This summer I had the privilege of attending the Open Science for Synthesis (OSS) training hosted by UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). OSS is geared toward early career scientists who want to learn new software and technology skills needed for open, collaborative, and reproducible synthesis research. Forty-five scientists participated in the program: 23 attended NCEAS and 22 were hosted by the University of North Carolina’s Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).
We received training from a great group of instructors through a mix of lectures, exercises, and hands-on work via collaborative group synthesis research projects. The diverse training covered a wide variety of information, spanning tools for hardcore computational biology to the social aspects of collaboration. We self-selected into small synthesis groups based on our proposals and research interests.
Our team is analyzing the impacts of the drought in California. As of mid-August over 99% of the state is classified in severe, extreme or exceptional drought.
We plan to analyze historical trends of drought in California, determine how much the carbon sink has been reduced by the current drought, and consider differences in resilience between ecosystems.
Our team is composed of nine scientists based in five different countries. My collaborators include: Leah Bremer Stanford University, USA Debora Drucker Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Brazil Vickn Hillis University of California, Davis, USA Sparkle Malone US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, USA Antonio Jesus Perez-Luque University of Granada, Spain Paul Selmants University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA Mirela Tulbure University of New South Wales, Australia Sara Varela Charles University, Czech Republic
Top image: The Balboa Building, downtown Santa Barbara, CA