Integrating Marine Ecology Data for Scientific Analysis and Resource Management: A Community Database Prototype

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Data integration is increasingly recognized as a difficult but essential precursor to synthetic ecological analyses. The inability to easily integrate data becomes critical when the data also have major practical implications for policy planning or decision-making. In this project, a prototype community database repository to accommodate a variety of heterogeneously structured marine ecological data sets will be developed. This internet-accessible database will provide a valuable data resource for investigators researching long-term and large-scale ecological processes in the marine environment.The data will come from a multi-agency consortium of marine ecologists, analysts and data managers who will make their data readily available in a common framework. These data come from academic, government, foundation, and private sources, and deal with the rocky intertidal zone at 61 sites throughout central and southern California. Aside from their intrinsic scientific interest, these data sets are critical in tracking changes in biological communities and are invaluable for guiding and informing the preservation and development of California's nearshore environment.Structured metadata to support query and access to the contents of the database will be used. This will be achieved by implementing an XML-based Document Type Definition (DTD) specifically designed for ecological data, and called Ecological Metadata Language', EML. This content specification is based on recommendations from several committees of ecological researchers and technologists. Conversion tools will be deveolped that will enable researchers to convert EML to HTML, or transform EML to two other useful metadata formats-Dublin Core and the FCDC's Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM). Software tools that enable scientists to effectively document their own data for contribution to the prototype repository will also be developed. This database repository will serve as the basis for a growing resource that will be invaluable for coastal researchers and policy makers. The insights gained from this information resource will represent novel theoretical and practical advances for ecology as a whole.URL: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu