Database Tools for Analyzing Forest Canopy Information

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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).