Opportunities for Environmental, Ecological, and Climate Change Research in a Data-Rich Era

• Activity Number: 558
• Type: Roundtables
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 7, 2013 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Bayesian Statistical Science
• Author(s): Andrew Oliver Finley*+
• Companies: Michigan State University
• Keywords: Ecology ; Climate change ; Modeling ; Massive data ; spatio-temporal ; Bayesian

Abstract

The scientific community is moving into an era in which data-rich environments provide extraordinary opportunities to understand the complexity of ecological processes. Investment to collect, develop, and distribute data to further large-scale and long-term science is exemplified by the NSF-funded National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON). NEON is a $434M large facilities project dedicated to enabling understanding of how changing environments affect ecological processes. This and data-focused initiatives such as DataONE represent a paradigm shift in the way future scientific discovery will occur. This roundtable provides a venue to discuss exciting modeling and computing challenges within, and at the interface of, environmental, ecological, and climate change fields. The discussion will open with a tour of new data sources (e.g., NEON) and opportunities for statisticians to collaborate with research groups in the climate change and ecological communities. The roundtable is open to participants currently working in these fields, those interested in contributing their expertise from other fields, and junior investigators seeking opportunities for interdisciplinary research.