Natural History Data Repository

ISEI has created an investigative, active learning environment to facilitate student-faculty collaborative research in the sciences. The data collected in this environment form a long-term, multi-disciplinary Natural History Data Repository (NHDR). The NHDR focuses on the St. Lawrence River Valley and Adirondack Highlands and contains both spatial and non-spatial data. Additional data in the repository include historical data, museum and herbarium records, and data from the ISEI weather stations. The NHDR is an information resource for both faculty and student research and will serve as a tool for teaching and demonstrating the complex interdependence of elements in the natural world.

 

The repository’s metadata is searchable spatially and by data content. Spatial searches are done with Mapserver, an open source interactive web mapping program. Data content can be searched by time period, title, description, author, themes and keywords. Faculty and students contribute to the repository using a web-based interface. The data is stored in a network accessible server and the metadata is added to the NHDR metadata server. Development of the NHDR has been a collaborative effort among the Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Geology, and Psychology Departments and the SLU Libraries’ GIS program. Administration of the repository is the responsibility of the GIS program.

 

Natural History Data Repository