Database Infrastructure for Long-Term Data of German Lakes (Lake-Base)

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Germany has a strong community of internationally leading experts working in the realm of long-term ecological research of lakes - a data intensive discipline. Continuous long-term records of German lakes are unique worldwide with respect to the length of the observational periods spanning several decades, due to their unique high temporal and taxonomic resolution (mostly phytoplankton, zoo-plankton, macrozoobenthos, macrophytes and fish) and due to the fact that different lake types with respect to morphometry, trophic state and catchment type are covered. For most lakes a full set of the most important abiotic driving forces are available. Currently the data are distributed at universi-ties, institutes of the Helmholtz and the Leibniz Association and public bodies at the federal and state levels. What is missing as of yet, is a modern and general accepted state of the art database for the screening of diverse long-term data sets that have general applicability and that are well defined to (1) conserve the currently available long-term data of lakes, (2) to protect its integrity and ownership, (3) to guarantee their readily availability for generations to come, (4) to establish a substructure to be incorporated in international networks such as the UNEP-Program Global Environment Monitoring System. We intend to develop an interoperable data base infrastructure (LakeBase) for long-term records of German lakes and reservoirs and beyond. Data contained in LakeBase shall be made in-teroperable with other, national and international collections of lake time series, in particular the LTER North Temperate Lake Database and other collections of ecological data especially with respect to biodiversity and hydrological and water quality observations. The challenge here is to achieve this interoperability and open access of data without sacrificing the autonomy of the underlying sources. Import mechanisms will be developed that allow for the automatic upload of future extensions of the incorporated datasets. We will build on the existing IGB database infrastructure. The IGB will act as the responsible long-term host of LakeBase and will implement LakeBase into a global freshwater ecosystem information and forecasting platform with respect to long-term and biodiversity research. Overall, long-term records of lake ecosystems in Germany and in general can be considered a world cultural heritage - which deserves protection as a base for international future research, optimize management strategies and political outreach.