The value of collaboration and ACARN’s data sharing
infrastructure
Sean M. Smukler
ACARN Annual Workshop
December 3, 2019

Identify and
anticipate impacts
Develop effective
adaptation
strategies
Provide guidance for
policy and planning
Climate Change Research Challenges

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Ray et al. (2019) Climate change has likely already affected
global food production. PLOS ONE 14(5)
-24.5%
5.1%

Bruker TENSOR 37 FTIR
Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT)

FT-IR TENSOR with HTS-XT plate reader for
automated Mid-IR
Micro-plate prepped for FT-MIR analysis

FTIR Results and Potential
10-20% the cost of standard wet chemistry

Growing Recognition of Public Data Archiving
• Tri-Agency Open Access Policy May 1, 2015 – peer-reviewed
publications must be freely accessible within 12 months of publication
• CIHR only must deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular
coordinate data into the appropriate public database
• Databases such as figshare, Dryad, TreeBASE, and GenBank
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Benefits of Data-sharing
• Prevents loss from hardware malfunction or obsolescence
• Preserves data when researchers move to different projects
or retire
• Facilitates good metadata production
• Enables regional analysis and modeling
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To Deposit or Not Deposit
• Real or perceived costs to share
• BC’s Personal Information Protection
Act (PIPA)
• Collaborator trust
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Roche DG, Lanfear R, Binning SA, Haff TM, Schwanz LE, et al. (2014) Troubleshooting Public Data Archiving: Suggestions to
Increase Participation. PLOS Biology 12(1)
Illustration credit: Ainsley Seago

Development of a BC Agricultural Data-sharing Infrastructure
for Climate Adaptation Research
December 15th 2017- March 20th, 2018
• Jason Lussier, the BC Agricultural Climate Adaptation Research
Network
• Dr. Lauchlan Fraser, Thompson Rivers University
• Dr. Sean Smukler, University of British Columbia
• Dr. Juli Carrillo, University of British Columbia
• Serena Black, BC Forage Council
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Data-sharing Progress
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BC Agricultural Soil Data-sharing
Working Group
• March 24, 2018 PRSSS
The Role of Soil in
Climate Change
Adaptation
• October 5, 2018 - Soil
Database Development
Workshop
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Data
• BC Nutrient database
• ~5000 crop, soil amendment
data
• ~ 2000 soil data (e.g. past FAIP
project)
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Sampling across LFV
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LULC TYPE TOTAL PLOTS
Annual Crop 100
Field Margin & Hedgerow 18
Riparian Buffer 14
Grassland 52
Perennial Crop 100
Forest/Forest Patch 15
Wetland 10
Total 309

Process
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ACARN
Website
Excel
Templates
ACARN
Database
Data
Cleaning
Participant
Access

Next Steps
• Make the soils and amendment data flow operational
• Recruit participants
• Develop field and lab protocols
• Repeat for other datasets
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