Düsterhus, André and Rovere, Alessio and Carlson, Anders E. and Horton, Benjamin P. and Klemann, Volker and Tarasov, Lev and Barlow, Natasha L.M. and Bradwell, Tom and Clarke, Jorie and Dutton, Andrea and Gehrels, W. Roland and Hibbert, Fiona D. and Hijma, Marc P. and Khan, Nicole and Kopp, Robert E. and Sivan, Dorit and Törnqvist, Torbjörn (2016) Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: problems, strategies, and perspectives. Climate of the Past, 12 (4). pp. 911-921. ISSN 1814-9332

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	United States; Variability; Geosciences; Glacial Isostatic Adjustment; Atlantic Coast; Holocene; Deglaciation; Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences; Quaternary; Dynamic Topography; Model Predictions; Databases;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
Item ID:	12285
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-12-911-2016
Depositing User:	André Düsterhus
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2020 12:26
Journal or Publication Title:	Climate of the Past
Publisher:	European Geosciences Union (EGU)
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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