Project Summary
Overview: The METS RCN will support coordination efforts that bring together participants in large- and small group formats to foster the necessary dialog to develop FAIR data solutions and practices. Specific activities and associated objectives of the METS RCN will include: 1) a Consensus Building Workshop and METS Data Working Group to build consensus on and develop reference implementations of a data model for adoption by the broader METS community; 2) formation of regional METS user networks and a Broadening Users Workshop to identify the needs of a broader range of METS data end users and associated data interfaces and tools to meet those needs; and 3) a METS Data Hackathon to build capacity to ingest, analyze, and integrate METS data with other disciplinary and cross-disciplinary data to accelerate scientific discovery.
The METS RCN will leverage the wealth of oceanographic coordination and community building experience and staff capacity of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry (OCB) Project Office and the infrastructure, expertise, and extensive METS data handling experience of the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office (BCO-DMO), along with an RCN Steering Committee that comprises expertise in the fields of oceanography, data science, earth system models, statistics, and data synthesis.
Intellectual Merit: Decades of research have demonstrated that the ocean varies over a range of time scales, with anthropogenic forcing contributing an added layer of complexity. In a growing effort to distinguish between natural and human-induced variability, sustained ocean time series measurements have taken on renewed importance, representing one of the few long-term, temporally resolved observing assets scientists have to characterize marine ecosystem function and change. A lack of Marine Ecological Time Series (METS) data and metadata reporting standards combined with numerous disconnected data management efforts makes it exceedingly difficult for potential users outside the immediate METS community to find and gain access to these valuable and unique datasets. For many of the biogeochemical and biological parameters that are unique to METS, there is an urgent need to develop consensus on community-adopted data and metadata reporting standards that will make these data more Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR).
Broader Impacts: The METS RCN will bring together a diverse cross-section of the ocean and data sciences for a sustained dialog to address long-standing METS challenges, most prominently the lack of a consistent and FAIR data model. This centralized coordination effort will facilitate development of community-driven METS cyberinfrastructure standards and best practices that improve interoperability and integration of METS data. The application of semantic technologies will enhance scientific and broader applications of METS data as we enter the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). The RCN will also provide networking and training opportunities for scientists across career stages and disciplines of data and ocean science. Tangible outcomes will include community-vetted best practices publications, shared data analysis and interface tools for scientific and broader applications, and network models for regional stakeholder engagement.