DataCAFe | The biology behind reactive nitrogen loss

During the previous DataCAFe, PhD candidate Milica Radanovic lead a discussion on her thesis work while fending off rabid committee members and lively collaborators. A summary of her thesis, in her words, is below. Environmental impacts on the nitrogen cycle as a physical process creating or depleting pools of reactive nitrogen in soil has been …

Putting Pullman’s extreme April precipitation into a historical context

For those not in Pullman, early April was an eventful time for us, a lot of rain and even some flooding! For us weather nerds (i.e., the author), these types of events are fun and not fun at the same time. They are fun because they provide interesting data and neat pictures but not fun …

DataCAFe | Barriers to proper data management in research

Research is becoming increasingly more reliant on computational workflows, such as combining diverse datasets, processing big data, running computational models, and organizing information across geographically dispersed and interdisciplinary teams. Because the scientific process is anchored on reproducibility and peer review, funding organizations and journals have adjusted their strategies to accommodate the new landscape. It is …

DataCAFe | Lessons learned from doing data synthesis as part of the LTAR Network

During CAF LTAR’s DataCAFe, Dr. Eric Russell led a discussion on working with data from different sources and ways to avoid issues. He used his experience working with 18 LTAR sites as a way to illustrate his points. His write up is below. As a co-lead processing eddy covariance (EC) data for an active working …

DataCAFe | Calculating mean residence time of soil organic matter

During CAF LTAR’s DataCAFe, Qiuping (Ellen) Peng led a discussion on different methods of calculating mean residence time (MRT) of soil organic matter. After much discussion and merriment, Ellen then tried to steer the crowd towards a discussion on how to relate MRT to flux data from EC towers. Her write up is below. Understanding …