The document presents an overview of TERN's (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network) data infrastructure aimed at providing public access to terrestrial ecosystem data and facilitating open data sharing in the ecosystem community. It details the challenges of data management, including data heterogeneity and accessibility, and outlines the organization's licensing policy that promotes the free availability of TERN-generated data. Additionally, it highlights TERN's impact on ecosystem research through the provision of over 2000 data collections from various ecological sites and its commitment to sustaining long-term scientific collaboration.

1. How TERN Data Infrastructure works
Presentation by Tim Clancy
TERN Director

2. Purpose
• Build and manage data infrastructure to
provide public access to terrestrial ecosystem
data.
• Facilitate open access to terrestrial ecosystem
research data.
• Promote the culture of data sharing and re-
use in ecosystem community.

3. Instruments
+ Sensors
Policy +
Management
Analysis
+ Synthesis
Modelling
Data
Searching
Data
Sharing
Data Curation
+ Publishing
Data
Storage
Processing
+ Analysis
Collection
Methods
• TERN’s infrastructure for ecosystem science

5. Data Management Challenges
Data heterogeneity: wide variety from different domain
• observation (human, in-situ sensor and satellite)
Variety of scale: spatial
• point, plot, site, local government, state and continental scale
Temporal scale
• Varies from monthly, yearly and long-term observational spanning several decades
Data formats
• CSV, NetCDF, Text description, Raster and Vector
Metadata standards
• EML, ISO 19115 or 19139, custom metadata.
Common data exchange format
• RIF-CS: feed to TDDP and ANDS RDA
Data archival
• Distributed across Australia
Accessibility
• Adhere to TERN Data licensing Policy and framework
• Enable access to citable data through DOI

6. Map layers
(WMS)
Feature Data
(WFS)
NetCDF
(THREDDS)
Rich Contextual
Info (ÆKOS) ISO 19115/9
(Geonetwork)
TERN DOI
Minting
service
OAI-PMH Harvester
TERN Data
Catalogue Portal
SearchAPI
External
Processes
HTTP
Portal(s)
HTML5, OpenLayers,
JavaScript, CSS
Service Interfaces, Metadata Interchange services, Transformation services, Business logic
Data Management Tool(s) (Morpho, SHaRED, ANZMET Lite)
Analysis and
Synthesis
(CoESRA)
Registry Interchange Format –
Collections and Services(RIF-CS)
JSON
File system
EML
(Metacat)
File system
DataOne Member
Node
AuScribe App

7. TERN data licensing policy 2.0
• The least-restrictive licence/terms for all data made
available through TERN.
• Data generated through TERN funding (“TERN data”)
will be made freely and openly available by the relevant
Facility, noting that:
 Users will be required to attribute the source of the data; and
 Justifiable conditions protecting sensitivities of data will be
allowed.
• Updated in October 2015.

8. Schematic representation of TERN Data Licensing

9. Distributed infrastructure

10. Data Access: Across TERN

11. Access Data: TERN Data Discovery Portal
Portal.tern.org.au

12. Result Page

15. Fractional cover PV,
NPV, Bare Soil
ANUCLIMATE 1.0
Logan river water quality
MODIS Grass curing Index
Biogeophysical Dataset collection

16. LTERN
Supersites
Ecology Data Collection

18. APPLICATION

19. Fire Management
Pre-processed MODIS fire
burnt area satellite
imagery
Vegetation Map and
Expert elicitation

20. TERN’s impact on Terrestrial Ecosystem research data sharing
• Domain specific data management
• Data and meta-entry tools
• Metadata standards
• Open standards for data delivery
• Flexible licensing policy
• Links to national research data catalog
• Ability to provide citable data (with DOIs)
• Scalable and replicable infrastructure

21. TERN’s impact on ecosystem science and management
• Standardised data collection methodologies
• New continental scale data products
• Reduce duplication across jurisdictions
• Improve knowledge for science to management
• Promote collaboration and re-use of data
• higher return of investment for funding agencies

22. TERN Data Publication Highlights
Over 2000 data collections including:
• Publish data from over 100,000 ecological sites;
• Over 40 continental scale remote sensing data products;
• Over 30 continental scale soil and landscape attributes data;
• Coastal ecosystem datasets including national seagrass,
beach observation and water quality;
• Continental scale data on climate variables at 1 km spatial
resolution;
• Half-hourly time-series flux data from towers across
Australia.

23. Moving forwards – sustaining long term science
•Global shift to collaborative data , algorithms and participatory
resources:

25. Methods 1 – BCC Virtual Lab

26. Methods 2 – CoESRA Pilot (Guru et al
2015)

27. Conclusion
• Significant collection, collation of ecosystem
data
• Large institution databases are available on
open access.
• State government vegetation survey data
• More details during the course of the day.

28. International Partners
TERN is supported by the Australian Government through
the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy
and the Super Science Initiative

29. More information
TERN website: www.tern.org.au
Thank you
t.clancy@uq.edu.au