Creating and providing data management services for the biological and ecological sciences: Science environment for ecological knowledge

The Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK) [1] is an information technology project designed to address the many challenges associated with data accessibility and integration of large-scale biocomplexity data in the ecological sciences. The SEEK project is creating cyberinfrastructure encompassing three integrated systems: EcoGrid, a Semantic Mediation System (SMS) and an Analysis and Modeling System (AMS). SEEK enables ecologists to efficiently capture, organize and search for data and analytical processes (i.e., scientific workflows) from their desktop in a user friendly interface - ultimately providing access to global data and analytical resources typically out of reach for many ecologists. The prototype application is ecological niche modeling.