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The WISER way of organising ecological data from European rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters

  • WATER BODIES IN EUROPE
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Abstract

The implementation of the Water Framework Directive has required intense research in applied aquatic ecology in Europe, and thus created challenges for data management in international research projects. In the project Waterbodies in Europe: Integrative Systems to assess Ecological status and Recovery (WISER), biological and environmental data from rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters in 26 European countries were collated. More than one million records of biological observations were stored in the project’s central database, representing phytoplankton, macrophytes, macroalgae, angiosperms, phytobenthos, invertebrates and fish. The central database includes new data from the WISER field campaign in lakes and transitional/coastal waters during 2009–2010 (more than 6,000 biological samples from 58 waterbodies in 14 countries). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the data collated within WISER, in order to facilitate future re-use of these data by other scientists. More specifically, the objectives are to (1) describe the data management in WISER, (2) describe the structure and content of the WISER central database and (3) share experiences and give recommendations for data management in large ecological research projects.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Roar Brænden, Jan Karud, Jörg Strackbein and Robert Vogl for constructive discussions and technical advice. All WP data managers (Table 1) are acknowledged for collaboration and delivery of data to the central database. The WISER project was funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework Programme, Theme 6 (Environment including Climate Change), contract no. 226273. We thank Christian Feld, Laurence Carvalho and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustadalléen 21, 0349, Oslo, Norway

    S. Jannicke Moe

  2. Department Water, Atmosphere, Environment, Institute of Hydrobiology & Aquatic Ecosystem Management, University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Max Emanuel-Straße 17, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber

  3. Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0QB, UK

    Bernard J. Dudley

  4. Faculty of Biology, Aquatic Ecology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Universitätsstraße 5, 45141, Essen, Germany

    Daniel Hering

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  1. S. Jannicke Moe
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  2. Astrid Schmidt-Kloiber
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Correspondence to S. Jannicke Moe.

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Guest editors: C. K. Feld, A. Borja, L. Carvalho & D. Hering / Water bodies in Europe: integrative systems to assess ecological status and recovery

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Moe, S.J., Schmidt-Kloiber, A., Dudley, B.J. et al. The WISER way of organising ecological data from European rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters. Hydrobiologia 704, 11–28 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1337-0

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