Virtual Research Environment for studying Critical Zone (CZ) dynamics and isotope fingerprinting: an approach for geoscientific data management and modeling within the ITINERIS project (PNRR, Italy).

Recent advancements in laboratory implementation and instrumentation have led to the generation of increasingly abundant data, with the need for greater collaboration and data sharing. To address this challenge, the expansion of e-infrastructures and the development of Virtual Research Environments (VREs) have become essential.

VREs provide an integrated ecosystem for data collection, analysis, and publication, following the Open Science principles, of transparency, inclusion, integrity, and collaboration. VREs are based on the D4Science e-infrastructure, which promotes collaboration and cooperative work among the scientific communities and the stakeholders identified by the researchers.

In the framework of the ITINERIS Project, the new comprehensive Italian Research Infrastructures (RIs) hub in the geoscientific and environmental fields, several multidisciplinary teams are developing thematic VREs for studying the entire Earth System, by combining field and lab measurements, data analysis, and modelling tools across all the environment domains.

Among the VREs, the “Critical Zone (CZ) VRE” is specifically designed for collecting datasets and information from the Critical Zone Observatories (CZOs, active in Italy and abroad) primarily managed by Italian research teams and including tools for data visualization and analysis, as well as models useful for studying the complex dynamics of the Critical Zone.

The Critical Zone represents the thin layer between the unweathered bedrock and the top of the vegetation canopy, where “rock meets life”. It includes rocks, soil, water, microbiota, vegetation and fauna, along with the services they provide to humankind and all the processes supporting terrestrial ecosystems and the soil-vegetation-atmosphere interactions.

D4Science-enabled Critical Zone VRE offers a set of tools supporting all the steps of the research lifecycle, from data collection to data analysis, and visualization. Data collection and dataset assembly are fostered by the Collaborative Storage Framework, which promotes teamwork among users and offers a collaborative space to share digital objects. For data analysis, the Critical Zone VRE is equipped with an Analytics Engine Framework, which includes Cloud Computing Platforms (CCPs), as well as the DataMiner. Additionally, the Critical Zone VRE is equipped with RStudio 4 and JupyterLab. These tools enable the development of specific codes (in various free-license programming languages) and models that can be launched directly from the VRE to analyze and visualize data. Data publishing of research outcomes is also facilitated by the development of metadata and spatial data catalogues. In particular, the catalogues help to organize and make research outcomes available to the broader scientific and multidisciplinary community.

Further improvements in studying Critical Zone components and dynamics are essential, and in this case, valuable support can be gained through the interaction between the Critical Zone VRE and other VREs. An example is the interaction with the Isotope VRE, which contains a dedicated web application for analysis and modelling (called “Isotope Studio”) and aims to represent the first Italian database on environmental isotopes, allowing researchers and environmental managers to interpret and model bio-geochemical processes in the framework of the Environmental Sciences.