STABISODB – A STABLE ISOTOPE DATABASE FOR EARTH SYSTEM RESEARCH

Stable isotope measurements of carbonate and phosphate fossils provide the foundation for quantitative study of deep-time climate change and its link to the carbon cycle. Despite this, such data have only been organized in spreadsheets until now. To facilitate application of isotope data to studies of the Earth system, we have created a relational online database. StabisoDB currently comprises δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C data of 67,700 fossil samples including benthic and planktonic foraminifers, benthic and nektonic mollusks, brachiopods, and fish teeth and conodonts, building upon Grossman and Joachimski (2020, Oxygen isotope stratigraphy, in Gradstein, Ogg, Schmitz, & Ogg, eds., The Geological Time Scale 2020, Elsevier).

StabisoDB is a modular MySQL/PHP system allowing a straightforward accommodation of other isotopic data such as clumped, δ¹¹B, δ³⁴S, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, as well as trace element data, which will be populated in the coming months. Planned future additions include nitrogen isotopes and whole-rock samples. Besides substantially expanding upon published spreadsheet compilations, StabisoDB has the advantage of providing a large array of metadata, such as coordinates/paleocoordinates, stratigraphy, taxonomy, preservation, and analytical metadata. These metadata allow easy searches and the filtering of data for analyses. Analyses and visualizations, for example of isotopic trends through time and space, can be performed online including with mobile devices. Data can also be downloaded for further processing.

We plan to launch StabisoDB in late fall 2020, at which time the community will be invited to test the system and submit data. StabisoDB is the deep time equivalent of similar database initiatives in the life sciences and archaeology, with which it is set to exchange data in the future.