Update to the SISAL speleothem database -- links to monitoring data, additional palaeoenvironmental proxies and enhanced accessibility

Abstract

<p>Speleothems (cave carbonates) are widely distributed in terrestrial regions, and provide highly resolved records of past changes in climate and ecosystem conditions, encoded in the oxygen and carbon isotope proxies. The SISALv2 database, created by the PAGES-SISAL  Phase 1 Working Group, provided 700 speleothem records from 293 cave sites, 500 of which have standardized chronologies. The database provided access to records that were hitherto unavailable in the original publications and/or repositories, and enabled regional-to-global scale analysis of climatic patterns using a variety of approaches such as data-model comparisons. </p> <p>During the three  year run of SISAL Phase 2,  the working group members have: </p> <p>(i) explored ways to synthesize modern cave monitoring data to provide robust modern baselines and improve proxy interpretations</p> <p>(ii) added trace element proxies of Mg, Sr, Ba, and U concentrations, and Sr isotopes to a new SISAL database version to increase our understanding of regional climatic variability.</p> <p>(iii) updated the SISAL database to incorporate an additional ~100 speleothem stable isotope datasets </p> <p>(iv) and created an online interface web app (The SISAL App) with a user-friendly GUI to increase SISAL data accessibility.</p> <p>Here, we present ongoing work synthesizing cave monitoring data, a summary of speleothem proxy records available in the SISALv3 database update and of ongoing Working Group research projects and a simple use case of The SISAL App. We briefly present a synopsis of the SISAL-community level discussions on best practices for reporting trace element data, and reducing data measured with high resolution laser ablation methods. </p> <p>We conclude with a short discussion on research projects based on the latest SISAL database update and discuss ideas for potential future SISAL phases and projects. For this, we encourage participation and collaboration from researchers in different stages of their academic career and working in different geographical regions and allied disciplines interested in exploiting the new SISAL database version. </p> <p><br /><br /></p>

The SISAL webApp: exploring the speleothem climate and environmental archives of the world

“…17864/1947.256) along with the following publications: Atsawawaranunt et al (2018), and Comas-Bru et al (2020a. If the SISAL webApp is used for data extraction from the SISAL database, it is required to cite the webApp itself (http://geochem.hu/SISAL_webApp) and this paper (Hatvani et al, 2023;doi: 10.1017/qua.2023.…”

“…A third version of the database, SISALv3, is currently being compiled and will be made available to the public in 2023. The new database will also contain Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, U/Ca, P/Ca, and Sr isotope records (Kaushal et al, 2023). With this new version of the database, it will be possible to explore the global significance of trace-element signatures in speleothems systematically, and to refine climatic interpretations gained from the stable isotope records.…”