Mapping and Data Accuracy Group

MADCAP manuscript

Group projects

Utrecht Meeting March 2008

Bonn Meeting September 2008

The aim of the group to be is the production of a paleo-vegetation atlas, based on the EPD, and a synthesis article based on this atlas, both of which will be products of the 'EPD mapping group'. This work is important as it will be a flagship project for the new shinier EPD, and ideally, we should have some results to present at the meeting in Bonn next year.

This work will be split into two stages. First, and most important, we need to obtain a subset of sites from the database which will be used for the mapping. For this, we will need to examine the available sites and identify and correct problems when found, or reject the sites if they cannot be corrected. This will also have an immediate benefit from the EPD, as all errors that are flagged can then by corrected in the database. In addition, we can use this opportunity to contact the authors of restricted data to ask if they would be willing to a) let us use the data in the project and b) eventually remove the restriction in the database. This data subset will be available for individual projects once the atlas is established.

The second task will be the production of maps from this subset of data. The maps can take a number of forms, including individual taxa, vegetation groups and possibly some analytical maps.

• Walter Finsinger: w.finsinger(at)uu.nl

• Thomas Giesecke: Thomas.Giesecke(at)liv.ac.uk

• Graciela Gil-Romera: gmg(at)aber.ac.uk

• Anne Le Flao: anne.leflao(at)wanadoo.fr

• Ralph Fyfe: ralph.fyfe(at)plymouth.ac.uk

• Petr Kuneš: cuneus(at)natur.cuni.cz

• Norbert Kühl: kuehl@uni-bonn.de

• Heather Binney: H.A.Binney(at)soton.ac.uk

• Dorota Nalepka: Dorota.Nalepka(at)ib-pan.krakow.pl

• Simon Brewer: brewer(at)cerege.fr (Contact)

• Jörg Christiansen: J.Christiansen(at)biologie.uni-goettingen.de

The aim is to check the pollen data and age-depth model (where this exists):

• Get hold of the publication where possible. In case of rare or hard-to-find publications, contact other members of group and/or regional contact. Where publications cannot be obtained, please check for any obvious error.

• When an error is found, make a note of the following information: Entity number; site name and number and description of error. If the error can be corrected, please also note the action that needs to be taken

• Where the error cannot be corrected, contact the author

• Send this information to the group/Michelle. To reduce the amount of email traffic, it would be best to pool the data on a semi-regular basis (monthly) and send it to Michelle.
• The information about the error will be listed in the wiki page, linked to the site table

• Where a solution to the error exists, this will be done directly by Michelle

• Re-check (after a month? or less?) if the error has been corrected in the database according to the information.

• Where no solution can be found, or if it is necessary to wait for a reply from the author, the error will be flagged in a separate table that must be added to the EPD. This data will be excluded from the mapping process

Examples of errors:

• Swapped count data – where the counts of one or more taxa have been replaced by another

• Missing samples – some or all of the sequence is missing (this may be intentional)

• Noisy data – taxon counts that vary rapidly between high values and very low or zero values throughout all or part of the sequence (need to check if real or if counts for individual taxa at different levels are missing)

• Inversions in age-depth model – is the age depth model feasible including the knowledge on sedimentation and local/regional vegetation history (the latter must not be used to tune the model but may help to choose an adequate model)

• Errors in site coordinates and references

• A publication shows more radiocarbon dates than are in the database or the site has a varve chronology which is missing from the database

For a copy of the database used in Access format or the site list, please contact Simon Brewer (brewer(at)cerege.fr)