Ten Simple Rules for Digital Data Storage

Data is the central currency of science, but the nature of scientific data has changed dramatically with the rapid pace of technology. This change has led to the development of a wide variety of data formats, dataset sizes, data complexity, data use cases, and data sharing practices. Improvements in high throughput DNA sequencing, sustained institutional support for large sensor networks, and sky surveys with large-format digital cameras have created massive quantities of data. At the same time, the combination of increasingly diverse research teams and data aggregation in portals (e.g. for biodiversity data, GBIF or iDigBio) necessitates increased coordination among data collectors and institutions. As a consequence, “data” can now mean anything from petabytes of information stored in professionally-maintained databases, through spreadsheets on a single computer, to hand-written tables in lab notebooks on shelves. All remain important, but data curation practices must continue to keep pace with the changes brought about by new forms and practices of data collection and storage.</jats:p

A framework to support the annotation, discovery and evaluation of data in ecology, for a better visibility and reuse of data and an increased societal value gained from environmental projects

Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift beschäftigt sich im Kern mit der Verwendung von Metadaten in alltäglichen, datenbezogenen Arbeitsabläufen von Ökologen. Die vorgelegte Arbeit befasst sich dabei mit der Erstellung eines Rahmenwerkes zur Unterstützung der Annotation ökologischer Daten, der effizienten Suche nach ökologischen Daten in Datenbanken und der Einbindung von Metadaten während der Datenanalyse. Weiterhin behandelt die Arbeit die Dokumentation von Analysen sowie die Auswertung von Metadaten zur Entwicklung von Werkzeugen für eine Aufbereitung von Informationen über ökologische Projekte. Diese Informationen können zur Evaluation und Maximierung des aus den Projekten gezogenen gesellschaftlichen Mehrwerts eingesetzt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit ist als kumulative Dissertation in englischer Sprache abgefasst. Sie basiert auf zwei Veröffentlichungen als Erstautor und einem zur Einreichung vorbereiteten Manuskript

Diretrizes para a sustentabilidade financeira do probuc (programa de monitoramento da biodiversidade e uso dos recursos naturais em unidades de conservação estaduais do Amazonas)

Biodiversity monitoring systems, especially within protected areas, support the decision making process for conservation. In developing countries, where financial resources destined to monitoring programs are not abundant, participatory monitoring programs have emerged. Nevertheless, there is very little available information regarding the financial execution and cost structure of participatory biodiversity monitoring programs, which limits the possibility of strategy proposals to improve the programs’ performance. Therefore, the present study contributes to narrow this gap by providing a financial analysis of ProBUC in order to contribute with the program’s financial sustainability. It was observed that, within ProBUC’s macro processes, the phase that concentrates most costs (33%) is the “maintenance” phase. At the same time, the “results analysis” phase represents only 4% of the total costs. In order to optimize the use of resources of the most expensive phase, it is suggested that ProBUC automates the data collection and decentralizes the monitoring maintenance. The combination of automation and decentralization as a single strategic action has 80% probability of reducing ProBUC´s costs. In an average scenario, this strategy can reduce up to 7% of the total macro process costs. In order to increase the investments destined to the program´s data management, it is suggested that ProBUC implements a web based system to manage its database. This should begin as a short term investment that has a cost of approximately R$77.600, part of which can be financed by the saved costs obtained after the implementation of the automation and decentralization.Sistemas de monitoramento da biodiversidade, especialmente dentro de unidades de conservação, auxiliam o processo de tomada de decisão a favor da conservação. Em países em desenvolvimento, onde recursos financeiros para programas de monitoramento não são abundantes, vêm surgindo sistemas de monitoramento baseados em estratégias participativas. Porém, há pouca informação disponível sobre a execução financeira e estrutura de custos de programas participativos de monitoramento da biodiversidade, o que impede a elaboração de estratégias voltadas para a melhora do desempenho desses sistemas. Nesse sentido foi feita uma análise financeira do ProBUC de forma a contribuir para a redução desta lacuna e propor ações estratégicas que gerem subsídios para a sustentabilidade financeira deste programa. Se constatou que dentro dos macroprocessos do ProBUC, a fase que concentra a maior quantidade de custos (33representa menos de 4desempenho, se sugere a automação da coleta de dados e descentralização da manutenção do monitoramento, ação que tem 80monitoramento diminuindo 7um cenário médio. Ao mesmo tempo, para aumentar os investimentos destinados à gestão de dados, se sugere investir na implementação de um sistema web para gerenciar o banco de dados do ProBUC. Este investimento, que deverá começar no curto prazo terá um custo de aproximadamente R$77.600, o qual poderá ser, em parte financiado pelas despesas poupadas pela ação de automação e descentralização do ProBUC

Advances In Ecological Data Integration And Management [avanços Na Integração E Gerenciamento De Dados Ecológicos]

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