Earthcube RCN: Coral REef Science & CYberinfrastructure NeTwork (CReSCyNT)

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This project develops the the Coral Reef Science & Cyberinfrastructure Network (CReSCyNT). As ecosystem engineers, corals provide the nutritional, economic, and structural basis of ecosystems worth billions of dollars annually. The broader impacts that CReSCyNT encompasses include: (i) integration and exchange with professional societies, (ii) development of visualization products in collaboration with educators and resource managers, (iii) connecting place-based collaborative networks, (iv) building a collaborative community in the coral reef discipline, (v) training of two graduate students, (vi) broad transfer of disciplinary expertise among geoscientists, cybertechnologists, medical scientists and graphic artists (media), (vii) raises visibility and awareness of coral reef data in the geosciences, and (viii) user-friendly web-based visualization tools accessible to the public that serve to showcase the value of coral reef science and the innovative approaches employed by the EarthCube programThe coral reef community has exceptionally diverse data structures and analysis requirements necessary to forward integrative science. It is therefore an exemplar for cyberinfrastructure-enabled advances to other geosciences communities. CReSCyNT will grow a multi-tiered and multidisciplinary network of coral reef researchers, cyberinfrastructure specialists, and computer scientists with the end goal of facilitating integrative and interactive research. This network will match the data sources, data structures, and analysis needs of the coral reef community with the current advances in data management, visualization, and image processing from ocean sciences, biomedical research, and graphic arts to advance coral reef research and meet the increasing challenges of coastal conservation. The network will assemble and communicate to coordinate, plan, and prioritize cyberinfrastructure needs within the coral reef community and with the broader geosciences. Our objectives are to collectively identify needs, best practices, bottlenecks, and avenues or approaches to advance the design and ultimately the development of data management, visualization, and image processing capacity for the coral reef domain that is directly and immediately translatable to the broader geoscience community.The five-member CReSCyNT Facilitating Committee will shepherd the growth of a network around 12 coral reef disciplinary nodes and 5 technology nodes, where each node represents a sub field or discipline of coral reef science (or computer science) that is led by a recognized member of that sub discipline in advocating sharing, transparency, open dialog, creativity, and the integration of data across the geosciences. Facilitated by CReSCyNT meetings, social media, and a presence at professional society conferences, the leader of each node will invite broad participation in CReSCyNT activities from members of their sub discipline. These nodes will be allowed to expand, coalesce, or divide to meet the needs and interests of the subdisciplinary communities, while maintaining a connection to CReSCyNT through the node coordinators and ongoing network activities.