GEOTRACES International Program: Open Access Database of Seawater Trace Metal and Isotope Data Available

Abstract

Abstract GEOTRACES (https://www.geotraces.org/) is an international marine chemical program involving scientists from more than 35 countries collaborating together since 2010 in building an online atlas and open access database of high-quality hydrographical and geochemical data, under the name of GEOTRACES Intermediate Data Product. By freely releasing its data, GEOTRACES wishes to strengthen and intensify the collaboration within the marine research community itself, but also wants to invite other ocean professionals to use the data for their research and professional activities. The data product includes chemical elements that are essential for marine life, both macro- and micronutrients, contaminants, radioactive and stable isotopes used to reconstruct ocean conditions in the past, accompanied by a broad suite of hydrographic parameters and biological data.Anticipated beneficiaries of GEOTRACES products include scientists studying the sustained health of marine ecosystems and their sensitivity to changes in their chemical environment; paleoceanographers seeking to reconstruct past changes in the ocean environment; and scientists and policymakers who seek a better understanding of the transport and fate of contaminants in the ocean. In addition, GEOTRACES data provide a baseline against which future changes can be assessed, as for example, the impact of deep sea seabed mineral extraction.