LTER Data Management

Margaret O’BrienSanta Barbara Coastal Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Project

Santa Barbara Channel Biodiversity Observation Network

2014-04-24

http://sbc.lternet.edu http://sbc.marinebon.org

LTER Network

25 sites, funded by NSF (1980)

Independent research, locally drivenPrimary productionPopulationsEcosystem cycling

Organic Inorganic (nutrients)

Disturbance

Considerable leveragingPartnerships

USDA, USFS, Integrated data management

http://iLTERnet.edu

http://LTERnet.edu

LTER Data Management

o Sites are the experts for their own data, and should work with the systems and partnerships that are available

o Sites collaborate as appropriate within the LTER to develop the software they need, and create economy of scale by converging practices and mechanisms

o Network sets goals and provides a collaborative atmosphere, but does not dictate mechanisms

Cross-site comparisons began in the 1990s Developed XML-based data sharing mechanism

EML released in 2003

LTER Data Management Today

• Active DM committee – “Best Practice” docs– ESIP member

• Central data catalog– DOI assignment

• Data package checking• Automated code generation

– R– Matlab– SAS

• Federation

EML Overview

• Related specifications– FGDC– ISO-19115– Darwin Core (DwC)

• Communities– OBIS, GBIF (Darwin Core Archive)– TDWG

• Features– Rich structural metadata allows automated ingestion– Active development community

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER

Understand factors controlling structure and function of kelp forests of the Santa

Barbara Channel

Santa Barbara Coastal LTER IMS

• Established protocols for handling and processing

• RDBMS -> XML

• Community standards and expertise

• Structural quality control for data tables and metadata

• Machine-readable data

• Federation

Collection to Distribution

Servers

Backup & processing

EM

L Metadata E

xport

Field

Data collection protocols

Data P

ackage Checking

Data P

ackage Design

Santa Barbara Channel BON IMS

• Adopted community protocols and standards• Per LTER

• RDBMS -> XML

• Structural quality control

• Local catalog

• TBD

• Federation mechanism

Servers

Integrate ingested &

de novo data

EM

L Metadata E

xport

Data P

ackage Checking

DataONE Member Node?

Data P

ackage Design

Possible Next Steps

• Outline potential strategies for posting data– Examine repositories

• Exchange specification(s)

– Multiple partners & endpoints?• Consider impact on local groups• Alternatives

– Submit once to federated repository for broad retrieval–

• Begin developing data quality requirements– Examine available tools and vocabularies– Define use cases