International Ecosystem Metadata Federation

Scientists at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) are leading an effort to establish Internet search and delivery of the joint catalogs of marine ecosystem data held by the United States, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia Oceanographic Data Centers. This metadata "federation" of the member countries of the North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES) is hosted presently by the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Clearinghouse (http://clearinghouse3.fgdc.gov/) of the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The initial nodes of the federation, certified last month, are NOAA's North Pacific Ecosystem Metadatabase and the Korea Oceanographic Data Center. These nodes are identified in the Clearinghouse, respectively, as "PICES - NOAA NPEM" and "PICES - KODC". NOAA scientists at PMEL and AFSC have established dialogue with Japanese and Russian colleagues to expand the federation in the coming year. This work supports NOAA's vision of an informed society that uses a comprehensive understanding of the role of the oceans, coasts, and atmosphere in the global ecosystem to make the best social and economic decisions. Anyone with access to the Internet can discover from a single web site all catalogued North Pacific ecosystem information from member countries of the federation.