Semantics provide common language to consistently describe scientific phenomena and the relationships between them. While scientists have successfully developed common vocabularies in individual fields (the periodic table in chemistry to the scientific names of species are two well-known examples), semantics have rarely succeeded in multidisciplinary settings.
To link diverse ecosystem services-related data and models – the core functionality of ARIES – strong semantics are a prerequisite. We recently published our first article describing ARIES’ core semantics in F1000Research. This gives us the precision, modularity, and logical consistency needed to support multidisciplinary, data-driven science. It bridges to accepted scientific authorities, and for the first time provides a common scientific language that can support integrated, multidisciplinary scientific modeling, including but extending beyond ecosystem services.
