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Title: Why we need a centralized repository for isotopic data

Author
item PAULI, JONATHAN - University Of Wisconsin
item NEWSOME, SETH - University Of New Mexico
item COOK, JOSEPH - University Of New Mexico
item HARROD, CHRIS - Universidad De Antofagasta
item Steffan, Shawn
item BAKER, CHRISTOPHER - University Of New Brunswick
item BEN-DAVID, MERAV - University Of Wyoming
item BLOOM, DAVID - University Of Florida
item BOWEN, GABRIEL - University Of Utah
item CERLING, THURE - University Of Utah
item CICERO, CARLA - University Of California

Submitted to: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/2017
Publication Date: 3/21/2017
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/5695454
Citation: Pauli, J.N., Newsome, S.D., Cook, J.A., Harrod, C., Steffan, S.A., Baker, C.J. O., Ben-David, M., Bloom, D., Bowen, G.J., Cerling, T.E., Cicero, C., et al. 2017. Why we need a centralized repository for isotopic data. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114(12):2997-3001. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1701742114.

Interpretive Summary: We envision IsoBank as both an aggregator and a repository of isotopic data. It should be an online, openly accessible database, with isotope measurements indexed via discipline-specific metadata. When possible, data deposited in IsoBank should be linked to archived samples and museum specimens. IsoBank will function as a universal resource, and allow scientists to verify, replicate, compare, extend, and integrate data across studies. Impact: In the same way that GenBank filled an immediate need within the field of genetics, IsoBank will consolidate and organize the broad and growing number of disciplines that have the potential to use stable isotope measurements. IsoBank should be networked internationally with core isotope laboratories, government-funded science agencies and peer-reviewed journals to foster collaborations and ensure sustainability. Isotopic data will be available to all ‘downstream’ users, broadening the impact of this initiative.

Technical Abstract: Stable isotopes encode the origin and integrate the history of matter; thus, their analysis offers tremendous potential to address questions across diverse scientific disciplines. Indeed, the broad applicability of stable isotopes, coupled with advancements in high-throughput analysis, have created a scientific field that is growing exponentially and generating data at a rate paralleling the explosive rise of DNA sequencing and genomics. Centralized data repositories, such as GenBank, have become increasingly important and ‘big data’ analytics of these resources are revolutionizing science and everyday life. To date, a central database for the management of isotopic data does not exist. We believe that the absence of such a resource has limited progress through the unnecessary duplication of effort, restricted the near-boundless application of stable isotopes, and curtailed the exchange of information among researchers. The creation of such a centralized database would not just be a silo for data, but an dynamic resource to unite disciplinary fields and answer pressing questions in agriculture, animal sciences, archaeology, anthropology, ecology, medicine, nutrition, physiology, paleontology, forensics, earth and planetary sciences. Recent studies have begun to harness large isotopic datasets to address questions of global relevance; we believe that a centralized database for isotopes would accelerate and enhance such global and multi-disciplinary endeavors, and broaden the reach of isotope science.