Site and File Names

Site Naming

All site names will have the same two letter descriptors and an appended river kilometer. For instance, the IBYC monitoring station is located at SO-3 and the Middle Bridge YSI monitoring station is located at PR-18.5. This descriptor will either be an abbreviation describing the station or a river kilometer distance that describes its location along one of the rivers in the Plum Island Ecosystem. Please use the River Kilometer Image as an aid in determining names for sampling locations. The image is color-coded to show which two-letter site descriptor code should be used in station naming. The convention that has been established for determining locations on a river is based upon river kilometer, where the mouth of Plum Island Sound is the starting point at 0.0 km. River kilometer markings are clearly labeled in this image as is the 0.0 km starting point in the Sound.
                                                                                                                      

File Naming

The PIE LTER Excel Metadata Template file contains both a sheet for metadata and data. The resulting combined metadata and data file should be named starting with a three letter acronym of the main research theme of the data set (see table below). A second two/three letter acronym is appended that describes the research site (see table below). A descriptor is then appended that briefly describes the dataset. For instance, dissolved oxygen transect data from the Parker River is named "EST-PR-O2", and tidal-creek nutrient data from the long-term experiments is named "LTE-TC-NUT". The data-manager may edit file names as appropriate. These same naming methods apply for the PIE LTER site names.

Major Research Theme Acronyms

Watershed WAT
Marsh MAR
Water Column EST
Benthos BEN
Consumers HTL
Models MOD
Long Term Experiments LTE
Short Term Projects & Experiments STP
Geographic Information Systems GIS
Monitoring MON

Some Site Descriptors

Parker River PR
Rowley River RO
Ipswich River IP
Mill River MI
Egypt River EG
Muddy River MU
Marsh Fertilization MF
Plot-level Marsh Fertilization MP
Tidal Creeks TC
Various sites VA
Plum Island Sound SO
Throughout Plum Island estuary PIE
Experimentally manipulated tidal creeks TIDE