Collaboration in Ecology: A Workshop Proposal

生态科学对于我们理解地球上生命的进化以及气候变化和生物多样性减少等环境问题至关重要。目前，生态学是一门规模较小、资金不足的学科。生态学家中有一种自我认同的需求，即他们的科学必须发展，以便及时解决大规模的生态问题。为此，必须开发软件工具来处理数据，加强远程协作，并对生态数据进行更复杂的分析。这些工具是新兴的生态信息学领域的一部分。为了开发好的工具，需要跨学科的努力，因为许多生态问题涉及其他科学，如物理和化学。该讲习班将汇集生态学家、社会科学家、计算机科学家和图书管理员，讨论生态学家的工作做法和信息需求，并为新的生态信息学工具的设计提供信息。感兴趣的主题将包括处理大型数据集的计算工具，以及与远程协作和跨学科工作相关的问题。更广泛的影响：研讨会将使来自不同学科的科学家为未来的互动建立关系和网络，从而使生态信息学能够真正成为跨学科的。这些结果将对扩大其他领域的科学，如地质学、海洋学和古生物学产生影响。

The science of ecology is crucial to our understanding of the evolution of life on earth as well as environmental problems such as climate change and reduced biodiversity. At present, ecology is a small, underfunded discipline. There is a self-identified need among ecologists that their science must grow in order to address timely large-scale ecological questions. To this end, software tools must be developed to handle data, to enhance remote collaborations, and to perform more sophisticated analyses of ecological data. Such tools are part of the emerging field of ecoinformatics. To develop good tools, interdisciplinary efforts are required, since many ecological problems involve other sciences such as physics and chemistry. This workshop will bring together ecologists, social scientists, computer scientists and librarians to discuss the work practices and information needs of ecologists and to inform the design of the new ecoinformatics tools. Topics of interest will include computational tools for handling large datasets, and issues related to collaboration over distance and working across disciplines. Broader Impacts: The workshop will enable scientists from varied disciplines to form relationships and networks for future interaction, so that ecoinformatics can be truly interdisciplinary. The outcomes will have implications for scaling up other field sciences such as geology, oceanography, and paleontology.