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Ecological Data Resources at ߣߣÊÓƵ

ߣߣÊÓƵ has a wide variety of data management resources to assist faculty and student researchers as they work with large data sets:

  • Center for Analytics and Data Science
    offers space, resources, and materials to faculty, staff, and students to support research and teaching related to analytics and data science.
  • (ߣߣÊÓƵ University Libraries)
    provides digital resources and support for researchers, including assistance with the development of data management plans as a part of grant proposals.
  • Geospatial Analysis Center
    (GAC) in the Department of Geography serves as the hub of geospatial research and activities at ߣߣÊÓƵ, with 20+ high-end computers running the latest commercial and open source GIS, remote sensing, and geospatial data science software. The GAC is home to seven faculty and staff members, with a wide-range of related expertise including ongoing funded research with the USDA, NSF, NASA, and United Nations Environmental Programme.
  • Statistical Consulting Center
    offers statistical consulting services to ߣߣÊÓƵ faculty, staff, and students. Consulting services will be provided free to ߣߣÊÓƵ University students, faculty, and staff who have no external support, or on a cost recovery basis to those with externally funded support.
  • and ߣߣÊÓƵ's High Performance Computing
    offer access to big scale computing hardware and software to support scientific research and support with processing very large data sets.

Long-term Lake Ecological Databases

Two major long-term databases on lakes exist at ߣߣÊÓƵ University.

The (Mike Vanni, María González, and Bill Renwick) has 24 years of physical, chemical, and biological data on in southwestern Ohio.

The (Craig Williamson and Erin Overholt) has 28 years of physical, chemical, and biological data on 3 Pocono Lakes of differing trophic status in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Small Mammal Database

With a 15-year database of small mammal trapping data, the Hoffman Lab (Susan Hoffman) has extensive data on shifts in small mammal populations in response to climate change in the Great Lakes Region.

ߣߣÊÓƵ Involvement in Large Data Initiatives

ߣߣÊÓƵ researchers have had strong involvement in many organizations that deal with large ecological datasets.

Melany Fisk has worked as part of the NSF-funded Long-term Ecological Research Program (LTER) since 1990, studying ecosystem dynamics in alpine tundra () and north temperate forest (), where she is currently a CoPI.

Since 1998 Mike Vanni, María González, and Bill Renwick have had NSF LTREB funding to study nearby Acton Lake and its watershed.

ߣߣÊÓƵ's Ecology Research Center (ERC) and the , to which ߣߣÊÓƵ students and faculty have access, are a part of the (OBFS).

Many of ߣߣÊÓƵ's limnologists are members of the (GLEON), with some taking leadership roles in the organization, i.e. leading the Climate Sentinels Working Group (Craig Williamson) and as past leaders in the GLEON Graduate Student Association (PhD students Kevin Rose, Jennie Brentrup).

ߣߣÊÓƵ Involvement in Big Data

MiEBDI seeks to be a resource for the big data needs of ecologists as they collect and work with increasingly large datasets. In addition to work generating some of these ecological big data sets, ߣߣÊÓƵ research answers big ecological questions utilizing data from large, shared datasets.

For example, the (Amélie Davis) uses spatially explicit big data from publicly-available data sources such as EarthExplorer to study human-environment interactions from the perspective of landscape ecology, land change science, environmental planning, and sustainability science.

Weather station data, both from ߣߣÊÓƵ's weather station and other stations around the U.S. sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are used to support much ecological research at ߣߣÊÓƵ.

Beyond research, ߣߣÊÓƵ is helping to prepare students to work with big data through the offering of a in the Department of Statistics.

Due to grants from ߣߣÊÓƵ University and their College of Arts and Science that have provided support for advanced sensors, ߣߣÊÓƵ science faculty (Jonathan Levy, Bill Renwick, Mike Vanni, Craig Williamson) are incorporating big data into their courses to prepare students to work with these large ecological datasets.

Weather and Climate Data

Data Management Resources

In our mission to support students and researchers in their work with ecological data, MiEBDI periodically offers data management workshops. For more information, contact Beth Mette (dickmaem@ߣߣÊÓƵOH.edu).

General Ecological Data Repositories and Networks

  • The (CUAHSI) provides access to high-frequency time series aquatic data across the country.
  • provides a network of data repositories for ecological researchers to share and archive data. They also provide monthly webinars as well as general information on good data practices.
  • The (EDI) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) -supported data initiative created in 2016 and designed to provide a resource to share and archive datasets generated as a part of the NSF's (LTREB), (OBFS), and (MSB) programs.
  • The (GLEON) is a world-wide grassroots organization of aquatic researchers that use ecological observatory networks (EONs) to connect researchers and their datasets to facilitate data-sharing and collaborations.
  • The program (LTER) is an NSF-supported network that maintains and provides public access to extensive long-term datasets on climate, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and vegetation dynamics of a wide variety of ecosystems. LTER has made the large datasets generated as a part of these programs available via the .
  • The (NEON) is a large, NSF-funded, ecological observatory network that is looking at ecological changes over time across the United States with a sophisticated set of advanced environmental sensors and data collection and management tools.

Biological/Biogeochemical Data

  • provides satellite land data, field data, and model outputs, including climate data model outputs.
  • allows viewing of satellite-derived maps of numerous lake parameters.

Biological/ Organismal Data

  • The (GBIF) provides access to worldwide biodiversity data.
  • is a NSF-funded tool to access and store biodiversity data on vertebrates, integrating data from the 4 classic networks , , , and ORNIS, into a single data search.

Land Cover Data

  • provides crop-type maps for the contiguous U.S. using satellite imagery.
  • is a U.S Geological Survey (USGS) -developed interface for downloading remotely sensed satellite data and aerial images.
  • provides global tree cover data at 30-m resolution.
  • The (MRLC) provides land cover data from satellite imagery for the U.S.
  • USGS provides composited global landsat imagery through their (WELD).

Weather and Climate Data

  • The United States and have made weather and atmospheric data available from a multitude of stations across the country.
  • NOAA's (NCEI) provides access to weather and climate data, nationally and globally.
  • Past and future projections of global climate data are available through the (IPCC DDC). These sources of data can be invaluable to researchers as they can provide important information on their research sites, and can help to answer research questions pertaining to climate change.

Local Data

  • Butler County's has available GIS data detailing local information, including roads, waterways, parcels, etc. within the county.
  • Aerial photographs of Ohio are available for download via the .

Local Weather and Climate Data

ߣߣÊÓƵ University has collected weather and atmospheric chemistry data for the past 38 years, permitting ߣߣÊÓƵ students and faculty to develop critical insights into the effects of changing climate on ecological systems. These data are collected by sensors at two locations, ߣߣÊÓƵ's Ecology Research Center (ERC) and more recently (since 2010) with sensors operated by ߣߣÊÓƵ's Center for Aquatic and Watershed Sciences (CAWS) on Acton Lake in nearby Hueston Woods State Park. Data files have been compiled containing all of the weather data available to date from these stations and are available below. For questions or inquiries about more recent data, see the contacts for each site.

Prior to downloading data, please assist us by completing this to help us gather information on how these data are used.

Ecology Research Center Weather Data

The ERC weather station is managed locally by the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability (IES). It is funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and serves the (NADP/NTN) in precipitation chemistry, the (CASTNET) in air quality, and the 's (NOAA) weather service.

Contacts

Primary Contacts
Additional Contacts

Metadata

Metadata include definitions of all variables measured and relevant notes on the data sets. View this prior to using any of the data sets. It contains important information about units, gaps in the data, and basic QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) information.

View the metadata prior to using any of the data sets!

Data

Weather data have been collected over the past 38 years by various entities. We have compiled these data to provide consistent formatting for measurements of a single variable. The files are archived in ߣߣÊÓƵ University's Scholarly Commons: . Data files are updated annually. Dates following each link indicate the date range contained in the data file. For more current data please contact us.
Original Data Sources

The above data files were compiled with data from the following sources.

Acton Lake Weather Data

Since 2010, weather data have been collected by a station managed by ߣߣÊÓƵ University's Center for Aquatic and Watershed Sciences on Acton Lake () in Oxford, Ohio. This data set includes 15-minute interval measurements of light (photosynthetically active radiation), wind direction, wind speed, air temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, precipitation, lake level, and water temperature.

Contact Tera Ratliff (ratliftj@ߣߣÊÓƵOH.edu) for these data.

ߣߣÊÓƵ Ecological Big Data Initiative

Beth Mette