Contributed by Miguel F. Acevedo, University of North Texas, Denton and Universidad de Los Andes, Merida, Venezula Member, IM Committee for the Latin American Network
Seven countries currently are active in the Latin America LTER Network: Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, with several others expressing interest in participating.
The Network is organized at three levels: site, national, and regional, with Latin America representing one region in the ILTER Network. The increased size and complexity of the Network represents a challenge for coordination and information management.
The origins of the Latin America LTER network can be traced to three workshops conducted during 1996-1997 in Puerto Rico, Panama and Brasil (Waide et al. 1998). In December 1997, the US LTER organized a workshop on Data Management for the Latin America LTER Network at the Sevilleta LTER field station. This meeting exposed the Latin American participants to the Information Management activities in the US LTER and created the basis for a Latin America Information Management Working Group.
The fourth Latin American LTER Workshop convened in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela, May 30 - June 6, 1998. This meeting was divided into two groups following the US LTER model: Scientific Coordinators and Information Managers.
Three major IM themes discussed in the 4th workshop include standards, metadata, and surveys. Metadata was seen as a first step for exchange. A working group discussed and analyzed several standards (e.g. Costa Rica) and recommended the following minimum requirements:
- Identification code
- Title
- Keywords
- Authors context
- Funding
- Summary of the sampling area description
- Spatial, temporal and taxonomic coverage methods
- Equipment
- Variables language
- Format relationships to other data availability
- Contact
- Log
A survey was designed at Sevilleta for assessment of the capabilities, status, infrastructure needed and to create a directory. The survey was posted online prior to the fourth workshop, and during the workshop an effort was made to analyze and interpret the results, in order to disseminate these and provide feedback to the field stations.
By the time the workshop convened, survey reponses were available from the following number of sites by country: Mexico (1), Costa Rica (2) and Venezuela (9).
The survey provided information about computer availability and power, connectivity, data management, databases, data policies, and current research projects. These results indicate that the sites have mostly personal computer platforms, a few have dedicated lines for Internet connectivity and metadata, and some have e-mail capabilities. The major discussions centered on developing IM capabilities including human resources and computational resources.
Other results from the fourth workshop include: establishment of an IM coordinating group, e-mail group and directory, and decision to organize the next meeting (1999) in Colombia.
For more information about the 4th Workshop, please see: http://www.oikos.unam.mx./lalter or http://www.ots.ac.cr/lalter The following URL is temporarily serving as the web site for the Latin American LTER http://ches.ing.ula.ve/LA-ECO-RED from this page you can subscribe to e-mail lists, check for announcements and the ongoing pilot project on climate variability.