| Biologists are interested in analyzing and communicating field data using GIS generated maps. Typical field data consists of GPS point locations and habitat or vegetation maps derived from satellite imagery or interpreted directly from aerial photographs. These data can be presented as basic mapped data whereby each vegetation polygon can be coded with species presence, thereby creating a habitat map of polygons that represent average activity values. Additional mapping techniques include spatial coincidence mapping of two or more data layers and using interpolation methods to analyze geographic patterns of species distributions. A result of interpolation methods is a surface that better represents the discrete field data points as a more realistic surface of continuous data. Standardized map variables and normalizing maps by the standard normal variable (SNV) can highlight underlying areas that are one or more standard deviation below or above the average, thus showing locations of unusually high or low values instead of the typical averages within each vegetation polygon. Because maps are numbers, then they can be added, divided and subtracted (difference maps). Advanced analysis includes map calculus: spatial integrals and spatial derivatives. Incorporating geographic science into biological and GIS helps explain animal activity patterns in geographic space. |