Information Management plays a major role at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Intensive forest ecosystem research, conducted on the Andrews Forest since the 1950's, has resulted in many diverse, long-term ecological databases and a strong commitment to information management. Hundreds of ecological databases are managed through the Forest Science Data Bank (FSDB), which has long been an essential component of the Andrews LTER and is jointly sponsored by the OSU College of Forestry and the US Forest Service PNW. The FSDB is managed through an information management system that supports the collection, quality control, archival and long-term accessibility of collected data and associated metadata. The Andrews LTER maintains an extensive bibliography and image library, and personnel and keyword databases are managed for integrated web searches.
Learn about how the Andrews Forest LTER manages information:
Andrews LTER Information Management Summary
Information Management Philosophy and Objectives
The mission of Andrews LTER Information Management is to ensure that all LTER research data will be archived and openly available for the future. The primary goals are to 1) preserve high-quality and well-documented data collections that are both secure and accessible, 2) serve the Andrews and broader community through the development and management of informational products and tools, and 3) provide leadership and participation in relevant committees and activities at both the site and LTER Network level. The following objectives illustrate how aspects of the primary goals are achieved.
- Assure preservation of high quality metadata and data products through the direction and maintenance of a long-term data repository that adheres to LTER standards and best practices and provides security through regular maintenance and backup procedures.
- Maintain and adhere to a Data Access Policy in compliance with LTER standards to assure that data and accompanying metadata are freely and publicly available electronically within two years of collection at both the local site and within the LTER Network Information System (NIS).
- Assure regular contributions of research data into the long-term data repository through strong integration of the IM Team with site science including 1) participation and regular reporting at site executive meetings and monthly meetings, 2) annual reviews of Information Management, and 3) regular interactions and trainings conducted with co-PIs and community members.
- Develop and maintain the Andrews LTER web pages and associated user interfaces that provide access to data and metadata, research publications, programs and projects, site and personnel information, education and outreach programs, community events, and other site information.
- Provide leadership to the LTER Network in the development of standards and best practices for the NIS and participation in community projects and systems that promote the discovery, use, and integration of LTER data, both within the network and throughout the broader research community.
People and Institutions
Information Management is an essential component of the Andrews LTER program and benefits from an institutional partnership between the Oregon State University College of Forestry (COF) and the USFS Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW). The current Andrews LTER Information Management Team reflects this long-term partnership.
Impacts of Information Management Activities
Perhaps the greatest impact is demonstrated through the persistence and growth of the Forest Science Data Bank. The FSDB was established in 1980 and has been largely funded and operated by LTER personnel since the mid-1990s. The FSDB has opportunistically acquired non-LTER data and includes well over 250 databases with more than 170 databases on-line (mostly LTER). A stable computing environment and information system with desirable features such as adherence to national metadata standards have allowed the FSDB to expand its LTER data resource holdings into a regional data center. Holdings now include key US Forest Service Research data (e.g., Research Natural Areas and Experimental Forests), USFS campaign data (e.g., Demonstration of Ecosystem Management Options (DEMO) and Mount St. Helens), National Forest System data (Young Stand Study), OSU CoF data (e.g., OSU MacDonald Forest), and the Long-Term Permanent Vegetation Plot Network (OSU, PNW, UW). Andrews data has been essential in student projects (e.g., quality control of high-volume streaming data, visualization software on species diversity).
Access to long-term data is critical for ecological researchers to understand and identify processes, patterns, and drivers of complex ecosystem and population dynamics, and to create models and analyses to project potential future states. Data products archived and maintained by the IM team, as well as tools developed for discovery, have enabled researchers to test ecological hypotheses and answer questions that would not otherwise be possible.
Significant Results from our Efforts to Improve our Information Management System
- Metadata enhancements and improvements to the Ecological Metadata Language (EML)-generation program, which is a generic program to build EML files for all data sets, following best practices guidelines, from our relational metadata database.
- An archival system to manage versioning of data sets and versioning of associated EML files, thus improving our ability to acess previous versions of data sets.
- A quality control workflow for streaming sensor data to assure immediate posting of provisional data.
- An efficient and standardized system of handling all data streaming through the new communication network (includes developing generic database handling programs using file and attribute naming conventions).
- Refining the web-based login process to greatly simplify access to Andrews data.
Outreach and Training
The Andrews IM team conducts yearly training and outreach to graduate students and other researchers, including conducting "Metadata Parties" with PIs as a means of collecting key research metadata for core data sets, demonstrating metadata requirements and training on the use of our resources and tools. Our recent training workshops have been held virtually (on Zoom), which allows us to record and share this online resource on our website for those that were unable to attend the training. The team meets one-on-one with students and researchers to help them understand the importance of managing their data and contributing to the long-term records of the Andrews LTER.
Andrews LTER Data Management and Sharing Plan
Types of Data: Data collection efforts within the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (HJA) are continual and widespread. Core data collections include long-term datasets such as meteorological station and distributed meteorological collections, stream gauging station measurements, stream chemistry, and permanent vegetation plot data. Core data collection has been a collaboration between Oregon State University (OSU) College of Forestry (COF) and the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW). Additional data collections continue including phenology measurements of vegetation and birds, associated air temperature and other distributed understory air temperature collections, canopy processes, aquatic studies, vertebrate populations, pollinator interactions, seedling transplant experiments, and data that relate to or take advantage of our core collections with respect to forest ecosystem functions and disturbances. There are no plans to collect samples that would need to be archived.
Standards: Project data will be submitted to the Forest Science Data Bank (FSDB), a local, long-term data repository initiated in 1983 (Stafford et al. 1984, 1988, Henshaw and Spycher 1999, Henshaw et al. 2002), supported by the Andrews Forest in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW) and the OSU College of Forestry (COF). The FSDB stores complete collections of datasets and current and historic publications from research at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (data collection started in 1948). The highly structured metadata database includes a data catalog with all associated metadata and publication citation information for these collections and is tailored to accommodate all necessary elements within the Ecological Metadata Standard, EML version 2.2 (Jones et al. 2019). These standards follow Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) principles (Wilkinson et al., 2016). The FSDB structured metadata database enables systems for quality assurance, data and metadata versioning, web interfaces for capturing new databases, and a dynamic web delivery system. Data files will generally be provided as tabular data in comma-delimited text-based formats (csv or txt) or as spatial data in ArcGIS, although other acceptable formats might also be delivered.
Access and Sharing: Research data and structured metadata curated in the FSDB are freely available to the public through the Andrews LTER website. We have over 200 datasets available. To maximize discovery and usability of the data, datasets are prepared following current best practices (Environmental Data Initiative 2017, Gries et al. 2021) and submitted to the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) data repository. These best practices use keywords aligned with controlled vocabularies, fully described data table attributes and units, reference funding sources, and include temporal, geographic, and taxonomic coverages. As new versions of the study data and metadata are created, new EML files are harvested along with the revised data into EDI, and a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) is assigned. As EDI is a node of DataONE, an NSF DataNet project, all FSDB metadata contributions become openly available for broad discovery and access through this federation of data repositories in perpetuity. Short-term data products are published to EDI within two years of data collection, and ongoing data products are uploaded on regular intervals (typically annually or biennially). In exceptional and rare occurrences, data may be restricted according to specific terms by the data provider for legal or privacy purposes, quality issues, or to protect the vulnerability of researchers like graduate students while preparing peer-reviewed publications.
Re-use and Redistribution: The Andrews Forest data access policy is compliant with the NSF and LTER network data policies and ensures that research outputs from our work are made publicly accessible. All FSDB data and associated metadata are released to the public domain under the Creative Commons license CC BY, Attribution). This Creative Commons license allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the work (even commercially), as long as the original creation is credited. This license accommodates maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials. The data access policy for Andrews Forest contributions to the FSDB is available on our website.
Archiving and Preservation: The mission of Information Management (IM) at the Andrews Forest is to ensure that environmental research and education data collected as part of the Andrews Forest research programs are archived and openly available. We strive to preserve high-quality and well-documented data collections, serve the Andrews Forest and broader community through the development and management of informational products and tools, provide education and training on the collection, archiving, and publishing of research data, and provide leadership and participation in relevant committees and activities at both the site and community IM level. Our datasets are stored locally in the FSDB and uploaded to EDI data repository, which serves as a node to the Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) where well-described Earth observational data are easily discovered.
Roles and Responsibilities: Information management is an essential component of the Andrews Forest research program and benefits from institutional partnerships with COF and PNW. The project supports two IM positions, including a data manager and an on-site systems administrator. Historically, the IM team had benefited through long-term and continued support provided by the US Forest Service for additional positions. Daily file and database backup systems provided by COF protect the security and integrity of all FSDB data holdings. Data processing workflows are well documented, stored on shared internal repositories, ensuring continuity in the event of personnel transitions.
System Administration
The Andrews Forest LTER has agreements with COF for computer system administration, backup of production servers, and other information technology services including system administration support for LTER-related campus computer servers, production and development web servers, production and development database servers, shared file server directories, two tape backup servers, and cloud storage. With the improved internet capabilities at the field station, large data volumes (e.g., imagery) are now backed up directly to OSU servers and cloud storage, removing a previous vulnerability in the data archiving process.