New ways of thinking about site-based information management facilitate interdisciplinary global ocean research and e-Science initiatives. The concepts of ‘socio-technical systems’, ‘spheres-of-context’, and ‘web-of-repositories’ are introduced as tools for integrative work such as distinguishing data repository types and describing data practices that both support enactment of standards and inform development of the standards. Drawing on informatics, science studies, and a longitudinal field study, lessons learned and strategies formulated are presented based upon information management activities carried out at research sites within the US Long Term Ecological Research Network.

Results/Conclusions

This paper identifies economies-of-scale associated with building information infrastructures and examines complexities-of-scale inherent to developing scientific data collections within multilevel networks. Data requirements, expectations, and challenges are considered within the framework of sustainable information ecologies.