Harmonising Environmental Tracer Databases and Multi-Tracer Interpretation
CSIRO operates the only Noble gas facility on the southern hemisphere and is the custodian for noble gas data in Australia supported by a purpose-built environmental tracer database. We also developed multi-tracer interpretation tools and delivered several thousand stable isotope data points to the Isotopes.au federated platform.
A Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) for everyone
The Environmental Tracer Team at CSIRO runs an in-house LIMS that stores all necessary noble gas related data, including site data, raw data and parameters from the mass spectrometer. It is used for quality control and to deliver the final processed noble gas data. In addition, this LIMS is also used to store all other environmental tracer (e.g. 3H, 14C, 36Cl) and hydrochemical (e.g. pH, Cl–, DIC) data needed for a multi-tracer interpretation.
This LIMS, called “LabData”, is based on an SQL server as a back end and MS Access as front end. It allows simple and quick import from and export to Excel and a map display in Google Earth. Any parameter can be combined with any other in a scatter plot. In many cases these data can be used to test simplified model assumptions such as mixing models, lumped parameter models for age distributions, isotope enrichment due to evaporation, de-nitrification etc. Presently it contains more than 22,000 multi-tracer datasets, including CSIRO-derived data, literature data and public data from other organisations such as Geoscience Australia or the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Export from LabData of the presently available helium measurements over Australia into Google Earth.
The database software LabData is available free of charge for everyone under the GNU-GPL licence at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15605376. As such LabData fulfils most of the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), with the exception of “Findable” since the data is currently not accessible via a web-based interface. Through the Isotopes.au federated platform we have undertaken the first steps to make some of the data findable in the public space.
Stable Isotopes in the Isotopes.au federated platform
To increase findability of the tracer data in CSIRO, the Environmental Tracer Team cooperated in the IsotopesAU initiative, which aims to make the stable isotope data of ANSTO, Geoscience Australia and CSIRO (Environment and Ag & Food) accessible. The interoperability and reusability of LabData was readily demonstrated by an easy export of more than 10,000 datasets to Isotopes.AU.
