PROCEEDINGS: Index of Abstracts

CATALOG OF LONG-TERM RESEARCH CONDUCTED WITHIN THE USDA FOREST SERVICE, NORTHEASTERN FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION

Hope R. Barrett

USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Delaware, OH 43015.

Long-term data sets are described in a catalog to reduce duplication of scientific efforts and to facilitate interaction among researchers. Individual entries for each of 90 long-term data sets include details such as site characteristics, variable names, year collected, sampling design, data storage method, intended purpose of the data set and potential application to global change research. Catalog entries are organized according to common study topics into 29 themes such as forest monitoring: vegetation in unmanaged forests, fertilization: effects on stream water, birds: habitat relationships, insects: population dynamics and soils: characteristics associated with plants. Themes contain as few as one and as many as 25 entries. Some multipurpose entries are categorized under more than one theme.

Reviews affirm the catalog is easy to use, informative and will cultivate productive communication among researchers. A secondary result is that scientists are expressing a renewed and attentive awareness toward the management of long-term data. The resources employed to develop a database of metadata are substantiated as long as higher quality research is a result of better awareness. The catalog, forthcoming as a Forest Service publication with dBASE format, is already in high demand. Several options have been encouraged as ways to make the catalog accessible through the Internet. The Station and the Northern Global Change Research Program share a commitment to maintain and update their investment in high quality research data.

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