Filling Information Management Gaps of Forest Dynamics Plot Databases Using Ecological Metadata Language and a Scientific Workflow System

The study of forest dynamics plots began in the 1970s. A great deal of plot data accumulated through censuses at each site. The wealth of these datasets presents challenges in information management for researchers. Therefore, a purposely designed workshop for forest dynamics plot data management was held on June 15~19, 2009 at Lienhuachih Research Center of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute. This paper describes preliminary results of the workshop that produced an integrated information management system. This framework attempts to facilitate the effective use of fully documented data archives for data discovery, access, retrieval, analysis, and integration. Results from our work include the Fushan and Leinhuachih databases based on the Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) structure in a local MySQL server, an authentication interface, a metadata query web page, and 2 workflows.