EarthCube IA: Collaborative Proposal: Enhancing Paleontological and Neontological Data Discovery API

了解未来的环境变化需要研究人员获取和整合来自地质和生物科学的数据，以便回答有关环境变化将如何影响地球上的生命的问题。在许多情况下，回答这些问题所需的数据已经存在，但不幸的是，技术没有跟上研究需求的步伐。这对研究人员提出了越来越高的要求，他们必须从多个独立的在线数据库中搜索和下载数据；汇编来自许多不同文献来源的已发表信息；并追踪分布在世界各地的博物馆和其他收藏品中的标本。搜索和检索这些信息所需的时间是巨大的，而且一旦找到这些数据，通常必须在使用它们之前对其进行标准化。该项目将通过开发软件工具来解决这个问题，将三个已建立的、得到良好支持的、非常重要的数据源连接起来：古生物数据库（PBDB，古生物学，基于文献）、iDigPaleo（古生物学，基于标本）和iDigBio（新生物学，基于标本）。该项目将允许这些数据库中的任何一个的用户同时访问和查询其他数据库，从而向用户返回更丰富的组合数据集。将这些资源连接起来，将开启一大堆目前很难回答的研究问题，即使是多名研究人员作为一个团队工作也很难回答。该系统的发展将使科学家能够提出和回答影响生物地理/生态位建模、系统学、功能形态学、进化生物学、生态学、气候学、保护生物学、海洋学和石油地质学等领域的新研究问题。这个项目将从根本上改变科学界可以解决的研究问题的性质。现代和化石、标本和文献资源之间的联系目前还不存在。由复合ePANDDA应用程序编程接口（api）提供的数字基础设施将简化和规范数据获取，包括从不同数据源检索，并将促进与未来数据倡议的协调。ePANDDA将统一通常需要在多个平台上进行多次搜索的结果，而不是为数据聚合创建另一个门户。对于研究人员来说，这消除了数据收集和处理的一个重要障碍。研究人员现在将有能力跨越学科界限，研究地球系统过程和生物对空间和时间环境变化的反应的本质。将出版物与标本联系起来将丰富博物馆收藏的潜力，并增加它们在研究和教育方面的价值。ePANDDA项目还提供了一个建立协作项目的机会，除了主要的研究目标外，还可以利用现有的教育和外展活动。

Understanding future environmental change requires researchers to access and integrate data from the geological and biological sciences, in order to answer questions about how environmental change will affect life on Earth. In many cases the data needed to answer these questions already exists but, unfortunately, technology has not kept pace with research needs. This places increasing demands on researchers, who have to search for and download data from multiple separate online databases; compile published information from many different literature sources; and track down specimens housed in museum and other collections scattered around the world. The time needed to search and retrieve this information is enormous and, once found, the data often have to be standardized before they can be used. This project will tackle this problem by developing software tools to connect three established, well-supported, and critically important data sources: the Paleobiology Database (PBDB, paleontological, literature based), iDigPaleo (paleontological, specimen based) and iDigBio (neontological, specimen based). This project will allow users of any one of these databases to access and query the others at the same time, returning a much richer, combined set of data to the user. Connecting these resources will open up a whole host of research questions that are currently difficult to answer, even by multiple researchers working as a team. The development of this system will allow scientists to ask and answer new research questions affecting fields as diverse as biogeographic/niche modeling, systematics, functional morphology, evolutionary biology, ecology, climatology, conservation biology, oceanography, and petroleum geology. This project will fundamentally change the nature of the research questions that can be addressed by the scientific community.The connectivity between modern and fossil, and specimen and literature-based resources does not currently exist. The digital infrastructure provided by the composite ePANDDA application programming interfaces (APIs) will streamline and normalize data acquisition, including retrieval from disparate data sources, and will facilitate coordination with future data initiatives. Rather than creating another portal for the aggregation of data, ePANDDA will unify results that normally would have required multiple searches on numerous platforms. For the researcher, this eliminates a significant barrier to data collection and processing. Researchers will now have the ability to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to study earth system processes and the nature of biotic response to environmental change across both space and time. Linking publications to specimens will enrich the potential of museum collections and augment their value for both research and education. The ePANDDA project also provides an opportunity to build collaborative programs that leverage existing education and outreach activities in addition to the primary research goals.