The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project: A Community-Oriented, Database-Driven Effort to Track Changes to Sedimentary Systems in Deep Time

Abstract

How has Earth’s surface environment changed over the course of geological history? How have these shifting environmental conditions affected sedimentary systems and organisms living on our planet? The Sedimentary Geochemistry and Paleoenvironments Project (SGP) is a community-oriented, database-driven research consortium that seeks to address questions of environmental evolution across Earth history through statistical analyses of the sedimentary geochemical record. For decades, geologists and geochemists have generated data relevant to these important questions, and as results accumulated researchers have increasingly gravitated towards larger compilations and statistical tools. Foundational efforts utilized spreadsheets for data storage and analysis, suitable for several thousand samples, but not practical or scalable for larger, more complex datasets – we have therefore built a relational database to accommodate these needs. The project is modeled after paleobiological studies, where researchers have rigorously worked to understand the impact of sampling intensity and geological bias on their results, and community efforts in fields like genomics, where multiple research groups have combined their data for more statistical power. This poster serves as an introduction to the goals of the SGP, presents initial results of our aggregated dataset, and provides information for researchers interested in being involved in the project.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90323 ©2018 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 20-23, 2018