This is an incredibly exciting time for ecology. As the big data revolution grows, so does our capacity to synthesize and analyze these data into new insights and understanding of the social-ecological world and how it is changing. Hyper-sensored systems are increasing the velocity of data available, allowing us to observe our world in near real-time. Satellites are providing unprecedented volumes of data at fine temporal and spatial resolutions, offering opportunities for synthetic understanding from the micro to the macro. Data streams are more varied and diverse than ever, helping bridge traditional and novel ways of knowing. And ecologists are mining data from unexpected and unconventional sources, like social media, to reveal patterns and behaviors of humans (and nature) across landscapes. Data are now more available and diverse than ever, as is the ecologist’s toolbox for using these data. The four V’s of big data – Volume, Velocity, Variety, and Veracity – each present immense opportunities, but also challenges, for researchers to make groundbreaking social-ecological discoveries, as they find new ways to access, store, tidy, synthesize, visualize, and communicate the vast spectrum of data. Each talk in this symposium will shine a light on the opportunities and challenges inherent in one of the four V’s of big data. Speakers will frame the process of scientific synthesis and discovery through the lens of the big data challenges they faced, highlight new tools and resources that enabled them to meet these challenges, and emphasize how the big data revolution has facilitated breakthroughs in our understanding of social-ecological systems. Topics will range from incorporating First Nations perspectives and indicators of coupled systems well-being into ocean health assessments in British Columbia to novel applications of social media data to the world’s most challenging socio-environmental systems questions. We will also focus on how new, high velocity satellite data and machine learning are coming together to track fishing activity around the globe in near real time and how long-term, high volume data sets are allowing us to gain incredible insights in freshwater systems. This session brings together a spectrum of researchers engaged in synthesis science across a range of disciplines, career stages, systems of focus, and data analysis and synthesis techniques to highlight how synthesis science is harnessing the is data revolution.