Wireless networks provide new opportunities for retrieving data from the field - and to support new types of data. At the Virginia Coast Reserve Long-Term Ecological Research Project we have employed wireless networks to connect to three barrier islands, with some connections spanning over 20 km. The wireless network is used to integrate a variety of data sources. A network of ten wells, meteorological and tide stations produce data that is automatically processed to create a dataset or graph on the World-Wide Web.

In recent years, advances in sensor network technology have shown great potential to revolutionize environmental data collection. Still, these systems have remained the purview of the engineers and computer scientists who design them, rather than useful tools for the field scientists who need them. Today, there are many data logging options for basic data collection in the field, but scientists are still required to travel to their sites to collect data, and to manually import data into spreadsheets.

This project is currently undertaking a comparative study of the formation and maintenance of Virtual Organizations (VOs) in two leading collaborative science networks: the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) and the Open Science Grid (OSG). Both LTER and OSG are mature enterprises for supporting multidisciplinary scientific research; however, they differ in the nature of their VO tool use.

The vision for a future “cyber forest” at the Andrews Experimental Forest foresees high performance wireless communications enhancing connectivity among remote field research locations, station headquarters, and beyond to the university and Internet. Increasing use of sensor technologies and collaboration tools for both research and education foretell exponential increases in data and information flow.

Designing infrastructure to support the management of diverse data presents unique challenges for each site. Described here is the current information system architecture, as well as targeted architectural features, implemented by the Ocean Informatics team to provide a working solution for accommodating heterogeneous data types. The system architecture is a major component of a site information environment, providing an orientation for technical development, organizational communication, and collaborative science.

Designing infrastructure to support the management of diverse data presents unique challenges for each site. Described here is the current information system architecture, as well as targeted architectural features, implemented by the Ocean Informatics team to provide a working solution for accommodating heterogeneous data types. The system architecture is a major component of a site information environment, providing an orientation for technical development, organizational communication, and collaborative science.

 The movement and exchange of data are frequently described using a 'flow' or a 'pipeline' model.  We differentiate a uni-directional data 'flow' from an alternative model, a web-of-repositories. A web-of-repositories is a federation of diverse nodes where communication, connections, and data exchange are multi-directional. Each node has a unique sphere-of-context with technical, organizational and social dimensions. In this poster we explore a multi-repository data landscape.

Units of measurement are a fundamental element of scientific discourse and data integration. The LTER Unit Working Group has developed two initiatives to promote consistent use of units throughout the network. One is the LTER Unit Dictionary, comprising the set of units in use by the LTER sites and the best practices that support them. The other is the Unit Registry, a software solution for online access to the Unit Dictionary. This poster provides an overview of both efforts, including motivations, progress made, and future plans.