Linking Legacies: Realising the Potential of the Rothamsted Long-Term Agricultural Experiments

Long-term agricultural experiments are used to test the effects of different farm management practices on agricultural systems over time. The time-series data from these experiments is well suited to understanding factors affecting soil health and sustainable crop production and can play an important role for addressing the food security and environmental challenges facing society from climate change. The data from these experiments is unique and irreplaceable. We know from the Rothamsted experience that the datasets available are valued assets that can be used to address multiple scientific questions, and the reuse and impact of the data can be increased by making the data accessible to the wider community. However, to do this requires active data stewardship. Long-term experiments are also available as research infrastructures, meaning external researchers can generate new datasets, additional to the routine data collected for an experiment. The publication of the FAIR data principles has provided an opportunity for us to re-evaluate what active data stewardship means for realising the potential of the data from our long-term experiments. In this paper we discuss our approach to FAIR data adoption, and the challenges for refactoring and describing existing legacy data and defining meaningful linkages between datasets.