Beyond File Cabinets and Field Notes: Extending the Lifecycle and Utility of Agronomic Data

Oral Session

Special Sessions

Data driven diagnostics and solutions are the gold standard of agronomic practices for the efficient use of natural resources. As the cost of experimental data acquisition has skyrocketed and funds to support agronomic research have dwindled, interest has grown in mechanisms and approaches for deriving maximum value from collected data by extending its use to questions beyond the original experimental purpose. Familiar objectives that could be better addressed with explicit planning to extend data lifecycles include the development of diagnostics with robust characterization of probabilities and risk and quantitative characterizations of impacts from Better Management Practices. Further, large and complex agronomic questions require trans-disciplinary synthesis and the aggregation of numerous datasets from disparate sources. At present, such synthesis is restricted by technological as well as some sociological challenges that limit full potential use of data. The objective of this symposium is to foster discussion and development of ideas for the effective and broadly useful and accessible aggregation of disparate data. Related, key topics include mechanisms and strategies to identify data with potential longevity and to curate and preserve it for reuse. This symposium will feature a combination of presentations that accomplish one or more of the following: (1) demonstrate critical limitations to meta-analyses posed by the current status of agricultural data, (2) summarize on-going efforts w/in production agriculture to aggregate data as a value-added service with an emphasis on the intent and the challenges, and (3) explore the successes and failures in other disciplines that are considered to be more advanced in harnessing informatics technologies.

Cosponsor(s):

Z01 Z Series Special Sessions, S08 Nutrient Management & Soil & Plant Analysis, S04 Soil Fertility & Plant Nutrition