Improvements in Environmental Data Management, Access, and Communications at the Black Rock Forest Field Station

黑岩森林联合会正在获得一笔赠款，以改进其环境数据的收集和管理，并使包括研究人员和教育团体在内的用户更容易获得这些数据。最近在该联合会位于纽约州东南部的黑岩森林实地站对环境数据管理和获取情况进行的一次评估得出结论认为，研究界将受益于比目前更容易获取在森林中收集的更广泛的环境数据。分布在森林周围的一系列传感站测量和记录有关气候、土壤条件、径流和径流化学、能量平衡和大气化学的数据。传感器站采用不同的系统进行数据收集和存储，访问这些数据的方法也各不相同，从直接基于网络的检索到现场站数据管理员对数据请求的单独处理。这笔赠款将提供额外的传感器，通信设备，新的计算机和软件，以收集和自动化的大部分空间站的环境数据流，附加元数据，由哥伦比亚大学主办的网站，将提供现成的数据访问，可视化，在过去的十五年里，黑岩森林联盟已经响应了越来越多的要求，从黑岩森林获得可靠的研究数据。该联盟承诺尽可能提供开放且不受限制的森林环境数据访问权限。联合会的21个学术成员机构几乎都有需要获得森林环境数据的用户群体。感兴趣的用户群体包括直接在黑岩森林进行研究的科学家以及其他人，包括不属于该联合会的研究人员，他们寻求远程访问许多地点的环境数据，以进行区域、国家和全球规模的研究。新的和开放的数据流也将为教学，学习和研究与教育的整合创造新的机会。一个不同的人群与现场站互动，包括传统上在科学界代表性不足的群体的成员。联合会的虚拟森林倡议将采用若干新的自动化数据流，通过使用数字技术，包括为所有人提供的定制在线工具，实现广泛加强对环境的了解的目标。欲了解更多信息，请访问黑岩森林网站http://www.blackrockforest.org/。

The Black Rock Forest Consortium is being awarded a grant to improve its collection and management of environmental data and to enhance access to these data by users including both researchers and educational groups. A recent assessment of environmental data management and access at the Consortium's Black Rock Forest field station in southeastern New York State concluded that the research community would benefit from easier access to a broader selection of the environmental data collected in the forest than is currently available. A series of sensor stations distributed around the forest measure and record data on climate, soil conditions, streamflow and stream chemistry, energy balance and atmospheric chemistry. The sensor stations employ different systems for data collection and storage, and methods of access to these data also vary from direct web-based retrieval to individual processing of data requests by the field station's Data Manager. This grant will provide additional sensors, communications equipment, new computers and software to collect and automate the delivery of the majority of the station's environmental data streams, with appended metadata, to web sites hosted by Columbia University which will provide ready data access, visualization, and storage in a data repository.Over the last fifteen years the Black Rock Forest Consortium has responded to increasing numbers of requests for easier and more reliable access to research data from the Black Rock Forest. The Consortium has committed to provide open and unrestricted access to environmental data from the forest wherever possible. Nearly all of the twenty-one academic member institutions of the Consortium have user groups who need access to forest environmental data. The user groups of interest include scientists doing research directly in the Black Rock Forest as well as others, including researchers not affiliated with the Consortium, who seek remote access to environmental data from many sites to conduct regional, national, and global-scale studies. The new and openly accessible data streams will also create new opportunities for teaching, learning, and the integration of research with education. A diverse group of people interact with the field station including members of groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. The Consortium's Virtual Forest Initiative will employ several of the newly automated data streams to meet its goal of broadly enhancing environmental understanding through the use of digital technologies including custom-designed online tools available to all. For more information see the Black Rock Forest website at http://www.blackrockforest.org/.