Web-based Integration of Distributed Research Databases

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The eighteen databases of the Oregon Coalition for Interdisciplinary Databases (OCID) and the over 250 databases of the Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest will serve as a testbed for a project to develop Web-based software that will make it possible to integrate distributed databases into a seamless virtual database. The proposed software framework will include Web-based tools for defining metadata to describe what aspects of each database are appropriate for cross-referencing against other databases, as well as software agents that mediate among independent repos-itories of data. The project will demonstrate how the software can be deployed to cross disciplinary agency and hardware/software boundaries to create a virtual database of bio-logical, geophysical, and climatic data. Such a resource will offer a much richer context for studying the biology and ecology of the northwestern region of the United States than has been available previously. As a model for interlinking other similar regional and national databases, it will be a valuable resource not only for research and natural resource management, but also for education. The project brings together a multidisciplinary team led by a computer scientist specializing in helping multidisciplinary groups adapt advanced computing technology to their specific needs and an ecologist-statistician-infor- mation manager from the LTER program. Each of the scientists who have agreed to coop-erate with the PIs has already built at least one research database of national significance. The close collaboration of computer scientists and biological scientists on this project will yield a practical, well-tested foundation that database owners throughout the country can exploit to link their own resources with colleagues at distant institutions or in other disci-plines. ***