The Contributions of Community-Based Monitoring and Traditional Knowledge to Arctic Observing Networks: Reflections on the State of the Field

Community-based monitoring (CBM) in the Arctic is gaining increasing support from a wide range of interested parties, including community members, scientists, government agencies, and funders. Through CBM initiatives, Arctic residents conduct or are involved in ongoing observing and monitoring activities. Arctic Indigenous peoples have been observing the environment for millennia, and CBM often incorporates traditional knowledge, which may be used independently from or in partnership with conventional scientific monitoring methods. Drawing on insights from the first Arctic Observing Summit, we provide an overview of the state of CBM in the Arctic. The CBM approach to monitoring is centered on community needs and interests. It offers fine-grained, local-scale data that are readily accessible to community and municipal decision makers. In spite of these advantages, CBM initiatives remain little documented and are often unconnected to wider networks, with the result that many practitioners lack a clear sense of the field and how best to support its growth and development. CBM initiatives are implemented within legal and governance frameworks that vary significantly both within and among different national contexts. Further documentation of differences and similarities among Arctic communities in relation to observing needs, interests, and legal and institutional capacities will help assess how CBM can contribute to Arctic observing networks. While CBM holds significant potential to meet observing needs of communities, more investment and experimentation are needed to determine how observations and data generated through CBM approaches might effectively inform decision making beyond the community level.Dans l’Arctique, la surveillance communautaire (SC) reçoit un appui de plus en plus grand de la part de nombreuses parties intéressées, dont les membres de la communauté, les scientifiques, les organismes gouvernementaux et les bailleurs de fonds. Dans le cadre des initiatives de SC, des habitants de l’Arctique effectuent des tâches permanentes d’observation et de surveillance ou participent à de telles tâches. Les peuples indigènes de l’Arctique observent l’environnement depuis des millénaires. Souvent, la SC fait appel aux connaissances traditionnelles, connaissances qui peuvent être employées seules ou conjointement avec les méthodes classiques de surveillance scientifique. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur les connaissances dérivées du premier sommet d’observation de l’Arctique pour donner un aperçu de l’état de la SC dans l’Arctique. La méthode de SC est centrée sur les besoins et les intérêts de la communauté. Elle permet d’obtenir des données à grain fin à l’échelle locale, données qui sont facilement accessibles par la communauté et les preneurs de décisions municipaux. Malgré ces avantages, il existe peu de documentation au sujet des initiatives de SC et souvent, ces initiatives ne sont pas rattachées aux grands réseaux, ce qui fait que bien des intervenants ne comprennent pas clairement ce qui se passe sur le terrain et ne savent pas vraiment comment appuyer la croissance et le développement de la surveillance communautaire. Les initiatives de SC respectent les cadres de référence nécessaires en matière de droit et de gouvernance, et ceux-ci varient considérablement au sein des contextes nationaux. L’enrichissement de la documentation en ce qui a trait aux différences et aux similitudes qui existent entre les communautés de l’Arctique en matière de besoins d’observation, d’intérêts et de capacités juridiques et institutionnelles aidera à déterminer en quoi la SC pourra jouer un rôle au sein des réseaux d’observation de l’Arctique. Bien que la SC ait la possibilité de jouer un rôle important dans les besoins d’observation des communautés, il y a lieu de faire plus d’investissements et d’expériences pour déterminer comment les observations et les données découlant des méthodes de SC pourront favoriser la prise de décisions au-delà des communautés

Building a Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure to Address Global Grand Challenges for Macrosystem Ecology

The development of several large-, "continental"-scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site-based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross-continental ecological research. It will also enhance the research community capabilities to address current and anticipate future global scale ecological challenges. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross-continental-scale ERIs.Peer reviewe

Symposium & Panel Discussion: Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics

Slides from the symposium and panel discussion at the event "Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics," Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Austin, TX, 5 January 2017.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SMA-1447886

Ocean FAIR Data Services

Well-founded data management systems are of vital importance for ocean observing systems as they ensure that essential data are not only collected but also retained and made accessible for analysis and application by current and future users. Effective data management requires collaboration across activities including observations, metadata and data assembly, quality assurance and control (QA/QC), and data publication that enables local and interoperable discovery and access and secures archiving that guarantees long-term preservation. To achieve this, data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). Here, we outline how these principles apply to ocean data and illustrate them with a few examples. In recent decades, ocean data managers, in close collaboration with international organizations, have played an active role in the improvement of environmental data standardization, accessibility, and interoperability through different projects, enhancing access to observation data at all stages of the data life cycle and fostering the development of integrated services targeted to research, regulatory, and operational users. As ocean observing systems evolve and an increasing number of autonomous platforms and sensors are deployed, the volume and variety of data increase dramatically. For instance, there are more than 70 data catalogs that contain metadata records for the polar oceans, a situation that makes comprehensive data discovery beyond the capacity of most researchers. To better serve research, operational, and commercial users, more efficient turnaround of quality data in known formats and made available through Web services is necessary. In particular, automation of data workflows will be critical to reduce friction throughout the data value chain. Adhering to the FAIR principles with free, timely, and unrestricted access to ocean observation data is beneficial for the originators, has obvious benefits for users, and is an essential foundation for the development of new services made possible with big data technologies

Polar Data Forum IV – An Ocean of Opportunities

This paper reports on the Hackathon Sessions organised at the Polar Data Forum IV (PDF IV) (20–24 September 2021), during which 351 participants from 50 different countries discussed collaboratively about the latest developments in polar data management. The 4th edition of the PDF hosted lively discussions on (i) best practices for polar data management, (ii) data policy, (ii) documenting data flows into aggregators, (iv) data interoperability, (v) polar federated search, (vi) semantics and vocabularies, (vii) Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and (viii) new polar technologies. This paper provides an overview of the organisational aspects of PDF IV and summarises the polar data objectives and outcomes by describing the conclusions drawn from the Hackathon Sessions

Introduction to our Task Forces and the Dynamic Document

A presentation to describe the assignments of the four Task Force working groups and the "Dynamic Document" the group will spend the workshop developing. Presented at the second workshop on Developing Standards for Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics, held at the University of Texas, April 8-10, 2016.National Science Foundation (NSF-SMA 1447886

05 - Simple integration of data citation into research practice

Presents examples from earth science to provide suggestions for integrating data citation into research practice, educatiing the research community and promoting a culture of citation, and using tools to meet citation goals. Presented at the first workshop on Developing Standards for Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics, held at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 09/18/15-09/20/15.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SMA-1447886

11 - Minipresentations on educating the linguistics community

Considers the promotion of data citation and attribution standards by: 1) establishing an education and training mandate, drawing on existing resources and standards, and engaging researchers early in their careers; and 2) exploring the role of scholarly organizations in creating and disseminating such standards. Presented at the first workshop on Developing Standards for Data Citation and Attribution for Reproducible Research in Linguistics, held at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 09/18/15-09/20/15.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant SMA-1447886