Structure of the Archive
The Archive consists of 7 themes within 2 divisions:
Quaternary datasets
This section contains data pertaining to the Holocene and Pleistocene.
There is further subdivision into 6 basic themes:
-
Palaeoceanography (micropalaeontology, stable isotope records,
sedimentology,
geochemistry and geochronology from deep-sea cores)
-
Coastal processes and sea level (a collection of disciplines that seek
to reconstruct the history of our coastal systems, reefs, islands and
continental
shelves)
-
Geomorphology and sedimentology (terrestrial, non-coastal studies of
landscape
evolution including aeolian, fluvial, lacustrine, periglacial and
glacial
landforms)
-
Vertebrate palaeontology (the palaeobiogeography of Australia's
vertebrates
(principally mammals) as preserved in terrestrial sediments)
-
Limnology and palynology (time-series records of climate change
preserved
in terrestrial sediment-filled depressions)
-
Speleothems and ice-cores (time series records of stable isotope, trace
element, dust and gas variations from Australian caves and Antarctica)
Modern datasets
This section contains modern observational studies of animal/plant
distributions,
geomorphic processes and geochemical analyses. These datasets are
intended
as an important supplement to the Quaternary data to calibrate and
revise
transfer functions and mathematical relationships used to derive
quantitative
palaeoclimatic conclusions.
Each of these themes has a directory listing detailing the data
contained
within. The data is indexed by senior author and year of publication.
Table formats
The structure of the data storage is similar to that used in the
original
Quaternary Climates Database. The data storage is divided into 3
primary
sections consisting of 1 table, 5 tables and 2 tables respectively:
-
Geographical data
-
Primary Data
-
Geomorphology
-
Sedimentology
-
Palaeobiology (includes palaeontology and palynology)
-
Geochemistry
-
Geochronology
-
Secondary and Tertiary Data
-
Relative Geochronology (age model for the site)
-
Interpretations (environmental and past climate estimates)
Geographical data
The sites information table stores data on the geographical location
and type of the sample or site.
Primary Data
This section stores all the primary data collected from the site
material.
The 5 tables cover data on the nature of the site if it is a landform (Geomorphology),
the depth profile of the site if it has one (Sedimentology), the
type and abundance of any fossil animal or plant material (Palaeobiology),
and finally any geochemical (geochemistry), or geochronological
(geochronology) analyses conducted on material collected.
Secondary and Tertiary Data
This section stores data derived from the primary data. The first
table,
relative geochronology, stores both the age model of the site
and
any chronostratigraphy used, including interpretations from oxygen
isotope
models, palaeomagnetism and tephrachronology. The second table, interpretations,
stores data that has been converted into quantitative palaeoclimatic
estimates.
These can be environmental variables such as alkalinity or sea level or
climate estimates such as temperature or precipitation.
Contributors and data access
The archiving of primary data benefits everyone in the Quaternary
community.
A growing number of researchers have contributed to AQUADATA. Due to
the
time and effort involved in maintaining the data archive, access to the
data stored in the Archive is restricted to contributors only. Data can
be contributed in any form it was published in. Students and those that
do not have published data can submit data in electronic form that is
not
already in the archive. This may simply involve typing in an older
published
data set. Contributors can request any of the datasets stored in the
Archive.
Eventually, provision will be made to download the data directly from
an
FTP server.
This page is maintained by Tim
Barrows
Australian Quaternary Data Archive