A BETTER CLOCK, A CLEARER PAST, A MORE PRECISE FUTURE: USING GEOINFORMATICS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE EARTH SYSTEM (Invited Presentation)

Geoinformatics provides a pathway towards data that can be connected, using common attributes and persistent identifiers, across disciplines. Linking between data sets using common data standards, and having these links embedded within workflows that are publically available and accessible through published materials, provides an opportunity to develop dynamic workflows that borrow data across disciplines to produce 'living' research outputs.

A critical concern for the paleoecologist is time. Vegetation can be reconstructed from pollen assemblages obtained from lake sediments, but understanding the dynamics of vegetation and climate at large spatial scales requires strong temporal control, and the use of community curated databases such as Neotoma (http://neotomadb.org). As quantitative chronology construction improves it is important to revise our past interpretations of synchronous and time-transitive ecological processes. These chronologies can be further improved by linking tephra layers, which may be from the ODP, Neotoma, the National Snow and Ice Data Center, assessing chronological uncertainty, and borrowing strength across these data resources.

A key goal of the Throughput pilot project is to build the cyberinfrastructure framework to undertake these tasks. The capacity to produce high quality chronologies can improve our ability to make inferences about the Earth system at local, regional and global scales, intimately linking marine, terrestrial and cryospheric systems through shared data services, without losing the distinctly disciplinary nature of each of these resources. Through geoinformatics we can provide foundational support for interdisciplinary research, while at the same time ensuring that the benefits are felt by all researchers, regardless of disciplinary focus or technical skill.