The Observatory on LAkes (OLA) database: Sixty years of environmental data accessible to the public

Abstract

Lakes are essential ecosystems that provide a large number of ecosystem services whose quality is strongly impacted by human pressures. Optimal uses of lakes require adapted management practices which in turn rely on physico-chemical and biological monitoring. Long-term ecological monitoring provides large sets of environmental data. When such data are available, they have to be associated to metadata and to be stored properly to be accessible and useable by the scientific community. We present a data informatics system accessible to anyone who requests it. Maintained online since 2014 (https://si-ola.inrae.fr), it is originated from the Observatory on LAkes (OLA). It contains long-term data from 4 peri-alpine lakes (Lakes Aiguebelette, Annecy, Bourget, Geneva/Léman) and 24 high-altitude lakes of the northern French Alps. We describe the generated long-term data series, the data type, the methodologies and quality control procedures, and the information system where data are made accessible. Data use is allowed under the condition of providing reference to the original source. We show here how such a platform clearly enhances data sharing and scientific collaboration. Various studies referring to these data are regularly published in peer-reviewed journals; providing in fine a better understanding of lakes’ ecosystems functioning under local and global pressures.