Collaborative Research: Neotoma Paleoecology Database, a Multi-Proxy, International, Community-Curated Data Resource for Global Change Research

最近的地质记录可以为物种如何适应(或未能适应)大规模和快速的环境变化提供有用的洞察。要了解过去的全球变化，就必须对来自世界许多地区的许多科学家收集的许多个人记录进行汇编和分析。该项目将继续支持和开发新托马古生态数据库，这是一个社区数据资源，专家在其中贡献数据，整理这些数据以满足社区标准，并在研究和教学中自由访问和使用这些数据。利用新托马资源进行研究的例子包括了解过去物种灭绝的原因和后果，评估物种对过去冰河时代伴随的大环境变化的敏感性，以及衡量物种适应过去快速环境变化的速度。Neotoma的开放数据访问还将促进新形式的教育和推广，使学生和教师能够直接访问研究质量的数据，并使他们能够对过去的气候和生物多样性动态进行自己的分析。这将有助于培养具有地质和数据科学交叉技能的下一代科学队伍。新图玛已成为古生态学、古气候学、宏观生态学、生物地理学和环境考古学的研究资源，数据量迅速增长，支持的数据种类不断增加，第三方和外部支持的研究项目活跃。将数以千计的站点级记录收集到高质量的全球范围的数据网络中需要付出巨大的努力。必须仔细检查数据集，统一分类单元名称，更新年龄深度模型，并量化不确定性。Neotoma将继续通过集中式基础设施和分布式数据治理模式来应对这些挑战。该项目的优先事项是：1)建立数据类型和研究社区的国际覆盖范围，这些社区目前在北美拥有大量训练有素的数据管理员和数据量(花粉、硅藻、介形虫、被测试变形虫、脊椎动物)，以及2)为最近增加的数据类型(标本级别的稳定同位素、有机生物标记物)建立临界数量的数据和数据管理员。网络基础设施的改进将包括：1)基于网络的界面，用于批量上传元数据和来自许多站点的数据；2)更好地支持标本水平的同位素测量；3)更好地可视化和分析微古生物物种-环境校准数据集；以及4)重建Neotoma的主页。可持续发展的优先事项包括：1)支持最近启动的非营利性地球生命联盟基金会，以及2)举办研讨会，在研讨会上，来自Neotoma和其他社区数据资源的领导人将接受建立战略可持续发展计划的培训，学习管理财务和规划未来的工具，制定战略以使其资金基础多样化，并增强沟通技能。Neotoma的这些更新和改进将增强现有用户的现有数据资源，并将帮助职业早期研究人员，他们的数据可用性和数据科学培训可以为他们开辟新的职业道路。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The recent geological record can offer useful insight into how species adapt (or fail to adapt) to large and rapid environmental change. Understanding past global changes necessitates the assembly and analysis of many individual records, collected by many scientists, from many parts of the world. This project will continue the support and development of the Neotoma Paleoecology Database, a community data resource in which experts contribute their data, curate these data to meet community standards, and freely access and use the data in research and teaching. Examples of research that uses the Neotoma resource include understanding the causes and consequences of past extinction, assessing the sensitivity of species to large environmental changes that accompanied past ice ages, and measuring how quickly species adapt to past rapid environmental changes. Neotoma’s open data access will also facilitate new forms of education and outreach, by giving students and teachers direct access to research-quality data and empowering them to run their own analyses of past climate and biodiversity dynamics. This will help train the next generation of the scientific workforce, with crossover skills in both geological and data sciences.Neotoma has become a research resource in paleoecology, paleoclimatology, macroecology, biogeography, and environmental archaeology, with rapid growth in data volume, kinds of data supported, and active third-party and externally-supported research projects. Gathering thousands of site-level records into high-quality, global-scale, data networks requires substantial effort. Datasets must be carefully checked, taxon names harmonized, age-depth models updated, and uncertainties quantified. Neotoma will continue to address these challenges through a model of centralized infrastructure and distributed data governance. Priorities for this project are: 1) establishing international coverage for data types and research communities that now have critical masses of trained data stewards and data volumes in North America (pollen, diatoms, ostracods, testate amoebae, vertebrates), and 2) establishing critical masses of data and data stewards for recently added data types (specimen-level stable isotopes, organic biomarkers). Cyberinfrastructure improvements will include: 1) a web-based interface for bulk-uploading metadata and data from many sites, 2) better support for specimen-level isotopic measurements, 3) better visualization and analytical support for micropaleontological species-environment calibration datasets, and 4) a rebuild of Neotoma’s home webpage. Sustainability priorities include: 1) support for the recently launched non-profit EarthLife Consortium Foundation, and 2) a workshop in which leaders from Neotoma and other community data resources will receive training in building strategic sustainability plans, learn tools to manage finances and plan for the future, develop strategies to diversify their funding base, and enhance communication skills. These updates and improvements to Neotoma will enhance the existing data resource for current users, and will help early-career researchers, for whom data availability and data-science training can open new career pathways.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.