Publishing, sharing, and accessing ecological data: A Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site's approach

Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) sites have data, published and accessible; 4572 datasets at the last count. Even the data sharing part is going well with over 800 downloaded datasets per month. Different approaches to data management, however, imply different tools for access and analysis. The ‘pre-harmonized’ approach with a standard data model and controlled vocabularies is one option. The other is more flexible and widely used at LTER sites with varying data structures well described in an additional metadata file. The metadata are in a standard format allowing for exchange and machine interpretation on which tools are being built.