In recognition of the importance of fossil-pollen data for paleoclimatic research, the National Geophysical Data Center, under the auspices of the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program, is funding the North American Pollen Database. Eric C. Grimm at the Illinois State Museum is organizing the database, and a full-time database programmer (John Keltner) has been employed. The database also has an advisory board of seven palynologists from the United States and Canada (K. J. Gajewski, G. L. Jacobson Jr., G. MacDonald, L. J. Maher, V. Markgraf, T. Webb III, and C. Whitlock).
General objectives of the Pollen Database are to create a relational database structure for pollen data, to incorporate pollen and associated data into the database, and to provide software for querying the database. The database is intended to be not only an archive for preserving pollen data, but, importantly, a valuable tool for paleoclimatic and paleoecological studies. The eventual goal of the database is to include all pollen data from North America since 1960, as well as useful earlier data, and to keep the database current with newly generated data. The database will be available to all scientists.
Specific objectives of Year 1 are the creation of a relational database structure for fossil-pollen data, development of a hierarchical taxonomy, and incorporation of the public portion of the COHMAP pollen data into the database. We are now in the process of verifying the pollen data against the published record and adding missing data available in that record. The database will contain various kinds of information that the COHMAP database did not. Eventually all data will be returned to the data originators for validation and for the addition of site details not available in the published record.
We have been working with the European Pollen Database, which is also in its first year of funding, to insure compatibility between the two databases. The result of this collaboration has been establishment of complete compatibility between the databases and development of a database structure that should accommodate pollen data worldwide. After close consultation, we have developed tables that accommodate the European pollen data, as well as the North American. Thus, we are using exactly the same table structure.
The database is based on IBM compatible microcomputers. After an investigation of database software, we selected Paradox from Borland International. The strengths of Paradox are power, adherence to the relational model, ease of use, application language support, and wide availability, often at heavily discounted prices.
A major task has been the creation of a logical and flexible database structure that adheres to the relational model. The relational model of database management insures the flexibility of the database to meet future demands and developments in both hardware and software. Database structure refers to the design of tables that contain all of the relevant data. Good design implies simplicity of individual table structure and elimination of redundancy. The design must facilitate the addition of potential future data that have presently unforeseen characteristics, and it must also facilitate compatibility with other kinds of stratigraphic and paleoclimatic data.
The database now consists of 49 tables, divided into three general categories: archival tables, look-up tables, and research tables. Archival tables contain actual data, including pollen counts, site locations and descriptions, geochronologic data, and publication citations. Look-up tables contain descriptions of codes and keys used in the archival tables; for example, names, pollen taxa, states, and countries corresponding to shorter codes used in the archival tables. Research tables consist of interpretive data and higher-level organization of data.
Because the database is necessarily complex, now consisting of 49 tables with various key relationships, querying the database can be complex, especially for novice database users. It is therefore important to develop application programs for data entry, update, and retrieval; and it is essential to develop a layer of software between all users and the data to maintain the integrity of the data. These applications will be developed in cooperation with the European Pollen Database in Arles, France.