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    Application of a snow model for Yellowstone National Park
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2002-04-23) Wockner, Gary, author; Singer, Francis, author; Coughenour, Mike, author; Farnes, Phil, author
    This document contains a description and instructions for the Yellowstone Snow Model.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Data management for NREL and beyond: a roadmap and recommendations
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013-06-10) Kaplan, Nicole E., author; Newman, Greg, author; SGS-LTER, Colorado State University, publisher
    This report contains a summary of activities lead by Nicole Kaplan, RA, and Greg Newman, Research Scientist, and a strategy for managing data, which were supported by 2012 Program Development Funds at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL). We set out to describe current components, functions and expertise of the NREL cyber-infrastructure and inquire about current work and future needs for managing, archiving and providing access to data. The activities we coordinated included: (1) conducting a workshop, (2) arranging the Spring 2012 seminar series entitled Data Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Society, (3) contributing to over a dozen data management plans for NREL proposals, (4) providing database services to PHACE (a large collaborative project), and (5) attending conferences and workshops to obtain new ideas and build partnerships. The results of what we learned and accomplished include overall data management goals for NREL, a model for a data management system for NREL, requirements for a web-based data access and delivery system, policies for data sharing and attribution, training for undergraduate and graduate students, and scholarly work in Ecological Informatics (e.g. Chu et al. in press, Newman et al. 2011, Vanderbilt et al. 2009). Our work was presented at the NREL 2012 Annual Retreat and the presentation file is available upon request. Here, we present resources for NREL to plan and conduct data management as part of the research process. We propose a model that establishes a hierarchy of workspaces to support, preserve, and secure the flow of data from the private laboratory space of the Principal Investigator, to a web-based NREL Data Repository to disseminate data to the public and stakeholders. We detail how current cyber-infrastructure capabilities can be leveraged to meet needs within NREL for data management, facilitate research discovery and data re-use, and contribute to NREL excellence. Major benefits to managing, sharing and re-using data include increasing the competitiveness of NREL proposals, influencing expectations of funding agencies for data management, accelerating global change research (Wolkovich et al. 2012), and broadening scientific understanding and services to support decision-making (Dozier and Gail 2009). In addition, federal research sponsors are committed to increasing open access to data and are requiring data management plans from agencies and departments with over 100 million dollars in research and development expenditures (Holdren 2013 and e.g. The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR).
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    ItemOpen Access
    Packaging, transforming and migrating data from a scientific research project to an institutional repository: the SGS LTER Collection
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014-12-10) Kaplan, Nicole E., author; Baker, Karen S., author; Draper, Daniel C., author; Swauger, Shea, author; SGS-LTER, Colorado State University, publisher
    This report describes the process of preserving a collection of project-related scientific research materials - data, metadata, and artifacts - produced over 32 years at the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS LTER) site. The SGS LTER operated out of Colorado State University (CSU), located in Nunn, Colorado and was funded by National Science Foundation (NSF). Preservation plans were motivated by the 2012 decommissioning announcement for this long-term project (1982-2014) and its local data management system. A two-fold strategy was developed to ensure preservation and community access to the entire collection. In addition to satisfying NSF requirements for submission of data to the LTER Network Information System (LTER NIS), the local information manager identified a second task: creation of a collection including data, metadata and a diverse set of materials that together represent the SGS LTER project as a whole. Migration of the SGS LTER data management system was designated a pilot project for curation of research data within the CSU Institutional Repository, as part of Digital Collections of Colorado (DCC). The SGS LTER collection comprises approximately 5 gigabytes of data and supporting materials. There are close to one hundred datasets produced by SGS LTER that are diverse, small files with extensive metadata, well described using the Ecological Metadata Language (EML). These data are largely field-based, geo-located, time-series measurements, which have been integrated longitudinally. Other series of materials prepared for the collection include over 400 image files, 17 Geographic Information System spatial layers, species lists, and proposals and progress reports to NSF. EML from the SGS LTER data management system was transformed to Dublin Core for discovery through the DCC and was used to implement an expanded set of elements important for research data documentation. A strategy was developed to meet the requirement for programmatic access by machine to data from the LTER NIS via a landing page created for each data package. In effect, data are publicly available and automatically harvested by other data repositories, transforming the SGS LTER collection from existing independently to contributing as part of a federated network of scholarly research. Expansion of the notion of curation from submission of research data to that of creating an interoperable SGS LTER project collection within the DCC revealed new issues and activities to consider. Issues that emerged included design of workflows to create and transform metadata, data exchange between source and secondary repositories, versioning and use of persistent identifiers for digital objects, data citation registries for assessing outcomes of research, and the role of a collection-related information manager. This pilot study was made possible by an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort to preserve data and materials from a historical scientific research project.
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    Confounding factors in algal phosphorus limitation experiments
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018-10-18) Beck, Whitney S., author; Hall, Ed K., author; PLOS ONE, publisher
    Assessing algal nutrient limitation is critical for understanding the interaction of primary production and nutrient cycling in streams, and nutrient diffusing substrate (NDS) experiments are often used to determine limiting nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Unexpectedly, many experiments have also shown decreased algal biomass on NDS P treatments compared to controls. To address whether inhibition of algal growth results from direct P toxicity, NDS preparation artifacts, or environmental covariates, we first quantified the frequency of nutrient inhibition in published experiments. We also conducted a meta-analysis to determine whether heterotrophic microbial competition or selective grazing could explain decreases in algal biomass with P additions. We then deployed field experiments to determine whether P-inhibition of algal growth could be explained by P toxicity, differences in phosphate cation (K vs. Na), differences in phosphate form (monobasic vs. dibasic), or production of H2O2 during NDS preparation. We found significant inhibition of algal growth in 12.9% of published NDS P experiments as compared to 4.7% and 3.6% of N and NP experiments. The meta-analysis linear models did not show enhanced heterotrophy on NDS P treatments or selective grazing of P-rich algae. Our field experiments did not show inhibition of autotrophic growth with P additions, but we found significantly lower gross primary productivity (GPP) and biomass-specific GPP of benthic algae on monobasic phosphate salts as compared to dibasic phosphate salts, likely because of reduced pH levels. Additionally, we note that past field experiments and meta-analyses support the plausibility of direct P toxicity or phosphate form (monobasic vs. dibasic) leading to inhibition of algal growth, particularly when other resources such as N or light are limiting. Given that multiple mechanisms may be acting simultaneously, we recommend practical, cost-effective steps to minimize the potential for P- inhibition of algal growth as an artifact of NDS experimental design.
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    Hidden aspects of participation: reflections on the costs and benefits of a participatory mapping process for communities and researchers alike in Afar, Ethiopia
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Luizza, Matthew Wayne, author
    With research agendas often driving participatory mapping activities, building trust with participants is essential to the participatory mapping process, especially if it is initiated and/or facilitated from outside of the community. Without trust, the mapping will not be authentic and may never happen at all. However, despite the best intentions, participatory mapping processes initiated by outsiders can still result in an extractive undertaking of knowledge co-option, even when local communities receive some measure of benefits. This reflection piece offers a postscript to published research on a participatory mapping project in Ethiopia's Afar region (Luizza 2015; Luizza et al. 2016) but provides added context and critical reflection on the participatory mapping process not fully addressed in these previous works. This effort highlights a well-intentioned research project that through a narrow focus on "knowledge integration" at the expense of "knowledge co-production", overlooked important opportunities for building trust with community participants, leading to a level of misalignment of research goals and community needs. Although outsiders caring about community concerns and amplifying their voices was appreciated, what participating communities really needed were tangible resources and guidance for removing problematic invasive species that I as the researcher and participatory mapping facilitator was there to learn about from them. Honesty, transparency, and reliability are key attributes that a participatory mapping facilitator should always strive to embody throughout the mapping process, which should not be rushed (i.e., pre-mapping community engagement, onsite participatory mapping process, and post-mapping actions). This includes communities and facilitators being on the same page, as co-equal partners, about what participatory mapping is and the purpose and goals of this important approach.