The search for legacy tropical forest datasets

Keywords: Tropical forest, long-term data, global change, archiving legacy data, forest dynamics, tree demography, carbon dynamics
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 4/11/2021 08:00 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/11/2021 09:15 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 26

Abstract

Tropical forest tree inventories and plot projects have generated large amounts of data over many decades, but much of this data is in paper or older digitized formats, or still undiscovered. These data sets are in danger of being lost and with them our ability to assess historical changes that can inform research and policy for land use change and landscape resilience. These legacy datasets are invaluable for understanding how tropical forests, biodiversity, and carbon storage change through time, including the cumulative impacts of changes in land use and climate. Historical data can also help instruct current and future forest management.
To locate these data sets, we are reaching out via electronic media and searching older compilations (ATROFI-UK and TROPIS) of tropical forest datasets. ATOFI-UK has metadata on ~30 studies in need of curation and TROPIS refers to >6000 natural forest and plantations. The inventories and plots located are being cross referenced against lists of curated datasets such as Forestplots.net and others under the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD), to determine which datasets are not already in a long-term data repository.
Currently the project has identified >40 inventory and plot-based studies in need of curation, in countries ranging from Vanatu to Ghana to Belize. Other issues include appropriate formats for long-term digital curation, and data reliability, ownership, and access, and funding.
We invite wide participation in the quest for unsecured historical data sets. The guiding principle of the project is that the past can enlighten the future.