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  ASM 2003

2003 LTER Site Byte

LTER Site: Andrews LTER

Contributor: Don Henshaw and Theresa Valentine (Sep 12, 2003)

Site Byte:

The Andrews Information Management team (Don Henshaw, Gody Spycher, Theresa Valentine, Suzanne Remillard) has restructured its metadata database for compliance with the Ecological Metadata Language (EML) and now dynamically generates EML files from the web page. The site (Spycher) continues to add new databases and transport legacy databases into the new metadata system for dynamic display and download, and now hosts 85 online databases.

Zhiqiang Yang, an LTER graduate student, has excelled in part-time work for the Andrews Information Management (IM) team as a database and web programmer and was recently hired by the Konza Prairie LTER site as their new Information Manager. Yang will complete his PhD and begin work at Konza this fall. Yang has been largely responsible for the implementation of C Sharp programs and XSL stylesheets to generate and deliver EML files.

The site (Henshaw) continues to be active in Network-level activities through participation in the IM Executive Committee meeting, an EML implementation workshop, and the NIS Advisory Committee and LTER Coordinating Committee (CC) meetings. The NISAC report is a draft strategy for supporting synthetic research efforts at the LTER Network level, and was presented by Mark Harmon (AND) at the LTER CC Meeting at Kellogg Biological Station in May 2003. The site also participated in the development of an NSF Biological Databases & Informatics proposal in association with three other LTER sites (CAP, NTL, NET) to implement a modern information system that expedites cross-site data synthesis and to enhance the value of such data sets through improved validation and quality control.

GIS
The focus of the spatial information management of the Andrews LTER is the integration of spatial data with long-term study data sets. Study site locations continue to be documented in the GIS for future data discovery of study databases by geographic coordinates. Internet mapping allows dynamic web display of spatial data and has evolved with the addition of a spatial data metadata service for the cataloging and searching of spatial data. The metadata are stored in Spatial Database Engine (SDE) and are accessed using Arc Internet Map Server (ArcIMS). The spatial data manager (Valentine) is also involved in collaboration with other LTER sites and the Network Office in developing standards for spatial data and Internet mapping web services.

ClimDB/HydroDB
The Andrews (Remillard) continues to host and develop the cross-site climate and hydrology databases (ClimDB/HydroDB). Supplemental funding has allowed improvement of the web interface for public access to value-added database products. The interface supports graphics, display, and download of the combined climate and hydrology databases. A request tracking form and a web counter have been installed and reveal that the ClimDB/HydroDB web pages average over 500 visitor sessions per month. The raw database includes over 5 million daily values from 18 separate measurement variables.

Collaboration with Wade Sheldon of the GCE LTER site has allowed the HydroDB harvest system to capture near real-time provisional USGS hydrological data for interested LTER sites on a weekly basis. Our collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center and LTER Network Office has explored web services architecture as an alternative to the existing web harvester, and ClimDB now accommodates web harvesting through a prototype web service running at SDSC.