We are researchers working to advance open science, using an investigation of organic matter in river corridors to further develop open science methods. We are seeking participants to join us in generating a globally crowdsourced effort that uses ecological principles to better understand organic matter chemistry in rivers. To kickoff this effort, we led a workshop in April 2021 that resulted in several narratives investigating different questions utilizing the WHONDRS (https://www.pnnl.gov/projects/WHONDRS) organic matter (OM) chemistry dataset. Given the amount of content generated and feedback on crowdsourcing, we will be expanding this crowdsourced effort to a collection of manuscripts on any ecological theory applied to the WHONDRS OM chemistry dataset (complemented with other data as needed).
To organize the efforts going forward we need each of you to fill out this google form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeK7hgRYfwrPhHzkUm8Cc36kzHHWuVo...) within the next two weeks (June 16th). This is required as it will be used to build teams around specific manuscripts and generate the email distribution list for each team. Filling out the form is the only way to be placed on a team.
A unique element of this manuscript collection is that all manuscripts will use a single dataset and augment it in ways that are relevant to each manuscript’s questions and hypotheses. Another unique element is that all manuscripts will be openly crowdsourced and the global science community will be invited to participate in any of the manuscripts and/or contribute additional crowdsourced manuscripts that use the WHONDRS data.
In the workshop, we defined key questions to be explored using the WHONDRS OM chemistry data (via FTICR-MS), including but not limited to publications about:
Exploring global river corridor OM chemistry through the ecological concept of core-satellite species.
Investigating how OM chemistry is related to watershed characteristics such as hydrology, vegetation, stream order, etc.
Understanding the origin of organic molecules
Analyzing potential biogeochemical transformations
Examining the ecological processes influencing the assembly of molecules into OM assemblages
Quantifying species-area scaling relationships
Each of these topics will become a single manuscript. Other topics can be suggested for the manuscript collection in the google form below. Further, you can participate in more than one manuscript if interested in more than one topic, but you will be expected to contribute substantially to each effort you sign up for. For each of these topics, we are also looking for facilitators to communicate with the leadership team on progress of their respective topic. If you are interested in being a facilitator or corresponding author for one of these manuscripts, capture that in the google form below.
Participation is open to scientists who are excited about ecology, river corridor science, and/or advancing open science, and that want to contribute to crowdsourced publication(s) that use ecological principles to better understand OM chemistry in river corridors. We are committed to this effort enabling a greater diversity of thinking on river corridor biogeochemistry, resulting in unexpected ideas, faster problem solving, and a large network of collaborators.
Please fill out the google form(https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeK7hgRYfwrPhHzkUm8Cc36kzHHWuVo...) to choose your topic(s), as well as sign up for facilitator or corresponding author roles. In 2 weeks from now the leadership team will take 1 week to examine the google form responses to build the teams and define deadlines. Those outcomes will be communicated to all that fill out the form by ~ June 16th.
Please email us with any questions and/or suggestions.
We greatly look forward to taking the next steps with you all.
Thank you,
Mikayla A. Borton, Sarah Collins, Amy Goldman, Michaela de Melo, James C. Stegen