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Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies, and perspectives

Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies, and perspectives
Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies, and perspectives
Sea-level and ice-sheet databases have driven numerous advances in understanding the Earth system. We describe the challenges and offer best strategies that can be adopted to build self-consistent and standardised databases of geological and geochemical information used to archive palaeo-sea-levels and palaeo-ice-sheets. There are three phases in the development of a database: (i) measurement, (ii) interpretation, and (iii) database creation. Measurement should include the objective description of the position and age of a sample, description of associated geological features, and quantification of uncertainties. Interpretation of the sample may have a subjective component, but it should always include uncertainties and alternative or contrasting interpretations, with any exclusion of existing interpretations requiring a full justification. During the creation of a database, an approach based on accessibility, transparency, trust, availability, continuity, completeness, and communication of content (ATTAC3) must be adopted. It is essential to consider the community that creates and benefits from a database. We conclude that funding agencies should not only consider the creation of original data in specific research-question-oriented projects, but also include the possibility of using part of the funding for IT-related and database creation tasks, which are essential to guarantee accessibility and maintenance of the collected data.
1814-9332
911-921
Düsterhus, André
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Rovere, Alessio
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Carlson, Anders E.
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Horton, Benjamin P.
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Klemann, Volker
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Tarasov, Lev
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Barlow, Natasha L.M.
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Bradwell, Tom
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Clark, Jorie
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Dutton, Andrea
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Gehrels, W. Roland
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Hibbert, Fiona D.
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Hijma, Marc P.
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Khan, Nicole
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Kopp, Robert E.
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Sivan, Dorit
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Törnqvist, Torbjörn E.
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Düsterhus, André
58956f47-c895-4767-8cdb-50487dfbf205
Rovere, Alessio
16c91aa9-1675-492c-be2f-3324406fb937
Carlson, Anders E.
5bb4b0d2-3ec6-4004-8067-258c32a34453
Horton, Benjamin P.
8cc6f186-e141-4b26-af6f-e72b13eac062
Klemann, Volker
3c8ba130-002d-4cf2-8fa5-bc9692066090
Tarasov, Lev
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Barlow, Natasha L.M.
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Bradwell, Tom
dbc40424-1ef3-4c13-ba82-9d9177a68daf
Clark, Jorie
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Dutton, Andrea
d925b712-624a-4b85-b41c-85e49e695253
Gehrels, W. Roland
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Hibbert, Fiona D.
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Hijma, Marc P.
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Khan, Nicole
10244da9-02f5-43fa-bad8-b74e1e216a7a
Kopp, Robert E.
de191992-6b45-4661-be96-d1a0b14becef
Sivan, Dorit
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Törnqvist, Torbjörn E.
b9414e7a-91ea-4dd6-b62b-8d82d080d4c1

Düsterhus, André, Rovere, Alessio, Carlson, Anders E., Horton, Benjamin P., Klemann, Volker, Tarasov, Lev, Barlow, Natasha L.M., Bradwell, Tom, Clark, Jorie, Dutton, Andrea, Gehrels, W. Roland, Hibbert, Fiona D., Hijma, Marc P., Khan, Nicole, Kopp, Robert E., Sivan, Dorit and Törnqvist, Torbjörn E. (2016) Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies, and perspectives. Climate of the Past, 12 (4), 911-921. (doi:10.5194/cp-12-911-2016).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Sea-level and ice-sheet databases have driven numerous advances in understanding the Earth system. We describe the challenges and offer best strategies that can be adopted to build self-consistent and standardised databases of geological and geochemical information used to archive palaeo-sea-levels and palaeo-ice-sheets. There are three phases in the development of a database: (i) measurement, (ii) interpretation, and (iii) database creation. Measurement should include the objective description of the position and age of a sample, description of associated geological features, and quantification of uncertainties. Interpretation of the sample may have a subjective component, but it should always include uncertainties and alternative or contrasting interpretations, with any exclusion of existing interpretations requiring a full justification. During the creation of a database, an approach based on accessibility, transparency, trust, availability, continuity, completeness, and communication of content (ATTAC3) must be adopted. It is essential to consider the community that creates and benefits from a database. We conclude that funding agencies should not only consider the creation of original data in specific research-question-oriented projects, but also include the possibility of using part of the funding for IT-related and database creation tasks, which are essential to guarantee accessibility and maintenance of the collected data.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 March 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 11 April 2016
Published date: 2016
Organisations: Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre

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Local EPrints ID: 392684
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/392684
ISSN: 1814-9332
PURE UUID: bcd4987e-b2d4-49a2-9e09-7e4bc7c6bdd8

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Date deposited: 14 Apr 2016 12:52
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 23:50

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Contributors

Author: André Düsterhus
Author: Alessio Rovere
Author: Anders E. Carlson
Author: Benjamin P. Horton
Author: Volker Klemann
Author: Lev Tarasov
Author: Natasha L.M. Barlow
Author: Tom Bradwell
Author: Jorie Clark
Author: Andrea Dutton
Author: W. Roland Gehrels
Author: Fiona D. Hibbert
Author: Marc P. Hijma
Author: Nicole Khan
Author: Robert E. Kopp
Author: Dorit Sivan
Author: Torbjörn E. Törnqvist

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