A Course for Collaborative Ecologists

Ecological synthesis: So you have an idea… What next?

Workshop offered at the ESA 2026 annual meeting in Salt Lake City, UT

Date: 2026-07-27 | Time: 1:30-3:00pm MDT | Room: 355F | WK 03 Program Link

Abstract

In recent decades, ecology has become a more collaborative discipline motivated by the search for generality across ecosystems. At the same time,the availability, quantity, and quality of environmental data have grown rapidly, creating opportunities for re-use of these data in ecological synthesis research. Though synthesis research is complex and demanding, taking an inclusive and collaborative approach to both the scientific process and the data pays dividends throughout the lifetime of a project. In 2026, we are offering a workshop, focusing on refining a synthesis-relevant question, building and stewarding a team of collaborators, and identifying the applicable data.

The full short course, which we offered in 2025, is a survey of methods for making ecological synthesis research a “team sport”, and all the materials remain available on this website.

Objectives for learners are:

gain team science and project management skills that are needed for synthesis and that are immediately useful in a research team setting,
locate and become familiar with resources to gain the data science skills needed for reproducible synthesis
focus on developing their own synthesis projects, whatever stage they are in, through interaction with instructors and peers.

Instructors will cover an overview of the synthesis process, assembling the team, identifying and refining the question(s), collecting primary data sources, and project management. The course uses real-world examples, demonstrations, and interactive lessons in small groups. Ecologists with synthesis experience will be on hand with seasoned research advice and data tips.

Workshop Materials

Click here

Ecological data synthesis: a primer on essential methods for team science

6-hour short course offered at the ESA 2025 annual meeting in Baltimore, MD

Date: 2025-08-10

Abstract

In recent decades, ecology has become a more collaborative discipline motivated by the search for generality across ecosystems. At the same time,the availability, quantity, and quality of environmental data have grown rapidly, creating opportunities for re-use of these data in ecological synthesis research. Though synthesis research is complex and demanding, taking an inclusive and collaborative approach to both the scientific process and the data pays dividends throughout the lifetime of a project. This short course is a survey of methods for making ecological synthesis research a “team sport”.

Objectives for learners are:

gain project management and data synthesis skills that are immediately useful in a research team setting,
develop an end-to-end (conception to publication) plan for collaborative synthesis research and
focus on developing their own synthesis projects, whatever stage they are in, with guidance from instructors and peers.

Instructors will cover assembling the team, study design, communication, collecting primary data sources, assembly/harmonization of data, managing analytical workflows, and publication of derived datasets and other synthesis products. The course uses real-world examples, demonstrations, and interactive lessons in small groups. Ecologists with synthesis experience will be on hand with seasoned research advice and data tips.

Agenda for 2025-08-10

This agenda is subject to change!

Timing (PT)	Content
9:00 - 9:30a	Welcome & Introductions
9:30 - 10:30a	Module 1: Starting with Team Science
10:30a - 12:00p	Module 2: Operational Synthesis
12:00 - 1:00p	Break
1:00 - 2:00p	… Module 2, continued …
2:00 - 3:00p	Module 3: Tying it all together
3:00 - 4:00p	Mentoring session…

Shared Notes Document

A communal notes document will be used during some of the discussions we’ll have, and are a good place to drop on-the-fly feedback about the course. Keep the link handy and we’ll ask for your input to these notes at key times.

Introductions & Icebreaker

Before we begin, we’d love to get a sense for who you all are and why you’re interested in synthesis work! To that end, we’ll take a few minutes and go around the room for introductions. Please include:

Your name and pronouns
A 1-sentence summary of your work
Briefly, why are you interested in synthesis?

Instructors

Marty Downs
Jalene Lamontagne
Nick Lyon
Greg Maurer
Eric Sokol

Code of Conduct

ESA Code of Conduct

Briefly: Treat all participants with kindness, respect, and consideration, valuing a diversity of views and opinions. Report unacceptable behavior at (844)-641-4133 or email codeofconduct@esa.org

Workshop Materials

Module 1 (“Starting with Team Science”) - click here
Module 2 (“Operational Synthesis”) - click here
Module 3 (“Tying It All Together”) - click here

Ecological data synthesis: a primer on essential methods

3-hour short course offered at the ESA 2024 annual meeting in Long Beach, CA”

Date: 2024-08-04

Abstract

In recent decades, ecology has become a more collaborative discipline motivated by the search for generality across ecosystems. At the same time, the availability, quantity, and quality of environmental data have grown rapidly, creating opportunities for re-use of these data in ecological synthesis research. Though synthesis research is complex and demanding, taking an inclusive and collaborative approach to both the scientific process and the data pays dividends throughout the lifetime of a project. This short course is a survey of methods for making ecological synthesis research a “team sport”.

Objectives for learners are twofold:

Develop an end-to-end (conception to publication) plan for collaborative synthesis research
Gain data synthesis skills that are immediately useful in a research team setting.

Instructors will cover assembling the team, study design, communication, collecting primary data sources, assembly/harmonization of data, analytical workflows, and publication of derived datasets. The course uses real-world examples, demonstrations, and interactive lessons. Ecologists with synthesis experience will be on hand with seasoned research advice and data tips. Many workshop activities will be oriented toward helping learners develop their own ideas and plans for ecological data synthesis.

Agenda for 2024-08-04

This agenda is subject to change!

Timing (PT)	Content
1:00 - 1:15p	Welcome & Introductions
1:15 - 2:15p	Module 1: Starting with Team Science
2:15 - 3:00p	Module 2: Operational Synthesis
3:00 - 3:15p	Break
3:15 - 4:00p	Module 3: Tying It All Together

Shared Notes Document

Introductions & Icebreaker

Your name and pronouns
A 1-sentence summary of your work
Briefly, why are you interested in synthesis?

Instructors

Angel Chen
Marty Downs
Stevan Earl
Nick Lyon
Greg Maurer
Eric Sokol

Code of Conduct

ESA Code of Conduct

Briefly: Treat all participants with kindness, respect, and consideration, valuing a diversity of views and opinions. Report unacceptable behavior at (844)-641-4133 or email codeofconduct@esa.org

Workshop Materials

Module 1 (“Starting with Team Science”) - click here
Module 2 (“Operational Synthesis”) - click here
Module 3 (“Tying It All Together”) - click here

Note on Course Materials

We’ve chosen to assemble these materials as a living website so that we can revisit and improve the materials over time. So, we recommend that you save the link to this site so that you can have easy access to these materials now and as they are refined going forward. Also, much of the content is covered more completely in our year-long synthesis course: Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers (SSECR).

If you are a GitHub aficionado, we have deployed this website via GitHub Pages so you could also “star” the website’s repository. Simply click the GitHub octocat logo on the right side of the navbar (at the top of the screen) to be redirected to the GitHub repository underpinning this website.

Credits

The course and its content were developed by a large team. See the People page to learn more.

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