VCR

In the area of training, we participated in ILTER training sessions for Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian, Czech and Romanian ILTER scientists at a workshop in Vacratot Hungary. A on-line video of the workshop can be viewed at http://www.vcrlter.Virginia.EDU/video/Hungary2000/. Additionally, demonstrations of the LTER Data Catalog, ClimDB and NPP database were conducted at the Ecological Change meeting in London, UK in July 2001.

The Information Management infrastructure has been extended to support Schoolyard LTER activities. Student exercises have been linked to on-line WWW forms that allow students to submit data over the WWW. The data from individual students are automatically combined to create a downloadable file that integrates data from the entire class.

Major efforts have been made in the area of planning. The University of Virginia has committed to building the Anheuser Busch Coastal Research Center (ABCRC) that will serve as the host field station for the VCR/LTER. Planning has focused on linking ABCRC data systems and on providing the needed administrative and record-keeping tools.

Other miscellaneous activities and upgrades include development of video production and streaming capabilities for video-documentation. Documentation of complex field procedures is facilitated by videos, so several have been produced and placed on-line in RealPlayer and Windows Media Player formats, along with general orientation and event-specific material (see http://www.vcrlter.Virginia.EDU/video/ and http://www.vcrlter.Virginia.EDU/monitoring/manuals.html for examples). Additionally, we have added file upload capabilities to the WWW server, allowing technicians and students to transfer binary files, as well as text, via WWW forms.