A FAIR-compliant metadata template for ecosystem digital twins

TY - JOUR

T1 - A FAIR-compliant metadata template for ecosystem digital twins

AU - Rashidi, Parinaz

AU - Marcos, Bruno

AU - Vriend, Stefan J.G.

AU - Soveizi, Nafiseh

AU - de Bruin, Arnout

AU - de Bruin, Richard

AU - Visser, Marcel E.

AU - Hengeveld, Geerten

AU - Athanasiadis, Ioannis N.

AU - Hof, Cees H.J.

AU - Holthuijsen, Sander J.

AU - Lu, Zehao

AU - Spijker, Job

AU - van der Plas, Thijs L.

AU - Zhao, Zhiming

AU - Kissling, W. Daniel

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2026 The Authors.

PY - 2026/9

Y1 - 2026/9

N2 - Integrating heterogeneous ecological, geographic, and environmental datasets is essential for building ecosystem digital twins and advancing predictive ecological research. Yet, data reuse remains constrained by inconsistent, non–machine-actionable metadata that limits interoperability across research infrastructures. To address this, we developed a FAIR-compliant metadata template—aligned with the principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability—within the Dutch LTER-LIFE project, which is developing a research infrastructure for ecosystem digital twins. Our approach combines schema crosswalks of established standards, expert consultation, and community feedback to identify, harmonize, and prioritize essential metadata fields. The resulting core schema defines a minimum set of 23 mandatory metadata fields organized into seven thematic sections and mapped to two internationally recognized metadata standards, DCAT-AP and ISO 19115. Implemented in the CEDAR Workbench, the template produces machine-readable, linked-data records (JSON-LD) and incorporates controlled vocabularies and ontology services via BioPortal to support semantic consistency. Iterative testing and refinement improved clarity, usability, and applicability across ecological domains. Initial tests indicate that the template can be integrated with metadata catalogues, enabling automated population of searchable entries and supporting federated discovery and reuse. By balancing simplicity with semantic rigor, the template provides a practical, FAIR-compliant and machine-actionable dataset-level foundation for documenting and integrating heterogeneous datasets into digital-twin workflows. This work demonstrates how a community-driven, standards-based metadata template can operationalize FAIR principles and provide a transferable, cross-domain metadata solution for ecosystem digital twin applications across ecological research infrastructures.

AB - Integrating heterogeneous ecological, geographic, and environmental datasets is essential for building ecosystem digital twins and advancing predictive ecological research. Yet, data reuse remains constrained by inconsistent, non–machine-actionable metadata that limits interoperability across research infrastructures. To address this, we developed a FAIR-compliant metadata template—aligned with the principles of Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability—within the Dutch LTER-LIFE project, which is developing a research infrastructure for ecosystem digital twins. Our approach combines schema crosswalks of established standards, expert consultation, and community feedback to identify, harmonize, and prioritize essential metadata fields. The resulting core schema defines a minimum set of 23 mandatory metadata fields organized into seven thematic sections and mapped to two internationally recognized metadata standards, DCAT-AP and ISO 19115. Implemented in the CEDAR Workbench, the template produces machine-readable, linked-data records (JSON-LD) and incorporates controlled vocabularies and ontology services via BioPortal to support semantic consistency. Iterative testing and refinement improved clarity, usability, and applicability across ecological domains. Initial tests indicate that the template can be integrated with metadata catalogues, enabling automated population of searchable entries and supporting federated discovery and reuse. By balancing simplicity with semantic rigor, the template provides a practical, FAIR-compliant and machine-actionable dataset-level foundation for documenting and integrating heterogeneous datasets into digital-twin workflows. This work demonstrates how a community-driven, standards-based metadata template can operationalize FAIR principles and provide a transferable, cross-domain metadata solution for ecosystem digital twin applications across ecological research infrastructures.

KW - Biodiversity informatics

KW - Computational ecology

KW - Ecological data integration

KW - FAIR principles

KW - Linked data

KW - Metadata standards

KW - Semantic interoperability

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2026.103983

DO - 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2026.103983

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:105047027280

SN - 1574-9541

VL - 98

JO - Ecological Informatics

JF - Ecological Informatics

M1 - 103983

ER -