Collaborative Research: ABI Development: A toolbox for analysis of long-term ecological dynamics using the Kepler Workflow System

威斯康星州麦迪逊大学、新墨西哥州大学和加州圣巴巴拉大学获得赠款，开发一个工具箱，用于自动化分析社区变化的过程。长期数据集将用于展示数据和系统的可访问性和功能，通过实施新的指标，我们将深入了解是什么推动了大陆范围内生态社区的变化。数据将通过DataONE门户网站和LTER网络信息系统使用生态元数据语言访问，并在开普勒科学工作流程环境中使用R统计程序进行分析。生态群落的物种组成随着时间的推移而变化，以应对环境的变化。这种变异性的分析在生态学中有着悠久的历史，但由于缺乏长期的数据，不同地区的生态变化一直被研究在一个所谓的？时间地点？approach.也就是说，一个地方的环境条件被认为与另一个地方的未来条件相当。虽然这种方法可以使人们对一般趋势有一些了解，但它不能提供关于变化率和变化模式的很多信息。LTER和LTREB等NSF项目对不同的生态群落进行了长期观测，以更现实地衡量生态群落如何随时间变化。随着像氖和GLEON这样的自动观测平台对长期记录做出重大贡献，这一记录将不断增长。沿着越来越多的在线数据库中的长期数据集的可用性，社区变化分析的新方法正在开发。这个开放获取工具箱将使社区分析更容易获得，从而使各种指数得到更广泛的使用，彻底的测试和改进，以测量和可视化生态动态。现有的工作流程将有助于减少数据准备工作，并促进前所未有的合作潜力。各种生境的社区变化指数的增值数据产品对于教育和宣传以及在更大范围内与环境健康、管理和动态有关的更广泛的综合活动特别有价值。通过LTER校园方案，这些数据和对环境变化的理解将传达给大量和多样化的学童。有关该项目及其软件产品的更多信息，请访问http://lter.limnology.wisc.edu/research/community-analysis-toolbox。

The University of Wisconsin Madison, The University of New Mexico, and the University of California Santa Barbara are awarded grants to develop a toolbox for automating the process of analyzing community change. Long-term data sets will be used to demonstrate data and system accessibility and functionality, and through implementation of new metrics we will gain insights into what drives change in ecological communities on a continental scale. Data will be accessed via the DataONE portal and the LTER Network Information System using the Ecological Metadata Language, and analyzed with R statistical routines within the Kepler Scientific Workflow Environment. The species makeup of ecological communities varies over time in response to changes in the environment. Analysis of this variability has a long history in ecology, yet because of the lack of long term data, ecological change in different localities has been studied in a so-called ?place for time? approach. That is, environmental conditions in one locality are considered to be comparable to the future conditions in another place. Although, this approach allows some insight into general trends it does not provide much information about rates and patterns of change. NSF programs like LTER and LTREB have generated long term observations of different ecological communities to allow for more realistic measures of how ecological communities change over time. This record will grow as automated observing platforms like NEON and GLEON contribute significantly to the long-term record. Along with the increasing availability of long-term datasets in on-line repositories, new methods for community change analysis are being developed. This open access toolbox will make community analysis more accessible and in turn expose a variety of indices to wider use, thorough testing, and improvement for measuring and visualizing ecological dynamics. Existing workflows will help reduce effort in data preparation and foster unprecedented potential for collaboration. Value added data products of community change indices across habitats are particularly valuable for education and outreach, and in broader synthetic activities related to environmental health, management, and dynamics at larger scales. Through the LTER Schoolyard program these data and understanding of environmental change will reach a large number and diversity of schoolchildren. For further information about the project and its software products, visit http://lter.limnology.wisc.edu/research/community-analysis-toolbox.