Water and carbon stable isotope records from natural archives: a new database and interactive online platform for data browsing, visualizing and downloading

Abstract

Abstract. Past climate is an important benchmark to assess the ability of climate models to simulate key processes and feedbacks. Numerous proxy records exist for stable isotopes of water and/or carbon, which are also implemented inside the components of a growing number of Earth system model. Model-data comparisons can help to constrain the uncertainties associated with transfer functions. This motivates the need of producing a comprehensive compilation of different proxy sources. We have put together a global database of proxy records of oxygen (δ 18 O), hydrogen (δD) and carbon (δ 13 C) stable isotopes from different archives: ocean and lake sediments, corals, ice cores, speleothems and tree-ring cellulose. Source records were obtained from the georeferenced open access PANGAEA and NOAA libraries, complemented by additional data obtained from a literature survey. About 3000 source records were screened for chronological information and temporal resolution of proxy records. Altogether, this database consists of hundreds of dated δ 18 O, δ 13 C and δD records in a standardized simple text format, complemented with a metadata Excel catalog. A quality control flag was implemented to describe age markers and inform on chronological uncertainty. This compilation effort highlights the need to homogenize and structure the format of datasets and chronological information as well as enhance the distribution of published datasets that are currently highly fragmented and scattered. We also provide an online portal based on the records included in this database with an intuitive and interactive platform (http://climateproxiesfinder.ipsl.fr/), allowing one to easily select, visualize and download subsets of the homogeneously formatted records that constitute this database, following a choice of search criteria, and to upload new datasets. In the last part, we illustrate the type of application allowed by our database by comparing several key periods highly investigated by the paleoclimate community.

A simplified palaeoceanography archiving system (PARIS) and GUI for storage and visualisation of marine sediment core proxy data vs age and depth.

“…The palaeoclimate literature has begun to embrace the principles of FAIR data and many good examples of useful database structures have been previously provided (Bolliet et al, 2016;Jonkers et al, 2020;Khider et al, 2019;McKay and Emile-Geay, 2016). We have provided an example of a concrete first step in the journey towards FAIR data, the creation of machine-readable data at the field and laboratory level.…”

“…Much of the discussion involving the establishment of standardised digitised data has revolved around defining an ideal database format and/or repository for the storage of data (Bolliet et al, 2016;Jonkers et al, 2020;Khider et al, 2019;McKay and Emile-Geay, 2016), which is indeed a key prerequisite for the ultimate end goal whereby all data is stored on a common, publicly searchable/queryable online database in line with the goals of FAIR data.…”

The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems

“…The elevation is that of the cave itself, not the elevation of the land surface above the cave. Since the elevation of the land surface can be obtained from other sources, we include the cave elevation to facilitate making additional lapse rate corrections for oxygen isotopes for high elevation sites (Bowen and Wilkinson, 2002). This also allows an estimation of the depth of the overburden above the speleothem site, and hence an estimate of the time taken for water to reach the cave.…”

A Simplified Palaeoceanography Archiving System (PARIS) and GUI for Storage and Visualisation of Marine Sediment Core Proxy Data vs Age and Depth

“…Much of the discussion involving the establishment of standardised digitised data has revolved around defining an ideal database format and/or repository for the storage of data (Bolliet et al, 2016;Jonkers et al, 2020;Khider et al, 2019;McKay and Emile-Geay, 2016), which is indeed a key prerequisite for the ultimate end goal whereby all data is stored on a common, publicly searchable/queryable online database in line with the goals of FAIR data. However, an often overlooked primary step in the realisation of such an end goal is ensuring that palaeoclimate data produced within a laboratory and/or research group is stored in some kind of machine readable format from the beginning, i.e.…”