AGU Report and Holiday Reading

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

The week in San Francisco at AGU 2013 was busy, and we learned a lot at both the scientific session we co-hosted (link) and the Sediment Experimentalists Network Town Hall. Thanks to ALL participants, presenters, and colleagues who did anything SEN related, you are helping us to build our network!

We leave you at year’s end with a brief Town Hall summary and some holiday reading.

1. Town Hall highlights: Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)
2. Recommended book: Users Guide to Physical Modelling and Experimentation
3. Recommended post: The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing [smithsonian]
4. Recommended game: Play Delta Shuffle to help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas

1. Town Hall highlights: Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)

On Wednesday, Dec. 11, we described our NSF-funded project for building a Sediment Experimentalist Network, with the three legs of SEN-KB: a Knowledge Base for sharing methods and data, SEN-ED: EDucation and enabling discussions about data and metadata management and guidelines, and SEN-EC: Global Experimental Collaboratories connected through a webinar system for real-time sharing and interaction.

After a demo of the new Knowledge Base (soon launching at sedexp.net!), the conversation hit upon several issues, including:

• Data storage of multiple TB of data is important and needed
• Quality of the data shared is a big concern - we should think about peer review of datasets or some other type of quality control
• There are existing vocabularies from GeoSciML and CSDMS standard names that our community should consider using

2. Users Guide to Physical Modelling and Experimentation: Experience of the HYDRALAB Network (IAHR Design Manual)

The book combines the expertise of many of the leading hydraulic experimentalists in Europe and identifies current best practice for carrying out state-of-the-art, modern laboratory investigations. In addition it gives an inventory and reviews recent advances in instrumentation and equipment that drive present and new developments in the subject. The Guide concentrates on four core areas – waves, breakwaters, sediments and the relatively-new (but rapidly-developing) cross-disciplinary area of hydrodynamics/ecology.

Read more...


3. The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/12/the-vast-majority-of-raw-data-from-old-scientific-studies-may-now-be-missing/#ixzz2o2gO5tPU%20)

One of the foundations of the scientific method is the reproducibility of results. In a lab anywhere around the world, a researcher should be able to study the same subject as another scientist and reproduce the same data, or analyze the same data and notice the same patterns.

This is why the findings of a study published today in Current Biology are so concerning. When a group of researchers tried to email the authors of 516 biological studies published between 1991 and 2011 and ask for the raw data, they were dismayed to find that more 90 percent of the oldest data (from papers written more than 20 years ago) were inaccessible. In total, even including papers published as recently as 2011, they were only able to track down the data for 23 percent.

Read more...


4. Play Delta Shuffle to help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas

Spotted at the AGU NCED Booth:

Calling all Citizen Scientists! Help scientists understand what controls the shape of deltas! PLAY TODAY!

DeltaShuffle.umn.edu

Sediment Experimentalist Network October News

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

It’s the end of October and there’s plenty of news for experimentalists.

1. New video about the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)
2. New data journal - Nature Scientific Data
3. Sediment Experimentalists at AGU - Town Hall and Scientific Session

1. New video about the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN)

The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) has been funded as part of the NSF EarthCube initiative. Watch this 2-minute video to see what we are planning to do over the next few years, then watch more EarthCube project videos.

 

2. New data journal - Nature Scientific Data

The Nature Publishing group has announced a new journal, Scientific Data, for descriptions of scientifically valuable datasets. Scientific Data “introduces a new type of content called the Data Descriptor designed to make your data more discoverable, interpretable and reusable.”

See their examples of Data Descriptors and think about how to apply it to sedimentary experimental data! [Sample Data Descriptor 1]  [Sample Data Descriptor 2].



3. Sediment Experimentalists at AGU - Town Hall and Scientific Sessions

If you are attending AGU, mark Wednesday December 11th as Sediment Experimentalist Day. We are co-convening scientific sessions and a Town Hall. Hope to see you there!

EP31D and EP32B. Connecting Natural Landscapes to Experimental and Numerical Models of Earth and Planetary Surface Evolution I and II
Wed 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM; 2010 (Moscone West)
Wed 10:20 AM - 12:20 PM; 2010 (Moscone West)

EP33A. Connecting Natural Landscapes to Experimental and Numerical Models of Earth and Planetary Surface Evolution III Posters
Wed 1:40 PM - 6:00 PM; Hall A-C (Moscone South)

Town Hall TH32D. Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network
Wed 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM; 2005 (Moscone West)
We’ll give an update of our activities and share resources and information about best practices experimental methods and data storage, archiving, and dissemination.

--
Sediment Experimentalist Network

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp

Sediment Experimentalist Network September News

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

1. At the end of August, several of us participated in the Stratodynamics 2013 International Workshop at Nagasaki University, Japan.

• Many presenters have uploaded their talks and posters on the informative site www.stratodynamics.org on the Presentations page.
• Watch bedforms formed by supercritical density currents posted by H. Naruse: Video of bedforms formed by supercritical density currents
• Three photo albums of experimental set-up and the meeting are shared on the Sediment Experimentalist Google+ page. 

2. The SEN Challenge is still open! Help us grow our community presence through online sites and other networking activities. Most tasks only take a minute or two. SEN will award travel support to one of the highest-ranking student participants - all you need to do is complete as many tasks as you can, then email sedimentexp@gmail.com with your finished tasks.

• Take the SEN Challenge

3. For those of you attending the December AGU, keep your eye out for our Town Hall: “Building a Sediment Experimentalist Network”, it will likely be a mid-week lunch spot, but the official schedule will be published in October. We’ll give an update of our activities and share resources and information about best practices experimental methods and data storage, archiving, and dissemination.

Best wishes,
The Sediment Experimentalist Team

International Workshop of Stratodynamics at Nagasaki University

Dear Experimentalists,

From August 28-30, we plan to webcast the Stratodynamics Keynote talks from Nagasaki University. Each day starts at 9a local time (8p EDT in the United States)

Aug 28 (Aug 27, 8p in US EDT)
Astrid Blom, Stratigraphy formed by river dunes and Gilbert deltas (45 min)

Aug 29 (Aug 28, 8p in US EDT)
Michael Lamb, What sets the size of river deltas (45 min)

Aug 30 (Aug 29, 8p in US EDT)
Miwa Yokokawa and Norihiro Izumi  (TBD) (90 min)

We will also plan to webcast some of the collaborative experiments, although these will be at 3p local time (2am EDT in the US), so we will try to make some highlight videos to post.

The connection link is as follows:

1. Please join my meeting.
https://global.gotomeeting.com/meeting/join/779601301

2. Use your microphone and speakers (VoIP) - a headset is recommended. Or, call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (312) 878-3078
Access Code: 779-601-301
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID:779-601-301

Sediment Experimentalist Network August News

Dear Experimentalists,

We hope your summer has been a fun and productive one. Here are a few news items before the Fall begins!

1. Take the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) challenge
2. Follow Sediment Experimentalists on Twitter
3. Stratodynamics workshop keynote talks to be broadcast online (August 27, 28, 29 in United States time zones)

1. Take the Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) Challenge

Complete as many of the data-related tasks as you can, then email sedimentexp@gmail.com by Sept 1, 2013, with a record of what you completed.
We will choose randomly from the highest-ranking student participants for support to a future SEN activity.

The tasks range from creating Investigator IDs, to short surveys, to joining NSF communities that are talking about data and cyberinfrastructure. Everyone on the mailing list has already completed task #1!

https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/sen-challenge

2. Follow Sediment Experimentalists on Twitter

The Sediment Experimentalists have joined twitter!

Follow us @SedimentExp  (http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp)

3. Stratodynamics workshop keynote talks to be broadcast online

The Keynote "Review" talks at next week's Stratodynamics Workshop at Nagasaki University will be broadcast online.

The talks begin at 9:00am on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (August 28, 29, 30) local time. (Nagasaki time is GMT/UTC + 09:00 hour, which is US Eastern Daylight Time +13h, so the talks begin at 8:00p on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the East coast of the U.S.)

We will post more information here when we have it.

--
Sediment Experimentalist Network

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sedimentexp

AGU 2013 Session: Connecting natural landscapes to experimental and numerical models

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

We are excited to announce a session at the AGU Fall Meeting that brings together experimentalists, modelers, and field practitioners. Please contribute to the session to show the strength of our experimentalist community.

EP005. Connecting natural landscapes to experimental and numerical models of Earth and planetary surface evolution

Experimental and numerical modeling approaches in geomorphology provide distinctive insights that gain relevance through comparison to direct observations of natural landscapes. This session considers how to connect, validate, and benchmark experimental and numerical models alongside field observations. We seek contributions exploring how to link experimental, numerical, and field approaches across a range of processes, scales, methods, and model complexities. Contributions exploring all aspects of such linkages are welcome, including those focused solely on experiments, numerics, or field data.

Invited Speakers: 
Man Liang (University of Texas, Austin)
Mark Schmeeckle (Arizona State University)
Gary Parker (University of Illinois)

Convenors: 
Dan Hobley (University of Colorado)
Leslie Hsu (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory)
Raleigh Martin (University of Pennsylvania)
Nicole Gasparini (Tulane University)

The abstract submission deadline is August 6, 2013,
Abstract Submission : https://fallmeeting.agu.org/2013/scientific-program/abstract-submission-policies/

June News and Announcements

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

Hope your summer months are full of experiments and experimental data. This month we've compiled a few items for you on data management, experimental method publication, meetings, and social networking.

1. How do you manage your data?

2. Want to share your experimental method

3. The International Workshop on Stratodynamics

4. Join the EarthCube Member Connections Site

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1. How do you manage your data?We'd like to know, and we hope that you do too!  We've created a new page on our Sediment Experimentalists website to collect ideas.  Take a look!  Check out the examples already provided, or create your own and email it to us at sedimentexp@gmail.com.  More information is available on the website for how to do this.

2. Want to share your experimental methods, but feel that typical paper journals aren't cutting it?
Then consider submitting a manuscript to the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE)!  JOVE is a peer-reviewed journal for experimental methods in disciplines across the sciences.  You submit a manuscript as you normally would to any other journal, but if accepted, JOVE will send a filming team to your lab to document the methods described in your paper.  In addition to the other traditional editorial functions provided by the journal, production of the methods film and video hosting on the JOVE website are included in the cost of publication ($2400 -- standard access, $4200 -- open access).  Starting this fall, JOVE will be publishing articles in the environmental sciences, and they are now open to manuscript submissions.  Click here for more information.

3. The International Workshop on Stratodynamics will be held August 28-30, 2013, at Nagasaki University in Japan.

The international workshop “Stratodynamics” aims to develop a new research framework for understanding sedimentary processes, geomorphology and genetic stratigraphy on the basis of morphodynamics of earth surface processes. The topics in the workshop will include experimental and theoretical studies of bedforms, geomorphological processes and the genetic stratigraphy. We also welcome research based on field measurement, computational modeling and coupled interdisciplinary works. Workshop discussion will focus on basic concepts, future research targets, and user requirements for accessing experimental data and advanced experimental technologies to address grand challenges in stratodynamics.

The workshop will include keynote speakers, small-group discussion sessions, community flume experiments, and oral and poster presentations from participants.

See the flyer for more information about the workshop agenda.

Registration

To register please contact the organizing committee at stratodynamics@gmail.com

Registration deadline: July 15th 2013

4. Join the EarthCube Member Connections Site

EarthCube is an initiative to build linkages among earth-science researchers, with a focus on discovery and access to data.  EarthCube recently created a social networking site, "EarthCube Member Connections," to build these linkages.  It's really important to get many people to join, as this will demonstrate the interest of our community to NSF, which will in turn affect funding decisions!  You can see the site here: http://earthcube.ning.com/page/earthcube-member-connections

Please take a few minutes to sign up!  Unfortunately, the sign up process is not extremely intuitive, so I've written some instructions based on my own experience.

1. First, you need to become a member of EarthCube.   Go the EarthCube site: http://earthcube.ning.com/, then click "Sign Up" on the right side of the page.

2. Once you've created an EarthCube page, this information should populate into the EarthCube Member Connections site.  Unfortunately, this process does not appear to be entirely automatic.  So, I suggest you send an email to ec_apps@sdsc.edu to ask them to populate your Member Connections card.  You may need to give this a couple of days.  NOTE: The Member Connections site requires Microsoft Silverlight (a free web app) to function properly.

3. Once populated, your EarthCube Member Connections card will only contain basic information.  To update it with information such as domain (i.e. your subdiscipline) and a statement about your research interests, go to the Member Connections site and search for your name.  Once you've found your name card, double click on it.  A pop-up window should appear (if not, I suggest trying another browser such as Firefox or IE).  Once your card appears in the popup window, click to "Create Account."  Once you've done this, you should be able to login and add your information / research interests to the card.

May 2013 Announcements and Opportunities

Dear Sediment Experimentalists,

Please read below for several opportunities to share, use, and link your experimental data and results:

1. Linking Experimental Data and Models
2. Data Rescue
3. EarthCube Member Connections Site
4. Amtrak Club: Soil to Sea Geomorphology (registration deadline May 6)

Contact us with any questions or comments!

Sediment Experimentalists

Email: sedimentexp@gmail.com

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/

--

1. Linking Experimental Data and Models

Data and models go hand in hand. Experimentalists tend to have lots of data, and modelers tend to be looking for data for model validation and testing. Several recent efforts in the CSDMS (Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System) and EarthCube communities encourage and facilitate the connection of data and models. Sediment Experimentalists can help the cause by exposing our datasets, documenting them properly, and engaging modelers in dialog for how to best connect data and models.

The recent CSDMS meeting took on this topic in the Terrestrial Working Group breakout session, and data subgroup was born (see the CSDMS TWG data page). We also have a space on the CSDMS site to collect general ideas of linking experimental data and models (see the CSDMS Experimental Data wiki page). Email us at sedimentexp@gmail.com if you want to participate or have ideas for improving data-model connections.

2. Data Rescue

Where will your data be in 20 years? Rescuing data that is in danger of being lost on old disks or paper printouts is a growing priority in the science community and beyond.

Check out the International Data Rescue Award in the Geosciences, organized by Elsevier Research Data Services and IEDA (Integrated Earth Data Applications). The award was established to improve the preservation and access of research data in the Geosciences, particularly of dark data, and to share the varied ways that these data are being processed, stored, and used. The winner of the challenge will receive a $5000 prize at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December 2013.

3. EarthCube Member Connections Site

Be on the leading edge of Earth Science Cyberinfrastructure and create a profile in the EarthCube Member Connections site (small print: requires Silverlight and does not work on the Chrome browser). The site matches disciplinary scientists with cyberinfrastructure experts, making it easier to connect science and technology to build helpful Earth Science applications.

Instructions on how to join are posted (link), but email us if you have any questions or need help completing your profile. The first step is to sign up for an account the EarthCube site, and when you do, be sure to join other Sediment Experimentalists in the Experimental Stratigraphy group!

4. Amtrak Club Soil to Sea Geomorphology

An announcement from our friends:

Attached (note: attached to the original email) is the FINAL FLYER for the 2nd annual symposium "Soil to Sea Geomorphology".  The aim of this symposium is to facilitate the formation of a regional network of scientists studying all aspects of Earth-surface science. It is inspired by community-building events such as the annual Gilbert Club meeting following AGU, and in that spirit there will be ample time for discussion and socializing. Three aspects that make Soil to Sea Geomorphology different, however, are: (1) a majority of presentations will be given by graduate students and postdocs, to give exposure to and encourage constructive discussion of their work at an early stage; (2) attendees will hail from locations typically within a 1-day Amtrak ride, in order to build and strengthen ties among regional institutions that may lead to future collaborations. Thus, we whimsically refer to this new symposium as the “Amtrak Club"; and (3) we anticipate future events changing the venue location and moving among Mid-Atlantic Universities that are willing to host it.

The second Amtrak Club meeting will be held on the campus of The Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, May 17-18, 2013. The format will be five thematic sessions spread over two days, covering topics such as: landscape evolution, sediment transport and soil production, coastal processes and the sedimentary record, and response of landscapes to anthropogenic disturbances. Each session will feature prominent keynote speakers, while the rest of the slots will be filled with graduate students and postdocs. We have secured some support from The Johns Hopkins University, which allows us to cover some symposium costs.  It is our intention to keep the conference costs minimal to encourage a large number of our colleagues and their graduate students/postdocs to attend.

Our invited speakers will be:

Mark Brandon (Yale), Pat Wiberg (UVA), Karen Prestegaard (UMD), Tess Thompson (VT), Enrica Viparelli (USC)

Registration is open! Registration, abstract, logistics, and housing information in the attached flyer.

Important dates:

Registration and 1-Page abstract deadline….      May  6, 2013

Please help us in advertising this conference!  You can help by posting the attached and future circulars and by encouraging your graduate students and post-docs to submit an abstract. If you have suggestions or comments, and if you do or do not want to be included in future, please send a note to amtrak.club@gmail.com.   

Best,

The 2013 Amtrak Club Organizing Committee:

Jane Willenbring (University of Pennsylvania)

Doug Jerolmack (University of Pennsylvania)

Ben Horton (University of Pennsylvania)

Katie Skalak (U.S. Geological Survey)   

Peter Wilcock (John Hopkins University)

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Sediment Experimentalists

Email: sedimentexp@gmail.com

Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/sedimentexperimentalists/

International Workshop on Stratodynamics

The International Workshop on Stratodynamics will be held August 28-30, 2013, at Nagasaki University in Japan.

The international workshop “Stratodynamics” aims to develop a new research framework for understanding sedimentary processes, geomorphology and genetic stratigraphy on the basis of morphodynamics of earth surface processes. The topics in the workshop will include experimental and theoretical studies of bedforms, geomorphological processes and the genetic stratigraphy. We also welcome research based on field measurement, computational modeling and coupled interdisciplinary works. Workshop discussion will focus on basic concepts, future research targets, and user requirements for accessing experimental data and advanced experimental technologies to address grand challenges in stratodynamics.

The workshop will include keynote speakers, small-group discussion sessions, community flume experiments, and oral and poster presentations from participants.

See the flyer for more information about the workshop agenda.

Registration
To register please contact the organizing committee at stratodynamics@gmail.com
Registration deadline: July 15th 2013

STEP community experiment December 2012

On December 11, 2012, as part of the EarthCube Experimental Stratigraphy Workshop, a community experiment was run in the STEP Basin at University of Texas. Austin. In the experiment, a delta was built into standing water as coarse sediment, fine sediment, and water were fed into the basin. The experiment ran for 8 hours, and the sediment flux, water flux, and basin subsidence were varied as pre-specified by workshop participants. After the experiment, the basin was drained and vertical slices were taken and photographed in order to see the internal stratigraphy of the delta (movie #2 below).

In the spirit of a community experiment, data from the experiments, including control programs, deposit slice images, and topographic scans, are available for analysis in the shared workshop materials folder. Direct links to the raw data are summarized at the bottom of this post. We have also set up a Community Experiment Forum to capture ideas on how to analyze these shared data. You can contribute ideas and vote on other's suggestions. See what others are saying and add your idea!

STEP Community experiment - Overhead Movie

STEP Community experiment - Deposit Dip Slices Raw

2012 December STEP Community Experiment 2012 Google Folder

• Control Programs
• Deposit Slices
• Movies
• Runlog
• Timelapse Images
• Topo Scans
  

Share your data with figshare

One goal of the Sediment Experimentalists group is to keep readers informed of new tools that may help with data management and archiving. One such tool is figshare, which "allows researchers to publish all of their research outputs in seconds in an easily citable, sharable and discoverable manner."

"figshare was started by a frustrated Imperial College PhD student as a way to disseminate all research outputs and not just static images through traditional academic publishing."

Do you share figshare founder Mark Hahnel's frustration? If so, you are encouraged to try out the site and then let the Sediment Experimentalists know about your experience (by email or blog comment). You can share and organize figures, datasets, media, papers, posters, and presentations.

More resources:

• figshare FAQ
• about figshare
• example figshare page from a Sediment Experimentalist user

Join our EarthCube group - Be informed!

Are you still confused about the entity called EarthCube? The best way to find out more is to join the EarthCube site. EarthCube has recently formed groups for all of the identified End-User communities. Since we held an EarthCube workshop in December 2012, we have a group called Experimental Stratigraphy. (Although it is named after our inaugural workshop, we plan to make the discussion more broad to encompass all Sediment Experiments.)

You are urged to sign on, join, and recruit others so that we can "provide a forum in which you can continue discussions from your workshop, post important documents (or links to your Google docs folder) and keep up the momentum generated during your workshop."

You can also check out the latest on the other groups that are active in EarthCube. This is yet another way to keep up with the multitude of opportunities available in all things data and cyberinfrastructure. It also helps to place our community on the map and draw attention to our data and cyberinfrastructure dreams.

If you haven't already, it is time to join the not-so-new experiment of Social Media:
Join the Experimental Stratigraphy Group today!

Surface Process Experiments -- Town Hall Report

It has been about one year since we started this group, and we want to thank everyone who has contributed their time, suggestions, or even just interest and attention. In the next few emails we will report on some of the recent events. The first report is on the Town Hall that was held at the AGU Fall Meeting. If this summary sparks any ideas or comments you’d like to share, contact us!

Town Hall summary

On December 7, 2012, we convened a town hall meeting on “Surface Process Experiments – A Community Discussion” to solicit from the AGU Earth and Planetary Surface Process (EPSP) focus group community opinions, challenges, and future directions on managing Earth-surface experimental data sets. The meeting included six panelists with perspectives from collaborative community initiatives, funding agencies, and journal publishers. Approximately 70 people attended the meeting, which was funded by NCED (A full report and transcript of the meeting is available at: http://tinyurl.com/sedex-townhall2012).

Panelists and audience members expressed universal concern for the current lack of infrastructure and support for data management and sharing for our particular data types. Participants expressed challenges falling into three primary categories:

(1) Data structure and description: Metadata describing data provenance, structure, and uncertainty are as important if not more important than raw data itself. Templates and guidelines would help, though the diversity of experimental types and institutional directives likely preclude a universal standard.

(2) Long-term archiving: Preserving data in usable and accessible formats over time spans far exceeding typical funding and project cycles (>10 years) is a challenging and expensive prospect but extremely important for our community.

(3) Publication and recognition: Scientists will only invest their time in data management if they feel their efforts are recognized, and publication of citable “data papers” appears a natural answer to this question. AGU journals support publication of data papers, but fundamental questions about data paper structure, scope, and attribution must be overcome to attract more than a token number of such submissions.

Participants identified limited human, computing, and financial resources as major barriers to proper data management, especially in smaller universities and facilities. Furthermore, data and experiments come in many different forms (and degrees of processing), and it is hard to imagine a generalized way to describe these. Rather than starting from scratch, many participants suggested that we learn from and build on existing resources, such as the NCED data repository and the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI) Hydrologic Information System (HIS). The best approach to managing data will likely combine top-down directives and support (for example, NSF could potentially provide support for long term data archiving and centralized databases) with bottom-up engagement by Earth-surface scientists to define database structures, templates, and guidelines.

Best regards,
Raleigh Martin
Wonsuck Kim
Brandon McElroy
Leslie Hsu