Data sharing: An open mind on open data

• Virginia Gewin

Nature

529,

117-119

(2016)

doi:10.1038/nj7584-117a

The move to make scientific findings transparent can be a major boon to research, but it can be tricky to embrace the change.

People using TERN: Siân Howard

An honours student at the University of Adelaide is using TERN’s collaborative data and research infrastructure to progress important national research

Meet Siân Howard. Siân is an early career researcher who is investigating the potential of using the waxes contained in leaves from a range of Australian environments as biomarkers for indicating climate. The particular wax compounds Siân is studying, n-alkanes, are not only persistent in leaves but also in the soils where they accumulate from surrounding plants. With only a year to complete the study and requiring access not only to leaf samples but also detailed soil information, the traditional option of collecting field samples was out of the question.

Luckily for Siân, the types of tools available to help researchers in positions like this are becoming more accessible and sophisticated. Open access to online data, data visualisation tools and sample collections are now enabling ecosystem science researchers, like Siân, to discover, visualise and analyse Australia’s ecosystems from their desks like never before.

One such tool that does just this, and enabled Siân to undertake her important research, is Soils to Satellites (S2S).

http://www.tern.org.au/Newsletter-2014-Aug-People-using-TERN-S-Howard-pg29630.html