ESS-DIVE

Deep Insight for Earth Science Data

Strengthening FAIRer Earth and Environmental Systems Science Data with Community-led Reporting Formats

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Earth and environmental systems science (ESS) research is evidence-based and relies on the analysis and modeling of diverse and multi-scale datasets. The volume of ESS data has risen sharply in recent years, with more data gathered by the minute. This may come as positive news—however, much of this data remains unarchived, difficult to access, and even unusable. Among other challenges, many scientists lack the resources and ability to archive and share their data using consistent methods. The Earth science community has moved toward adopting Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data principles to solve this problem.

A new paper authored by the Earth and Environmental Systems Science for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE) team seeks to address these issues and presents 11 novel reporting formats for organizing and describing various types of Earth science data in public databases. Published in Scientific Data, the ready-to-use formats are available in the ESS-DIVE data repository, as well as on ESS-DIVE’s community GitHub space. ESS-DIVE provides a centralized location to store and share open and standardized datasets to enhance scientific collaboration and data reuse.

“This publication is the result of a dedicated and collaborative effort across six U.S. DOE national labs, and a testament to the value of computational and Earth science researchers partnering for positive impact,” said Charuleka Varadharajan, a Scientist in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Area at Berkeley Lab, and lead of its Earth AI and Data program. “These reporting formats come at a time when they are urgently needed to enable our ability to extract insights from complex environmental systems data.”

A community effort for a FAIRer future 

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Biological and Environmental Program, ESS-DIVE brought together teams of scientists across the DOE National Lab Network with the aim of helping researchers within its ESS community provide more standardized and well-described data. Together, they identified and created instructions and templates for formatting diverse environmental data types. The community-centered process involved reviewing over 100 existing data standards, conventions, or other reporting formats—and receiving input from 247 scientists representing 100+ institutions.

“A highlight of the reporting format development process was monthly meetings that convened many of the scientists leading the reporting format development process,” says Robert Crystal-Ornelas. “During these working sessions, we could harmonize on key terminology relevant across reporting formats, and share successes and challenges with the broader reporting format group.”

Covering data types commonly used by DOE, some of the reporting formats are intended to standardize commonly used descriptions about the data, referred to as “metadata,” such as information about the dataset locations and samples from where the data were generated. Others provide instructions for formatting and describing data files such as the comma-separated value (CSV) format or guidelines for organizing model data.  The other reporting formats are more domain-specific and focused on data types of importance to ESS research such as leaf-level gas exchange, soil respiration, water and sediment chemistry, hydrologic monitoring, and microbial amplicon abundances.

Crystal-Ornelas also stated that the scale of the outreach and input received on the reporting formats underscores how big a need there was for this type of standardization within Earth and environmental sciences. He’s excited to see the formats used by researchers around the world, including inputs from across and outside of the National Lab Network.

Shreyas Cholia, Group Leader for the Integrated Data Systems Group (Scientific Data Division) at Berkeley Lab, said: “ESS-DIVE is designed as a scalable framework that allows data providers to contribute standardized, structured, and high-quality data. The reporting formats are a vitally important contribution that supports long-term data stewardship. reproducible research, and data standardization across the community.”

This collaborative approach paves the way for future innovation around FAIRer data and may serve as a model for other organizations that would like to develop community (meta)data reporting formats for other types of data.

Register for the 2022 ESS-DIVE Community Data Workshop to Advance Environmental System Science through Collaborative Data Management

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From the climate crisis to water insecurity, high-quality, openly available data are needed to solve global environmental challenges. However, important environmental systems science (ESS) data often remains difficult to access, unarchived, or even unusable. To help improve access to and use of ESS data, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supported the establishment of the Earth and Environmental Systems Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem (ESS-DIVE).

In addition to storing and managing critical data, ESS-DIVE provides educational and community engagement opportunities. ESS-DIVE will host a free Community Data Workshop on November 9-10, 2022 from 9 am – 2 pm PT / 12 pm – 5 pm ET to support data management across collaborative ESS teams. The hands-on virtual workshop will help attendees efficiently manage their project data as a team and will also support teams as they describe, organize, and publish data.

“From tips and tricks that make data management easier to data publication best practices, the workshop is a great opportunity to receive first-hand support using ESS-DIVE,” says Joan Damerow, Community Engagement Lead Scientist. “This workshop is a unique opportunity for the ESS-DIVE team to work directly with the community through hands-on tutorials. The meeting aims to create a community environment to share information about ESS data, data management practices, and challenges.”

Like ESS-DIVE’s 2021 Community Data Workshop, the event is designed to introduce newcomers to ESS-DIVE and help those familiar with the initiative to sharpen their data practices. This year’s event will focus on new collaborative features and resources offered by ESS-DIVE that make working together on data management and publishing datasets easier. The workshop will cover topics such as how to submit, download, and manage data on ESS-DIVE. Participants can learn from one another and work together on data management solutions. Workshop participants can also learn about ESS-DIVE features, data, and vision.

Here’s what attendees of last year’s workshop had to say:

  • “All speakers were very professional and well-prepared. I was impressed with how well-organized and thoughtful this event was.”
  • “As a new user, these sessions gave me a great start.”
  • “Open discussions with other scientists trying to use ESS-DIVE services is most helpful. Hands-on time is always the best way to learn and engage.”
  • “These sessions helped get me oriented to what I need to do to begin, and where to go if I need help.”

Registration for the ESS-DIVE Community Data Workshop is now open. While attendees are encouraged to attend both days to gain the most value, participants are welcome to only join sessions of interest. You can register here. During each session, participants will have plenty of time to share questions, comments, and other thoughts with the ESS-DIVE team. Before the event, ESS-DIVE will send attendees some quick instructions on preparing for tutorials and discussion. To learn more about the workshop or about ESS-DIVE in general, please visit the workshop event page or contact ess-dive-support@lbl.gov.

About ESS-DIVE

The U.S. Department of Energy’s ESS-DIVE is an open data archive. It stores and improves access and usability of critical data to help address important environmental challenges. The data is sourced from observational, experimental, and modeling research funded by the DOE’s Environmental System Science (ESS) program, within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Biological and Environmental Research (BER) Program.

ESS-DIVE is funded by the Data Management program within the Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division under the DOE’s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program and is maintained by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

ESS-DIVE at AGU 2021

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The ESS-DIVE team is excited to present their work and connect with the Earth and Environmental Systems Science (ESS) community at the upcoming American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 2021. The event will take place in New Orleans, LA and online everywhere 13-17 December 2021. Several ESS-DIVE team members are presenting on relevant topics, ranging from best practices for data curation and publication to approaches to support metadata synthesis. ESS-DIVE will be involved with a total of 6 oral and eLightening presentations.

#AGU21 is the leading forum for advancing Earth and space science and leveraging this research toward solutions for societal challenges. The Earth and space science community is gathering both in person and virtually for this annual meeting to learn and collaborate around the theme of “Science is Society.” With more than 25,000 individuals from 100+ countries expected to attend representing the global Earth and space sciences community, the event will consist of inspiring plenary talks, cutting-edge science presentations and more.Most sessions will be recorded and available to this global community of researchers, scientists, educators, students, policymakers, partners, science enthusiasts, journalists, and communicators. With in-person and worldwide online participation, attendees will have numerous opportunities to network with government regulators, scientific visionaries, and industry thought-leaders. 

 

ESS-DIVE is enthusiastic about the opportunity to engage in this collaborative and interdisciplinary event. The interactive nature of this event will serve as a platform to share research findings, discuss use cases, and more. The team looks forward to not only sharing their knowledge, but also gaining new insights and experiences. 

ESS-DIVE is funded by the Data Management program within the Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division under the DOE’s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program and is maintained by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.