CIF21 DIBBs: Building International Data Sharing Capacity in Lake Sciences, with Implications for the Broader Environmental Science Community

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CIF21 DIBBs: Building international data sharing capacity in lake sciences, with implications for the broader environmental science community Environmental research, and science in general, are being transformed by the unprecedented amount and diversity of spatial and temporal data available for analysis. Hosts of new sensors and experimental techniques are driving this data flood. And while the transformational potential on science is understood, the reality of managing the data flows from collection through to analysis, especially integration with other data, insights, plus education, and outreach has not kept pace. A continuum of approaches exist for data archiving, publishing and sharing: from the single investigator with limited technical skills, or limited personal interest in archiving or sharing data, to the highly structured ecological observatory with an IT (Information Technology) department and the explicit goal of archiving data and making them accessible to researchers who were not involved in the sampling (e.g. NEON). Grassroots organizations like GLEON (the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network) share many similarities with the single investigator approach without major IT support, but recognize data sharing as a mandatory first step to answer pressing research questions addressing climate and land-use change, diminishing ecosystem services, and large scale disruptions of ecosystem functioning on a global scale. It is proposed to collaborate with other groups invested in the area of environmental observations data management and develop a design and implementation plan for a data publishing and sharing system that will address not only GLEON?s needs but also those of environmental research communities that find themselves in a similar place along the outlined data management continuum, of which there is a growing number. We will leverage GLEON?s experience, organizational structure, community trust, and recognized need for data sharing, Our approach will be primarily based on deploying and testing technology components created by CUAHSI, DataONE, LTER, and DataTurbine in a prototype setting and to assess their applicability in the GLEON community through targeted focus groups. The intellectual merits are twofold. First, prototyping and testing of existing technologies by our community members will provide valuable feedback to the original creators of the technology. Second, and most importantly, through our efforts, our community will develop a design and implementation plan for a data publishing and sharing system that is not only well conceived and sustainable, but owned and manageable by our community members, with potential implementation by dozens, if not hundreds, of ecological observatories. Broader impact: This community is an international and multi-cultural grassroots organization based on the recognized need for collaboration, as very typical in the current and future landscape of environmental research approaches. Therefore, a community level data publishing and sharing design and implementation plan that considers aspects typical for these research approaches will benefit many other international grassroots research and education collaborations, and the approach will be transformational in developing such global infrastructures. Aspects of primary importance are governance, sustainability, buy-in, trust, appropriate credit, and last but not least, usability. Finally, during the evaluation phase many researchers and students will be exposed to and trained in the use of technology that is currently available to them, even if in the end it is not considered appropriate for the entire community.