Semantic Web Informatics for Species in Space and Time

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The Santa Fe Institute is awarded a grant to extend, integrate, and automate access to and analysis of ecological data by developing and implementing proven and emerging information technologies, particularly those related to the Semantic Web. This will be done "horizontally" by developing integrative web services somewhat similar to "mash-ups" for several large ecological databases and by developing graphical user interfaces enabled by these services to access disparate types of data, seamlessly feed the data into workflow systems, and conduct integrated analyses in an automatically documented manner. These activities will be integrated so that users can easily access a wide variety of ecological data and analyses based on concepts such as taxonomy, habitat, geography, and trophic relations. Graphical user interfaces developed in this project will enable integrated analysis of data related to plant-herbivore dynamics by drawing on plant abundance data from survey databases, identifying associated local herbivores and their body sizes from online food web databases, and analyzing contemporaneous time series of those herbivores drawn from databases on global populations dynamics. The products of this project will transform biology by creating new technologies used to introduce deeply functional informatics "mash-ups" that synergize existing informatics resources using more user-friendly integrative UIs. Broader impacts include an enhanced infrastructure for research and education at the interface of computer and natural sciences; increased roles for underrepresented students and researchers; and wide dissemination and outreach through diverse media, meetings and professional networks as well as curricular activities at multiple levels. The project will be carried out in collaboration with the Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Lab, University of Maryland, College Park, San Francisco State University, the University of Arizona, and Microsoft Research. Further information about this project may be found at the lab website: http://www.foodwebs.org.