FSML: Data Management and Communication Enhancement at San Diego State University Field Stations

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This award supports purchase and installation of computer and communications equipment and software to be used for data management and communications at two San Diego State University (SDSU) field stations, Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve (SMER) and Sky Oaks Biological Field Station (Sky Oaks). Currently there is a wealth of data regularly being collected instrumentation at the SDSU Biological Field Stations for both research and educational programs. This includes weather data from both Sky Oaks and SMER, eddy covariance and micrometeorology data from Sky Oaks, and other data collected from biological monitoring programs at the two sites. The biological monitoring activities have been expanded so that, through time, the data from these field stations can be points of comparison for regional conservation plans. The improvements supported by this award will allow the data from Sky Oaks and from SMER to be integrated and sent to a main database server at SDSU where it will be available through the internet to researchers and educators at other institutions. The two SDSU field stations are located 160 km north of San Diego, but have distinct mixed-chaparral Mediterranean vegetation and differ in elevation and marine influences (temperature, rainfall) as well as slope and aspect. These differences produce measurable variations in microclimate, solar radiation, carbon dioxide concentrations and various other environmental factors that are reflected in plant and animal communities. The data obtained at the stations is of use in monitoring of global change, and in educational efforts related to global change and physiological ecology.