A flexible metadata system to document ecological data from Sierra Nevada LTER site.

Prez-Luque, A.J.; Bonet-Garca, F.J. & Prez-Prez, R.

Laboratorio de Ecologa. Centro Andaluz de Medio Ambiente. Universidad de Granada. Granada (SPAIN). ajperez@ugr.es

1. Introduction
The Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory (see Box 2) is a monitoring programme aiming to assess impacts of global change at Sierra Nevada LTER-site (see Box 1). The raw data obtains from this project are being managed through Information System [1,2]) Metadata (i.e. data about data[3]) is a key issue to manage both raw data and scientific knowlegde in a environmental informations system context. Metadata describes several important aspects of data (content, context, quality, structure, etc. [4])
25 km

BOX 1. Sierra Nevada LTER site

Sierra Nevada is a high mountain range (reaching 3482 m. a. s. l.) located in Southern Spain. Its considered the most important biodiversity hotspot in the Mediterranean region. Some data:
Natural Biosphere Reserve Special Protection Area and Site of Community Importance National Park and Nature Reserve LTER-site (LTER-Spain network) 2100 vascular plant species 80 vegetal endemic species 2000 km2 surface 61 municipalities 90.000 inhabitants Main economic activities: agriculture, tourism, beekeeping, mining and skiing.

We here present a summarize of our metadata system approach [5]) . The main features are: Highly detailed documentation of data according to a metadata internal specification Storage of metadata files in a searchable catalog Export metadata files in several international specifications applying crosswalks tools Validation of metadata Publication of metadata files in scientific international clearinghouses (i.e. NBII, ILTER, GBIF) and replication in Environmental Information Network of the Environment Government Agencies (regional, national, european).

BOX 2. Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory: the project

Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory[6] is a long term monitoring programme to assess the effects of global change in this LTER site. The basic objective is to ensure the collection of information necessary to identify as early as possible the impacts of global change, to design management actions that minimize them and encourage the system adaptation to new scenarios. The data generated by this set of methodologies must be transformed into useful knowledge for adaptative management of natural resources. The key issues are the integration and analysis of monitoring data by an information management system, and the transfer of current scientific knowledge to society and the natural resource managers through effective dissemination. dissemination

Sierra Nevada LTER-site Metadata system

MODIS pixel Meteo station Phenology plots

19
9

10

Nbii (National Biological Information Infraestructure)

12

21
13
Red de Informacin Ambiental de Andaluca

Citysus

06/2010

06/2009

Spatial Data Infrastructures

Adenocarpus

Linaria
104
ILTER (International Long Term Ecological Research) LTER Spain

102

109

110

Field data collection How to work our metadata system?

Data manipulation and storage

Data documentation

Integration and Export

Review of principal metadata specifications used by ecological community.

EML Darwin Core

BDP FGDC

INSPIRE Directive

Export metadata files. We designed crosswalk tools to export our metadata files according to two metadata standars specification: Ecological Metadata Language and INSPIRE Metadata specification. For this we mapped our metadata schema with those standars schemas.
Site-specific metadata schema
<Table i> <Field i> <Field i> Spatial coverage Coordinate_x Coordinate_y </Table i> </Field i> </Field i>

Creation of an site-specific metada specification based on principal rules of international metadata standars.

EML metadata schema

Cross-walks tools

<eml>

<coverage>

geographicCoverage

<coverage>

<boundingCoordinates>

Creation of metadata files:

<westBoundingCoordinate> Coordinate_y

<westBoundingCoordinate> Coordinate_y <westBoundingCoordinate> Coordinate_y

<Field k>

</Field k>
<westBoundingCoordinate> Coordinate_y

Semi-automatic documentation of structure and fields of relational database containing raw data from monitoring protocols (more info in [7]). Forms (manually). They allow us document the non-normalized information, and edit and complete the metadata files created previously. To enhance interoperability with information systems of regional and national environmet governments, the guidelines for metadata of the INSPIRE European Directive have been considered. References Metadata files are stored in a searchable catalog within Information System of Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory

</boundingCoordinates>

<eml>

Validation and replication of metadata files in international clearinghouses. First we apply validations tools to our metadata files and then we replicate them into scientific international metadata clearinghouses and in regional and national Spatial Data Infraestructure. Actually we shared metadata files with: NBII (National Biological Information Infraestructure) KNB (Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity) REDIAM (Red de Informacin Ambiental de Andaluca)

[1] Bonet-Garca, F.J. (2010). Converting field data into knowledge: towards adaptative management in Sierra Nevada LTER site. In 2 International GMBA-DIVERSITAS Conference Functional significance of mountain biodiversity. Chandolin, Switzerland. [2] Bonet, F.J.; Prez-Luque, A.J. & Prez-Prez, R. (2010). Linaria: an information system to implement GLOCHAMORE project and promote conversion of information into knowledge in Sierra Nevada Biosphere Reserve. In Global Change and the World's Mountains. Perth, Scotland. 26-30 Sep. 2010. [3] Michener, W.K., Brunt, J.W., Helly, J.J., Kirchner, T.B. & Stafford, S.G. (1997). Nongeospatial metadata for the ecological sciences. Ecological Applications, 7 (1):330-342. [4] Michener, W.K. (2006). Meta-information concepts for ecological data management. Ecological Informatics, 1 (1): 37. [5] Prez-Luque, A.J.; Bonet-Garca, F.J. & Prez-Prez, R. (in prep). Metadata system of Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. [6] Bonet, F.J.; Prez-Luque, A.J.; Moreno, R. & Zamora, R. (2010). Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. Structure and Data Basic. Consejera de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andaluca - Universidad de Granada. http://es.scribd.com/doc/44838336/Sierra-Nevada-Global-Change-Observatory-Structure-and-basic-data [7] See posterat this congress: Prez-Prez, R.; Benito, B.M.; Bonet-Garca, F.J.; Prez-Luque, A.J. (2011). An environmental model repository: Case studies applied to Sierra Nevada LTER site.