TY - JOUR
T1 - CZChemDB and EarthChem
T2 - Advancing management and access of critical zone geochemical data
AU - Niu, Xianzeng
AU - Lehnert, Kerstin A.
AU - Williams, Jennifer
AU - Brantley, Susan L.
N1 - Funding Information:
EarthChem is a “community-driven effort funded by NSF to facilitate the preservation, discovery, access and visualization” of geochemical datasets ( http://www.earthchem.org/about ). EarthChem operates a portal which provides a central access point to geochemical data in distributed partner databases, including geochemical data collections of ocean floor igneous and metamorphic rocks (PetDB), marine and continental sediments (SedDB), the North American Volcanic and Intrusive Rock Database (NAVDAT), the German geochemical data collection GEOROC, the US Geological Survey geochemical database, and the Japanese data collection GANSEKI. Integration of the CZChemDB would complement the current EarthChem with soil geochemical data and make CZO geochemical data easily accessible, discoverable, and reusable by a broader science community.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - Multiple Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) have been established in recent years in the USA and other international settings to conduct collaborative research on processes that occur at and near Earth's surface, also known as the Critical Zone (CZ). Data documentation and data sharing are two persistent problems facing the CZOs that impede the ability for cross-site comparisons and integrated analysis. In this study, a relational database was developed for CZ rock and regolith geochemical data - CZChemDB. There are a total of 24 interrelated tables in the database, each representing different aspects of CZ features. The main data group includes tables of locations, sites, samples, subsamples, preparation/treatments, laboratory-analysis and data values. The meta-data group includes tables of methods, references, and data quality. Lookup tables (variables, units, etc.) contain lists of " controlled" vocabularies. The CZChemDB is currently implemented in the MS Access database management system. It is expected to be integrated into the EarthChem portal by summer of 2011 for broader online accessibility and usability. This integration also complements the EarthChem's global geochemistry database with CZ regolith data. The structure of the CZChemDB is simple, straightforward, and flexible so that it has potential to accommodate other chemical data collected from CZOs, such as pore fluid data. Furthermore, the development of CZChemDB represents the first attempt toward the standardization of geochemical data documentation and data sharing among CZOs. This effort will establish a model to bridge the connections between data acquisition, data management, data sharing, and data searching/discovering that are all essential but weak in terms of linkages within most geoscience research projects.
AB - Multiple Critical Zone Observatories (CZO) have been established in recent years in the USA and other international settings to conduct collaborative research on processes that occur at and near Earth's surface, also known as the Critical Zone (CZ). Data documentation and data sharing are two persistent problems facing the CZOs that impede the ability for cross-site comparisons and integrated analysis. In this study, a relational database was developed for CZ rock and regolith geochemical data - CZChemDB. There are a total of 24 interrelated tables in the database, each representing different aspects of CZ features. The main data group includes tables of locations, sites, samples, subsamples, preparation/treatments, laboratory-analysis and data values. The meta-data group includes tables of methods, references, and data quality. Lookup tables (variables, units, etc.) contain lists of " controlled" vocabularies. The CZChemDB is currently implemented in the MS Access database management system. It is expected to be integrated into the EarthChem portal by summer of 2011 for broader online accessibility and usability. This integration also complements the EarthChem's global geochemistry database with CZ regolith data. The structure of the CZChemDB is simple, straightforward, and flexible so that it has potential to accommodate other chemical data collected from CZOs, such as pore fluid data. Furthermore, the development of CZChemDB represents the first attempt toward the standardization of geochemical data documentation and data sharing among CZOs. This effort will establish a model to bridge the connections between data acquisition, data management, data sharing, and data searching/discovering that are all essential but weak in terms of linkages within most geoscience research projects.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2011.03.042
DO - 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2011.03.042
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79955954855
SN - 0883-2927
VL - 26
SP - S108-S111
JO - Applied Geochemistry
JF - Applied Geochemistry
IS - SUPPL.
ER -