THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF SAMPLING: ETHICS, REPOSITORIES, AND ACCESSIBILITY FOR THE FUTURE

Earth science is experiencing a changing landscape in research strategies that increasingly integrate field observations, measurements, and sampling; analytical methods; theoretical approaches; and computational modeling to characterize Earth processes and history. However, field sampling campaigns are becoming increasingly difficult due to access, logistical, economic, and cultural considerations. Consequently, the fate and utility of legacy sample collections are becoming increasingly important. Now is an opportune time for the geoscience community to evaluate the complex issues surrounding the ethics of active sampling practices, and responsibility for documenting and preserving legacy collections. Geoscience professional societies see the need to develop standards of practice for ethical geologic sampling that impact research, teaching and geoheritage. Future sampling responsibilities must include provision of permanent facilities for archiving physical samples (and their derivative products such as thin sections, geochemical powders, mineral separates, oriented core); sufficient metadata to provide geological, spatial and temporal contexts that will enable repurposing of samples for future research; and data records that track with each sample that can grow continuously as new types of data are obtained in successive research projects.

Sampling efforts of the past, present, and future can benefit from the use of digital technology accompanied by open data sharing. As more faculty retire and academic institutions divest of physical samples, the geoscience community needs to 1) act immediately to preserve legacy physical sample collections, and 2) to engage with data scientists to optimize ways to preserve and document sample and data collections including steps for searching, accessing, processing, visualizing, and sharing. There are emerging examples of best practices for sampling and sample preservation. The challenges are both social and technical: geoscience researchers must develop a new ethic in limiting their sampling practices in nature and encourage professional collaborative practices in sharing samples and data; technical systems must develop information systems to characterize samples with data to enable successful searching and access in support of our geoheritage and future research.