Collaborative Project: EarthCube Domain End-User Workshop: Developing a Community Vision of Cyberinfrastructure Needs for Coral Reef Systems Science

Geosciences EarthCube计划认识到将网络基础设施活动与最终用户研究社区的需求相结合的重要性。为此，我们建议召集50-70名珊瑚礁社区成员参加两个研讨会，一个在夏威夷大学（HIMB）举行，另一个在加州大学圣巴巴拉国家中心举行生态分析与综合（NCEAS）。讲习班的具体目标是：1.定义该领域当前和未来（5-15年）的科学挑战2。总结阻碍这些挑战实现的数据和网络基础设施限制3。整理当前的社区数据和建模资源及其位置4.确定和推荐数据基础设施，可以促进快速解决在现场的科学挑战珊瑚礁研究界是多学科的，珊瑚礁的数据是多样的和复杂的，跨越生物尺度从基因到生态系统，时间尺度从纳秒到千年，空间尺度从纳米到公里。目前的挑战是整合这些数据源，以确定快速提高我们对珊瑚礁系统的理解的模式和关系。迄今为止，由于缺乏实现这一目标的工具，以及缺乏有效的数据共享或协作手段，这一努力一直受到阻碍。该项目将支持研讨会，让珊瑚礁社区参与1）制定该领域重大科学挑战的共同愿景2）强调数据网络基础设施需求如何整合复杂的数据集，并可能促进珊瑚礁生态系统科学关键领域的快速进展3）强调合作和数据共享的价值，这是改变和改善珊瑚礁科学家相互支持和推动该领域发展的第一步。作为生态系统工程师，珊瑚提供营养，每年价值数十亿美元的生态系统的经济和结构基础。该研讨会提议召集珊瑚礁社区，并将讨论网络基础设施如何为珊瑚礁系统科学提供信息。后者最终将加快对珊瑚礁生态系统的了解，扩大可以提出的问题的范围，并建立预测这些具有社会相关性的脆弱生态系统将如何面对气候变化和人类发展挑战的能力。研讨会还将由至少4名博士后参加，并为这些人提供重要的专业发展机会。研究结果将在EarthCube网站、NCEAS网站和HIMB网站上传播，使科学、教育和公众能够广泛获取。拟议奋进的成果将是一份提交给NSF EarthCube的报告，总结对每个目标的讨论，这将有助于定义和调整地球科学的需求，并帮助确定EarthCube活动的优先级。还有机会利用这些结果来制定一份手稿，阐明网络基础设施如何解决珊瑚礁社区面临的科学挑战，并促进系统级科学议程。这种产品在科学资助和政策领域都具有很高的价值。

The Geosciences EarthCube program recognizes the importance of aligning cyber-infrastructure activities with the needs of end user research communities. To that end we propose to convene 50-70 members of the coral reef community in two workshops, one held at the University of Hawaii (HIMB) and the other at the University of California Santa Barbara National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). The specific objectives of the workshop are to: 1. Define current and future (5-15 years) scientific challenges in the field2. Summarize data and cyber-infrastructure constraints that prevent these challenges being realized3. Collate current community data and modeling resources and their locations4. Identify and recommend data infrastructure that could facilitate rapidly addressing the scientific challenges in the fieldThe coral reef research community is multidisciplinary and the data on reefs is diverse and complex, crossing biological scales from genes to ecosystems, temporal scales from nanoseconds to millennia, and spatial scales from nanometers to kilometers. The challenge is to integrate across these data sources to identify patterns and relationships that rapidly improve our understanding of coral reefs systems. This effort has been hindered to date by the lack of tools to accomplish this and ineffective means of sharing data or collaborating. This project will support workshops that engage the coral reef community to 1) develop a common vision of the grand science challenges in the field 2) highlight how data cyber-infrastructure needs will integrate the complex datasets and potentially facilitate rapid progress in key areas of coral reefs ecosystem science and 3) emphasize the value of collaboration and data sharing as a first step to changing and improving the way coral reef scientists support each other and advance the field.As ecosystem engineers, corals provide the nutritional, economic, and structural basis ofan ecosystem worth billions of dollars annually. This workshop proposal convenes the coral reef community and will address how cyber-infrastructure can inform coral reef systems science. The latter will ultimately accelerate understanding of reef ecosystems, broaden the scope of the questions that can be asked and build capacity to predict how these societally relevant and fragile ecosystems will face the challenges of climate change and human development. The workshops will also be attended by at least 4 postdocs and represents a significant professional development opportunity for these individuals. Results will be disseminated on the EarthCube website, the NCEAS website, and the HIMB website making them broadly accessible to the science, education and the public. The product from the proposed endeavor will be a report to NSF EarthCube summarizing the discussion for each of these objectives that will serve to define and align the needs across the Geosciences and help prioritize EarthCube activities. There is also an opportunity to use the results to develop a manuscript that articulates how cyber-infrastructure can address the science challenges facing the coral reef community and facilitate a systems level science agenda. Such a product could have high value in both the science funding and policy realm.