“Linking Information Systems in Marine and Terrestrial Geosciences: Sediment Geochemistry”

The workshop “Linking Information Systems in Marine and Terrestrial Geosciences: Sediment Geochemistry” was convened in June 2004 in order to bring together researchers and information technologists to discuss options, requirements, and specifications for the design of digital information systems that will support and maximize the application of geochemical data on continental and marine sediments to a wide range of research topics, from the chemical evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle to paleoclimate reconstruction. Special emphasis was placed on identifying the advantages, requirements, and challenges of linking and integrating geochemical data and other data types from marine and terrestrial environments. The goal was to generate a set of recommendations on how to move forward with the development of digital information systems including databases as well as analysis and visualization tools that will fundamentally impact the way in which geochemical data of sediments are used for research and education.

The workshop was attended by 34 participants who met for 2 days at the offices of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions in Washington, DC. The agenda included (a) a series of presentations that provided participants with an overview of ongoing efforts within the marine and terrestrial community and within the IT (information technology) community that are relevant to the development of a comprehensive an information system for the geochemistry of sediments and to issues such as interoperability, data integration, and visualization, (b) breakout sessions during which participants were able to focus in small discussion groups on various aspects of the system design, and (c) plenary discussions to discuss and evaluate recommendations from the breakout groups with the entire audience.

Participants placed a high priority on the development of a database system as soon as possible, for all geochemical and taxonomic data of all sample types such as whole rock, mineral, leachate, residue, and size fractions. The database should include sufficient metadata, to be both comprehensive and practical to use, and that allow for data evaluation and possible re-evaluation. A key objective would be the seamless integration of datasets from multiple data repositories to make them accessible through a common interface as part of a networked distributed information system. Implementation of unique sample identification was strongly recommended as a fundamental requirement for such data integration.