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

Düsterhus, A.; Rovere, A.; Carlson, A.E.; Horton, B.P.; Klemann, V.; Tarasov, L.; Barlow, N.L.M.; Bradwell, T.; Clark, J.; Dutton, A.; Gehrels, W.R.; Hibbert, F.D.; Hijma, M.P.; Khan, N.; Kopp, R.E.; Sivan, D.; Törnqvist, T.E.

doi:10.5194/cp-12-911-2016

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

Düsterhus, A.; Rovere, A.; Carlson, A.E.; Horton, B.P.; Klemann, V.; Tarasov, L.; Barlow, N.L.M.; Bradwell, T.; Clark, J.; Dutton, A.; Gehrels, W.R.; Hibbert, F.D.; Hijma, M.P.; Khan, N.; Kopp, R.E.; Sivan, D.; Törnqvist, T.E.

Authors

A. Düsterhus

A. Rovere

A.E. Carlson

B.P. Horton

V. Klemann

L. Tarasov

N.L.M. Barlow

T. Bradwell

J. Clark

A. Dutton

W.R. Gehrels

F.D. Hibbert

M.P. Hijma

N. Khan

R.E. Kopp

D. Sivan

T.E. Törnqvist

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.

Citation

Düsterhus, A., Rovere, A., Carlson, A., Horton, B., Klemann, V., Tarasov, L., …Törnqvist, T. (2016). Palaeo sea-level and ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies and perspectives. Climate of the Past, 12(4), 911-921. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-911-2016

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 7, 2016
Online Publication Date	Apr 11, 2016
Publication Date	Apr 11, 2016
Deposit Date	Apr 20, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Apr 29, 2016
Journal	Climate of the Past
Print ISSN	1814-9324
Electronic ISSN	1814-9332
Publisher	European Geosciences Union
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	12
Issue	4
Pages	911-921
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-911-2016