Congratulations to Chris Meyer, who has been awarded $8,000 by the NMNH Web Advisory Group for a collaborative project, with Cynthia Parr, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) and Trish Mace of the new Q?RIUS Learning Center (volunteer opportunities available!), entitled "The Online Biocube Dashboard".
The concept of a biocube (See right: from Moorea, French Polynesia) —a cubic foot of space and time observed over 24 hours—springs from collaborative research aimed at helping scientists develop a better understanding of our biological warehouse so that we can make informed decisions about essential resources. By gaining a detailed picture, one cubic foot at a time, researchers can chart relationships between organisms and environments, monitor change through time, infer what is not known or seen, model the impact of changes on those ecosystems, and build a body of data to compare with other environments. The Smithsonian is collaborating with a lot of different organizations and researchers to conduct biocube inventories all over the world. But, how to summarize the data gathered from all of these efforts?
This project will use these funds to develop initial datasharing workflows and web templates needed to present the results of these inventories in an engaging and informative way. Users will be able to compare across biocubes and generate webserved local field guides as a resource for other educators, adopters or interested parties. It combines a new interface on NMNH collections and content on EOL.
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