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Constituent Databases

Neotoma is a database of databases. While some data is stored in “Neotoma”, most data is associated with a particular constituent database, organized around a proxy type and also often a geographic region or time period.

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (ANSDU) constituent diatom database was established in 2010 with funding from a 2009 National Science Foundation grant to establish Neotoma. It continued work assembling data that had been ongoing as part of the Diatom Paleoecology Data Cooperative, funded by NOAA and NSF from 1994- 2008. The ANSDU database extends data from sites that were initially in the DPDC, and adds many additional new sites and datasets. It contains primarily diatom count data for lake surface samples and sediment cores. ANSDU data are contained entirely within Neotoma. There is no separate database or website, though there is a directory at Drexel University with contributed data files and supporting materials.

Lead Data Stewards

Mariena Hurley

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Donald F. Charles

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

The APD was first developed in 1996. The initial workshop and subsequent work, funded by the French CNRS, the EU (INCO, ENRICH) and UNESCO (PICG), established methods of collating pollen data, developed a standardized pollen nomenclature (Vincens et al. 2007), generated updated age models, collated images of pollen grains, and created a searchable web interface. Due to a lack of funding and the closure of the French data center, Medias-France, the APD lapsed in 2007, making its extant data holdings largely inaccessible and leaving no home for newer paleoecological records. It has recently been revived and various contributors are actively adding data to the database.

If using data from the African Pollen Database, please see the preferred citations on the Data Use page.

For more information: https://africanpollendatabase....

View APD sites in Neotoma Explorer

Lead Data Stewards

Anne-Marie Lezine

Senior Researcher, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Sarah Ivory

Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, Penn State

This database curates late Holocene (primarily) vertebrate faunal remains (birds, fish, mammals), with some macroinvertebrates (mostly mollusks). These data are primarily from human habitation sites (middens) but occasionally from paleontological (i.e., not anthropogenic) deposits as well.

The Alpine Palynological Database (ALPADABA) was founded 1990 and established in 1991 at University of Bern, Switzerland with Brigitta Ammann. The first curator was Pim (W.O.) van der Knaap. In 1992 the database already covered ca. 30 sites with 50 palynological records. From the beginning, ALPADABA was coordinated with the European Pollen Database (EPD), e.g. in regard to data entry forms and taxonomy. Several taxonomy meetings were organized with EPD to coordinate the typological denominations. The chair of ALPADABA is the head of the palaeoecology section at University of Bern, the curator is appointed among experienced palynologists of the research section. Being in exchange with EPD, ALPADABA served as database for several scientific publications at the Alpine and European scale. In 2020 ALPADABA became a constituent database of Neotoma. Data migration was initiated in 2020 and is ongoing.

If using data from ALPADABA, please see the preferred citations on the Data Use page.

View ALPADABA sites in Neotoma Explorer.

Lead Data Steward

Willy Tinner

Professor of Paleoecology, University of Bern

Lead Data Steward

Jessica Blois

Professor, University of California, Merced

Lead Data Steward

Alison Smith

Professor and Dean of Honors College, Kent State University

The Canadian Pollen Database was created by K Gajewski in the mid-1980s, as a postdoc working with JC Ritchie in Toronto. In the 1990s, the pollen data were sent to Eric Grimm when he was developing the NAPD (ie before Neotoma), and simply incorporated into the NAPD. Most sites from the CPD in Neotoma are listed as NAPD in origin. Since the mid-1990s the CPD was on the LPC website (lpc.uottawa.ca). Some of the data on the LPC website are simply originals of data Grimm incorporated into the NAPD, but kept there for people who want easy access (Excel spreadsheet). In addition, the LPC website is used to fulfill open-access responsibilities - as a place to put newly created pollen and paleolimnology data (mostly from the Arctic and northern Canada), for modern calibration databases (which include matched microfossil and environmental data), and also for climate reconstructions, protocols, and other work. So although it is being updated, updates are from the LPC lab.

Lead Data Steward

Konrad Gajewski

Professor, University of Ottawa

The main types of data included in the DPDC are site information, diatom counts, water chemistry and other environmental data, and chronologies. The DPDC was initially funded by NOAA and NSF from 1994 - 2008 with grants to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. NSF provided continued support to facilitate transfer of data to Neotoma. Data that were included in the original DPDC and available via the DPDC website at ANSP have not been accessible to retrieve since 2021. This constituent database within Neotoma is now the primary source of DPDC data

Data downloaded from this constituent database should be cited, as well as the original source publications and investigators whenever possible. Please use the following as an example: “Data were obtained from the Diatom Paleolimnology Data Cooperative (https://diatom.ansp.org/dpdc/), a constituent database of the Neotoma Paleoecology Database (https://www.neotomadb.org/). The work of data contributors, data stewards, and the Neotoma and DPDC communities is gratefully acknowledged.”

Lead Data Steward

Donald F. Charles

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

This database records occurrences of recent and modern ostracods from East Asian non-marine locations. The list of valid ostracod species can be found in the Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment's page on ostracods.

Lead Data Steward

Robin Smith

Lake Biwa Museum

The European Pollen Database (EPD) was founded 1989 and established in 1990 in Arles, France with Rachid Cheddadi as its first curator. In 2007 the database moved to IMEP (Institut Méditerranéen d'Ecologie et de Paléoécologie) in Aix en Provence, which together with Aix-Marseille University fund the current database manager Michelle Leydet. In May 2007 the EPD organized its first open science meeting that lead to a change in governance with currently a chair and vice chair supported by active data stewards. Participants of the 2016 open EPD meeting in Aix en Provence supported the initiative of the EPD to become a constituent database of Neotoma. Data migration was initiated in 2017 and finalized in 2022. The EPD is curated by an active community of data stewards, striving to maintain an open governance structure and fostering exchange of knowledge though open science meetings. See this webpage for further information: https://epdweblog.org/

If using data from the European Pollen Database, please see the preferred citations on the Data Use page.

View EPD sites in Neotoma Explorer.

Lead Data Stewards

Walter Finsinger

CNRS researcher, Montpellier Université

Bérangère Leys

CNRS researcher, AMAP lab (Montpellier, France)

Thomas Giesecke

Associate Professor, Utrecht University

FAUNMAP is a constituent database that curates Quaternary vertebrate data (primarily mammals) from North America. The version of FAUNMAP in Neotoma is a living database, meaning that new sites are continually added and existing sites are updated as warranted. The FAUNMAP database was originally created by Russ Graham and Ernie Lundelius, and hosted by the Illinois State Museum. You can read more about the original FAUNMAP effort here: https://www.museum.state.il.us.... FAUNMAP was one of the original constituent databases that formed the Neotoma Paleoecology Database in 2009.

Note: Some original FAUNMAP datasets contain data on human Ancestors. We have removed these data while we develop a constituent database policy on the use and presentation of sensitive data (as of July 10, 2023). No other modifications will be made to the site files and the original site files have been saved in Tilia format. This change has affected 392 datasets within FAUNMAP. Please contact FAUNMAP lead steward Jessica Blois if you wish to view or access the original full site data.

Lead Data Steward

Jessica Blois

Professor, University of California, Merced

This is a pollen database with a major geographic focus on tropical Peninsular India and is valuable in defining Tropical Pollen types that are not exhaustively listed or defined elsewhere in terms of the vegetation (plant taxa) they represent. The database also has reports of mainly Late Holocene terrestrial pollen records though Marine records from both the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are available. The number of records from Mangroves is limited. This also includes pollen records from Archeological sites. See here for more information on the database.

Lead Data Steward

Anupama Krishnamurthy

French Institute of Pondicherry

The Indo-Pacific Pollen Database (IPPD) is a collection of modern and fossil Australian, Southeast Asian, and Oceanian pollen assemblages collected from Quaternary period depositional contexts. It was founded in 1997 by Geoff Hope. In 2013 it merged with the QUAVIDA pollen database, which was established in 1998 by Colin Prentice. In 2021 a project led by Annika Herbert and Simon Haberle to fully integrate the IPPD into Neotoma commenced. This is an ongoing effort, with the first stage due for completion in 2025.

The IPPD is also hosted by the OCTOPUS database, which integrates archaeology, sedimentology, geomorphology, charcoal, and non-human vertebrate fossil collections in a thoroughly Australasian context. These collections are all available in the same flattened table format, thereby providing regional researchers with multiple data types in an easily accessible manner.

View IPPD sites in Neotoma Explorer.

Lead Data Stewards

Simon Haberle

Professor of Palaeoeoclogy and Natural History, Australian National University

Annika Herbert

Research Fellow, Australian National University

Lead Data Steward

Naoko Sasaki

Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University

The Latin American Pollen Database (LAPD) was founded in 1994 by Vera Markgraf at the University of Colorado (USA). During the period between 1998 and 2003, management of the LAPD was based at the University of Amsterdam, where Robert Marchant served as coordinator and additional support was provided by Juan Carlos Berrío. In 2009, the LAPD site inventory was updated again by Suzette Flantua and published in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology (Flantua et al. 2015 RPP) and made available on the LAPD website. The raw pollen datasets of the LAPD are now in Neotoma as a constituent database.

For more information: https://www.latinamericapollendb.com/

Lead Data Steward

Suzette Flantua

Researcher, Department of Biological Science, University of Bergen

This database contains late Pleistocene to Holocene marine dinoflagellate cyst records, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere.

Lead Data Steward

Nicolas Van Nieuwenhove

Research Assistant, University of New Brunswick

Lead Data Steward

Jessica Blois

Professor, University of California, Merced

Lead Data Steward

Allan Ashworth

University Distinguished Professor Emeritus, North Dakota State University

Lead Data Steward

Alison Smith

Professor and Dean of Honors College, Kent State University

The Neotoma Testate Amoebae Database contains modern surface-samples and stratigraphic records of testate amoebae.

Lead Data Steward

Robert K. Booth

Professor, Lehigh University

Lead Data Steward

Alison Smith

Professor and Dean of Honors College, Kent State University

Lead Data Stewards

Camille Holmgren

Professor of Geosciences, SUNY Buffalo State University

John (Jack) Williams

University of Wisconsin-Madison

The North American Pollen Database (NAPD) was launched in 1990 by Eric Grimm at the Illinois State Museum, and drew heavily on precursor efforts by Tom Webb and others at Brown University to gather, organize, and map pollen data for the COHMAP and earlier projects. The NAPD was then incorporated into the Global Pollen Database and was served from NOAA's Paleoclimatology World Data Service, before becoming one of the founding constituent databases of Neotoma. The NAPD remains active and regularly accepts data contributions from the community.

Lead Data Stewards

Nicola Cullen

Cullen Ironworks Inc.

John (Jack) Williams

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lead Data Steward

Claudio Latorre

Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile

Lead Data Stewards

Joaquín Arroyo Cabrales

Senior Scientist, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia

Jessica Blois

Professor, University of California, Merced

Lead Data Steward

Thomas Giesecke

Associate Professor, Utrecht University

This constituent database was formed in 2020 with funding from the National Science Foundation. The primary focus is lead-210 dated lake sediment cores from the recent past (post 1850), with lead-210 and diatoms as the core proxy types. The database also contains a number of diatom surface sediment samples from lakes and associated water chemistry values. Many of the records are from the Upper Midwest region of the United States, including records from National Park Service units within that region.

Lead Data Steward

Joy Ramstack Hobbs

Senior Scientist, St. Croix Watershed Research Station of the Science Museum of Minnesota

Lead Data Steward

Suzanne Pilaar Birch

Associate Professor, Anthropology and Geography, University of Georgia

This database records mostly recent diatom records from tropical South American sites. See here for more information.

Lead Data Steward

Xavier Benito