Synthesis through Data Discovery and Use: Past, Present and Future
Integration and synthesis of ecological information holds the key to important scientific discoveries at cross-site, regional and global scales. These opportunities will require that ecological researchers develop new approaches to the challenges posed by bringing together diverse data. This workshop has as its goal providing participants with new tools and approaches for discovering and integrating ecological data. Although the amount of data made available by researchers within the LTER Network and elsewhere has grown dramatically, our ability to discover and integrate data to produce new synthetic knowledge remains in its infancy. Data needed for cross-site, regional and global analyses has been challenging to locate, and once located is often difficult to use, especially for analyses integrating data from a number of disparate sources. This workshop will start with a brief panel discussion relating the experiences of several data users and providers, and describing the tools and strategies panel members have used to overcome the challenges posed by heterogeneous and far-flung data. The panel includes Henry Gholz of NSF; Christine Laney of the EcoTrends Project; James Connors one of the creators of the "DataZoo"; Scott Collins, who teaches a course where students download and use LTER data; and William Michener of the DataOne project. The panel discussion will be followed by some short demonstrations of tools and open discussion of impediments and solutions, focusing on what needs to be done to make data more accessible and usable in the future. Researchers interested in broad-scale ecological questions are encouraged to attend, regardless of experience with data discovery or data integration.