Scientific information model for deepsea mapping and sampling

The Vents Program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory is an interdisciplinary research initiative that brings together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, including geophysics, geology, physical oceanography, chemistry, and biology. Each discipline collects a variety of data types of varying structures and requiring intercomparison. The challenge of scientific information management is thus approached with a view of supporting data from multiple survey, mapping, and sampling tools and subject to multiple levels of interpretation. The ultimate objective is a system that integrates the functions of data storage, selective retrieval, display, and archiving. The results of our ongoing efforts in scientific information modeling and management have produced a relational database in which marine geological, geophysical, chemical, and biological observations can be accessed by any investigator.