Resource information
Agricultural long-term experiments (LTEs) are most valuable research infrastructures to reveal the effects of agricultural measures in the long run. However, information about existing LTEs is scattered and the data are often not easy to access. A repository for LTE data and metadata can ensure that a particular LTE can be found easily and access to the data is simplified.
“BonaRes” is short for “Soil as a Sustainable Resource for the Bioeconomy.” In this funding initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) one focus is on the acquisition, storage, and provision of data from LTEs in Germany and beyond. For better findability and reusability of these data, the BonaRes Data Repository was established. The BonaRes Data Portal is an important component, which serves as a central access point for data managed within the BonaRes Data Repository. It aims at providing information about LTEs in Germany as well as LTEs' research data for free reuse.
The definition of LTE in the context of BonaRes is a minimum duration of 20 years, a static design and focus on a scientific issue in the context of soil and yield. According to this definition, in total 200 LTEs across Germany were identified. Information was compiled and published in a dynamic GIS-based web application.
Research data in the BonaRes Data Repository will be provided according to the FAIR principles. Standards are an important component of this concept. The BonaRes Data Centre compiled, discussed, and published a list of more than 600 standards, regulations, code lists, and controlled vocabularies in the field of soil, agricultural, and data science.
Before research data are transferred to the BonaRes Data Repository, the appropriate data policy must be approved by the respective institution's head on behalf of the responsible institution. Metadata has to be provided to ensure a proper discovery, reuse, and analysis of the research data. The first LTE, of which research data are published for free reuse through BonaRes, is the “V140” (1963–today) from Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany.
Article to be found unter Part2 (How to take maximum benefit out of the massive data generated in LTEs), Chapter 5.