Improvements in Environmental Data Management, Access, and Communications at the Black Rock Forest Field Station

黑岩森林联盟正在获得一笔赠款，以改善其环境数据的收集和管理，并增加包括研究人员和教育团体在内的用户对这些数据的访问。最近在联合会位于纽约州东南部的黑岩森林野外站对环境数据的管理和获取进行了评估，得出的结论是，如果能比目前更容易地获得在森林中收集的更广泛的环境数据，研究界将从中受益。分布在森林周围的一系列传感器站测量和记录气候、土壤条件、河流和河流化学、能量平衡和大气化学等数据。传感器站采用不同的系统进行数据收集和存储，访问这些数据的方法也各不相同，从直接基于网络的检索到由现场站的数据管理器单独处理数据请求。这笔拨款将提供额外的传感器、通信设备、新的计算机和软件，以收集和自动交付该站的大部分环境数据流，并附加元数据，到哥伦比亚大学托管的网站上，这些网站将提供现成的数据访问、可视化和存储在数据存储库中。在过去的15年里，黑岩森林联盟回应了越来越多的要求，即更容易、更可靠地获取黑岩森林的研究数据。该联盟承诺在任何可能的情况下开放和不受限制地获取来自森林的环境数据。该联盟的21个学术成员机构几乎都有需要获得森林环境数据的用户群体。感兴趣的用户群体包括直接在黑岩森林进行研究的科学家，以及其他研究人员，包括不隶属于该联盟的研究人员，他们从许多地点寻求远程访问环境数据，以进行区域、国家和全球范围的研究。新的和可公开访问的数据流也将为教学、学习和研究与教育的整合创造新的机会。不同群体的人与实地站互动，包括传统上在科学领域代表性不足的群体的成员。该联盟的虚拟森林倡议将采用一些新的自动化数据流，以实现通过使用数字技术，包括所有人都可以使用的定制在线工具，广泛加强对环境的了解的目标。欲了解更多信息，请访问黑岩森林网站http://www.blackrockforest.org/。

The Black Rock Forest Consortium is being awarded a grant to improve its collection and management of environmental data and to enhance access to these data by users including both researchers and educational groups. A recent assessment of environmental data management and access at the Consortium's Black Rock Forest field station in southeastern New York State concluded that the research community would benefit from easier access to a broader selection of the environmental data collected in the forest than is currently available. A series of sensor stations distributed around the forest measure and record data on climate, soil conditions, streamflow and stream chemistry, energy balance and atmospheric chemistry. The sensor stations employ different systems for data collection and storage, and methods of access to these data also vary from direct web-based retrieval to individual processing of data requests by the field station's Data Manager. This grant will provide additional sensors, communications equipment, new computers and software to collect and automate the delivery of the majority of the station's environmental data streams, with appended metadata, to web sites hosted by Columbia University which will provide ready data access, visualization, and storage in a data repository.Over the last fifteen years the Black Rock Forest Consortium has responded to increasing numbers of requests for easier and more reliable access to research data from the Black Rock Forest. The Consortium has committed to provide open and unrestricted access to environmental data from the forest wherever possible. Nearly all of the twenty-one academic member institutions of the Consortium have user groups who need access to forest environmental data. The user groups of interest include scientists doing research directly in the Black Rock Forest as well as others, including researchers not affiliated with the Consortium, who seek remote access to environmental data from many sites to conduct regional, national, and global-scale studies. The new and openly accessible data streams will also create new opportunities for teaching, learning, and the integration of research with education. A diverse group of people interact with the field station including members of groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. The Consortium's Virtual Forest Initiative will employ several of the newly automated data streams to meet its goal of broadly enhancing environmental understanding through the use of digital technologies including custom-designed online tools available to all. For more information see the Black Rock Forest website at http://www.blackrockforest.org/.