Data Freshness in Ecology and Conservation

Nicholas J Murray; Emma V Kennedy; Jorge G Álvarez-Romero; Mitchell B Lyons

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.005

Data Freshness in Ecology and Conservation

Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Jun;36(6):485-487. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.005. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Authors

Nicholas J Murray¹, Emma V Kennedy², Jorge G Álvarez-Romero³, Mitchell B Lyons⁴

Affiliations

¹ College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia. Electronic address: nicholas.murray@jcu.edu.au.
² Remote Sensing Research Centre, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia; Australian Institute of Marine Science, Townsville, Queensland 4810, Australia.
³ Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland 4811, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, New South Wales, Australia.

PMID: 33863603
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.03.005

Abstract

Evolving capabilities in environmental data collection, sharing, and processing, are enabling unprecedented use of data from a wide range of sources. Yet data freshness, an important quality dimension associated with the age of data, is a poorly reported aspect of data quality that can lead to additional uncertainty in research findings.

Keywords: data reporting; environmental modeling; open-access data; replication; reproducibility.

MeSH terms

Ecology*
Uncertainty