Best practice for documenting Marine Isotope Stages (MIS)

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1

I am currently designing a database for a speleothem collection and would like to document the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) associated each specimen (e.g. MIS 1, MIS 5e, etc).
Could anyone advise on the best place to document this information?
Thank you in advance!

2

Hi @anna,

Thanks for this question!

I am no climate stratigraphy expert or geologist, but I can offer some food for thought from the Specify side of things.

There is not an established approach for recording Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) as of now, but imagine that the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) would go in one of two places:

  1. Absolute Age: Records a numerical age determination for a Collection Object, such as a radiocarbon or potassium-argon date. Includes the age value, uncertainty, dating method, and agent who performed the analysis.
  2. Relative Age: Records a relative age determination (e.g., ‘Early Miocene’, ‘Late Cretaceous’) for a Collection Object, based on biostratigraphy or other relative dating methods.

Each Age type is related to both the Collection Object and Component tables, allowing you to store that data across a range of collection management structures. Relative Age, though, is also related directly to the Chronostratigraphy table/tree, whereas Absolute age is not directly related to any tree.

Additionally, both Relative and Absolute Age have a “Dating Method” and “Dating Method Remarks” fields along with user-definable fields. For either age, it may be most beneficial to create a dating method pick list where MIS is an option. Once selected, the MIS value can be entered into a regular text field or another controlled-vocabulary pick list field. I’d recommended to improve data quality and consistency.

Overall, I think it depends on how the collection handles and considers the MIS data. If it is to used to place the specimen in an exact climatic/temporal reality, then I imagine Absolute Age is best.
On the other hand, if MIS is more so interpreted as a way to contextualize the specimen, placing it between one climatic reality and another, then Relative Age is better suited.