Abstract
AbstractThere is a growing interest in the rescue and reuse of data from past studies (so‐called legacy data). Data loss is alarming, especially where natural archives are under threat, such as peat deposits. Here we develop a workflow for reuse of legacy radiocarbon dates in peatland studies, including a rigorous quality assessment that can be tailored to specific research questions and study regions. A penalty is assigned to each date based on criteria that consider taphonomic quality (i.e., sample provenance) and dating quality (i.e., sample material and method used). The weights of quality criteria may be adjusted based on the research focus, and resulting confidence levels may be used in further analyses to ensure robustness of conclusions. We apply the proposed approach to a case study of a (former) peat landscape in the Netherlands, aiming to reconstruct the timing of peat initiation spatially. Our search yielded 313 radiocarbon dates from the 1950s to 2019. Based on the quality assessment, the dates—of highly diverse quality—were assigned to four confidence levels. Results indicate that peat initiation for the study area first peaked in the Late Glacial (~14,000 cal years BP), dropped during the Boreal (~9,500 cal years BP) and showed a second peak in the Subboreal (~4,500 cal years BP). We tentatively conclude that the earliest peak was mostly driven by climate (Bølling–Allerød interstadial), whereas the second was probably the result of Holocene sea level rise and related groundwater level rise in combination with climatic conditions (hypsithermal). Our study highlights the potential of legacy data for palaeogeographic reconstructions, as it is cost‐efficient and provides access to information no longer available in the field. However, data retrieval may be challenging, and reuse of data requires that basic information on location, elevation, stratigraphy, sample and laboratory analysis are documented irrespective of the original research aims.
Highlights
Data rescue in the geosciences is a field of rapidly growing interest (Wyborn et al, 2015)
We briefly discuss the use of legacy data in geoscience, introduce processes of peat formation, review use of radiocarbon dates in peatland research, and provide a short introduction to radiocarbon dating
Based on the process of data rescue and meta-analysis in the case study, we identify research deficits to address during future studies and evaluate the value of data rescue in geochronological peatland research
Summary
Data rescue in the geosciences is a field of rapidly growing interest (Wyborn et al, 2015). Legacy data may play a role when analysing landforms or processes of the past or that change through time, and to reinvestigate previous work (cf Smith et al, 2015). Meta-analyses based on legacy data may yield insights that require a bird’s-eye view on the subject matter, crossing boundaries of time and place that limit many case studies. This applies when information is no longer available in the field, or when long-term records are needed to describe and quantify how systems changed through time. To quote Griffin (2015), “[...] it is up to our community to remove [...] the artificial barriers that presently prevent the access that research requires simultaneously to all of its data.”
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