Database Tools for Analyzing Forest Canopy Information

用于分析森林冠层信息的数据库工具

• 批准号: 9630316
• 负责人: Nalini Nadkarni
• 金额: $ 23.49万
• 依托单位: Evergreen State College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1996
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1996-09-01 至 2001-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9630316&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Database; Tools; Analyzing; Forest; Canopy

The forest canopy is increasingly regarded as a region of great ecological importance. Canopy communities are poorly understood, partly due to access problems and partly due to a lack of expertise and software tools to analyze complex three-dimensional tree crown data. The PIs propose an interdisciplinary effort to develop database systems to manage, analyze, and disseminate shared data pertaining to complex ecological questions using forest canopy data. The demonstration project will be carried about among seven cooperating but independent researchers at a forest canopy research site, the Wind River Canopy Research Facility in Washington State. Data from existing projects that focus at different spatial and temporal scales will be linked to allow efficient use of site data and to solve novel questions that could not be addressed by a single researcher's data sets. The resulting database management tools will allow researchers to easily gain access to site- specific data and each others' data, which will enhance the productivity both of the individual scientists and of the site as a whole. The initial research focus will be on the development of data models and prototype data structures and data sets for one concurrent study of forest canopy structure and hydrology. That research examines the role of forest canopies in intercepting, modifying, retaining, and conducting water from atmospheric sources (rain, mist, snow) to the forest floor. Forest canopy structure has obvious implications in these processes, but the complexity and three-dimensional nature of forest canopies (especially those of old-growth, structurally complex forests) has prevented ecologists from gaining a quantified understanding of the patterns and processes underlying these interactions. The PI will also continue refining the two database browsers for the Wind River Site data and will extend the data model for those browsers to show the connection with the canopy structure and hydro logy model. Development of a sound data model will allow forest canopy scientists to organize, visualize, and analyze their data in powerful ways. It will also provide the means to link forest canopy structural data with relevant environmental data sets (such as meteorological data) and with other forest functional data sets (e.g., photosynthesis of canopy organisms).

森林冠层越来越被视为具有重要生态意义的区域。人们对树冠群落了解甚少，部分原因是访问问题，部分原因是缺乏分析复杂的三维树冠数据的专业知识和软件工具。 PI 提议开展跨学科工作，开发数据库系统，利用森林冠层数据来管理、分析和传播与复杂生态问题相关的共享数据。 该示范项目将由七名合作但独立的研究人员在森林冠层研究地点（华盛顿州风河冠层研究设施）进行。来自不同空间和时间尺度的现有项目的数据将被链接起来，以便有效地利用现场数据并解决单个研究人员的数据集无法解决的新问题。由此产生的数据库管理工具将使研究人员能够轻松访问特定地点的数据和彼此的数据，这将提高科学家个人和整个地点的生产力。 最初的研究重点将是开发数据模型、原型数据结构和数据集，以进行森林冠层结构和水文的同步研究。该研究探讨了森林冠层在拦截、改变、保留水并将其从大气源（雨、雾、雪）输送到森林地面方面的作用。森林冠层结构在这些过程中具有明显的影响，但森林冠层（特别是那些古老的、结构复杂的森林）的复杂性和三维性质阻碍了生态学家对这些相互作用背后的模式和过程获得量化的理解。 PI 还将继续完善风河站点数据的两个数据库浏览器，并将扩展这些浏览器的数据模型，以显示与冠层结构和水文模型的联系。开发完善的数据模型将使森林冠层科学家能够以强大的方式组织、可视化和分析他们的数据。它还将提供将森林冠层结构数据与相关环境数据集（例如气象数据）和其他森林功能数据集（例如冠层生物的光合作用）联系起来的方法。