KDI: A Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity: Building and Evaluating a Metadata-based Framework for Integrating Heterogeneous Scientific Data

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9980154ReichmanComplexity is an inherent property of biological systems that arises from direct and indirect interactions among the earth's physical, chemical, and biological components. Biodiversity, the ecological manifestation of biocomplexity, includes the structural and functional attributes of dynamic systems that arise at all levels of biological organization, including individuals, populations, communities and ecosystems. Catalyzed by societal concerns over the environment and facilitated by technology advances, scientists focused on complex ecological systems have generated an explosion of ecological data. However, broad-scale and synthetic research is stymied because these data are largely inaccessible due to their spatial dispersion, extreme structural and semantic heterogeneity, and complexity.Using investigations of the relationship between ecosystem function and biodiversity as a test bed, this project will integrate distributed and heterogeneous ecological information sources into a standards-based, open architecture, knowledge network. The network will extend recent advances in metadata representation and provide conceptually sophisticated access to products from distributed, autonomous data repositories. As part of the knowledge network, the PIs will create new tools for discovering retrieving, interpreting, integrating, and analyzing data that will allow testing of multiple formulations of hypotheses that pertain to biocomplexity. This project also will employ creative approaches to education, outreach, and training in informatics and biocomplexity for professionals and students.