as low as possible is paramount. Typically, full color is used, virtually on every page, which does increase print costs, however, the use of color is a key element in providing accessible information to a wide audience and the lack of author royalties or design/layout charges.
Peer review
IAN Press undertakes a rigorous review process by both peer scientists and resource managers. In addition, Integration and Application Network Science Integrators and Science Communicators read, edit and review all aspects of IAN Press publications, including text, conceptual diagrams, photographs, maps, figures and tables. Many IAN Press publications are multi-authored, and each author contributes to the review and editing of the entire publication. This is not the classical peer review system of a limited number of anonymous reviewers working with an editor to recommend changes, rather a larger number of non-anonymous reviewers that develop consensus on each word, visual element and recommendation. The review process is often accelerated by IAN Press to accommodate timely publication.
Authorship
IAN Press attempts to be as authorship inclusive as possible and to provide attribution to each visual element. Authorship is not ranked or ordered, and the credibility of the IAN Press product should be based on the scientific data presented and the collective effort of a multiple of contributors, both with and without formal academic training.
Science Communicators are the key element in the production of IAN Press documents. They design the layout of the document, obtain and edit the visual elements, designate the amount and style of text, and orchestrate the review and editing process. IAN Press documents are produced using a 'storyboard' approach, in which the central message(s) are identified and various visual elements selected to support the central message(s). This is in contrast to the more traditional method of writing text and adding in visuals subsequently. In video and film production, storyboards are used and the producer is key to assembling the visual elements. Science Communicators serve in an equivalent role in terms of assembling all the pieces that go into the publication.
Color
IAN Press relies extensively on color for photographs, maps, conceptual diagrams, figures and even text and tables to a limited degree. The use of color allows for an increased data density and provides a bigger visual impact considering the amount of the human brain devoted to visual discrimination of colors. Color allows for greater discrimination of visual elements and in data presentation, a closer juxtaposition of different elements and greater comparative utility. The preponderance of color printers and the ability of electronic versions to be displayed in color promote the inexpensive dissemination of full color documents. In order to help color-blind people compensate, an effort is made to provide other visual clues in graphics, such as symbols with different shapes or map delineations with different shading or texture, but some of the visual impact will be compromised.
Audience
IAN Press does not target a narrow, specific audience, rather attempts to be as inclusive as possible. As the world becomes more specialized, with marketing forces that promote highly targeted advertising campaigns, IAN Press products attempt to reach the broadest audience possible. IAN Press attempts to raise the bar rather than dumb down the message by using non-technical language, defining all terms and reducing acronym use. By providing synthesis, visualizations and context, we feel that relatively sophisticated concepts can be grasped by a non-technical audience. In fact, science has become highly specialized and often the language, tools and approaches used in various scientific disciplines are relatively incomprehensible to specialists in other disciplines. Thus, one audience of IAN Press is scientists from other specialties to encourage inter-disciplinary thinking and approaches.
Why use print media?
With the growing popularity of electronic media, the carbon footprint involved in producing and distributing paper products, and the ability to provide infinite resources via the web, it could be argued that IAN Press should disseminate entirely via electronic means. While IAN Press provides downloadable, web accessible materials, IAN Press continues to produces written products for the following reasons:
- There is rigor and discipline required in producing science communication products that have limited 'real estate', that, is limited amounts of space to convey a message. A paper product maintains focus, while web links can lead to tangential issues. The priority setting required to establish the final layout and include various communication elements is important in conveying information. Fixed 'real estate' forces condensation, synthesis and integration. Every visual element is uniquely created for the purpose of conveying the specific information intended, rather than repurposed from other sources.
- The written product invites non-linear reading, and a quick scan allows readers to delve into the visual elements most interesting to them. If a reader is most attracted to photographs, maps, conceptual diagrams, or figures, they can migrate to these elements and the figure legends should be self explanatory. Alternatively, if reading text is the preferred way of obtaining information, the text is designed to be self sufficient. The juxtaposition of text and various visual elements also conveys important information, something that can be lost via hyperlinks on the web. In addition, electronic books with the current technology do not support color graphics.
- Since various IAN Press products are intended to inform a broad community from policy makers to the general public, the weight of scientific support that can be marshaled can be a factor in empowering people to action. In order to make an impact, the difference between hundreds of web pages and hundreds of printed pages is one reason to provide print versions of IAN products. In addition, internet access is not equally applied globally or socially, and in some societies and sectors of society, a written product provides a more accessible source, particularly through libraries and schools.
- Printed materials provide a 'time stamp', a fixed point of time when the data are assembled and the conclusions are reached. Rather than constantly updating the data and conclusions, drawing the line in the sand as to what is known at a particular time point is what printed products do. The shelf life of science communication products should be somewhat limited due to the increased scientific understanding based on ongoing research, yet the record of what is known, and when it is known, provides an important archival body of information.
- "The product drives the collaborative process"; in that the science communication product forces an intensely collaborative process of obtaining and refining visual elements, drafting and editing text, and experimenting with layout and design. While this collaborative process can be conducted with the production of web materials, print deadlines are a good way to insure timely delivery. In addition, to obtain buy-in from many scientists whose training and experience are in producing printed papers and books, printed copies are often necessary.