Continued Curation of the Antarctic Core Collection in the OSU/CEOAS Marine and Geology Repository

The College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University established the Marine and Geology Repository (OSU-MGR) in 1971 as an NSF-sponsored community facility. For more than 50-years the mission of the OSU-MGR has remained to archive and distribute geological samples and associated metadata from sediment cores, rocks, nodules, and sediment trap samples collected as part of research cruises, for research and education.

Since 2019, this collection has been expanded with the NSF’s Antarctic Core Collection including 15,429 m of marine sediments from 5,283 cores and 7,603 m of drill core from 94 sites. Through high quality archiving of rocks and sediment under continuous refrigeration, these one-of-a-kind materials are preserved for the scientific community. Over the past 30-years, more than 190,000 samples have been distributed to scientists, educators, and museums throughout the United States and around the world.

To date, driven by opportunities, capabilities, and community needs, OSU-MGR has expanded its mandate to include data captured from field programs, the acquisition of high-quality non-destructive data within the OSU-MGR laboratories that are archived and distributed upon request, and a range of educational products from tours to undergraduate and graduate courses to summer Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) programs, and summers schools. The OSU-MGR employs four curators and a software engineering consultant, as well as a cohort of undergraduate student workers from diverse backgrounds that provide a wide range of experiences and opportunities.

The OSU-MGR Antarctic core collection (ACC) consists of approximately 15,500 m of marine sediments from more than 5,200 cores and 9,000 m of drill core from 96 sites, including large drilling programs such as the Antarctic Drilling Project (ANDRILL), Cape Roberts Project (CRP), Cenozoic Investigation in the Western Ross Sea (CIROS), Dry Valley Drilling Project (DVDP). Along with an accompanying award by Marine Geology & Geophysics program of the Division of Ocean Sciences, this project will continue and expand the operation of OSU-MGR as a national repository.

Objectives include the continuation of primary repository duties (e.g., sample acquisition, curation, cataloging, metadata management, quality assurance and control, requests and accessions, etc.) and also to make progress on series of long-term objectives, such as: (1) The continued development of the OSU-MGR App, database, and website to improve services to the community, including virtual capabilities, data acquisition and access, and remote sampling. (2) Collect, capture, and serve non-destructive data from both shipboard and repository sources with the development of the new FIESTA Core Data Repository (CDR) funded through EarthCube, adding value to the OSU-MGR collections and empowering the research community. (3) Support teaching, training, and learning through use of the OSU-MGR repository in graduate, undergraduate, K-12 classes, REU programs, summers schools, and employing undergraduate student workers from diverse backgrounds, as well as by opening the facility to the general public for tours, open houses, and presentations. Products from the ACC Repository are disseminated widely through the OSU-MGR website and national databases (National Center for Environmental Information, NCEI; Core Data Repository, CDR).

The OSU-MGR online data repository will be FAIR—Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reproducible—by linking sample data to unique identifiers including DOI, ORCID, IGSN, R2R Expedition IDs. Specific actions for the next five years include: (1) Finalizing the metadata transfer into OSU-MGR App and database following the transfer and needed recuration of the ACC into the OSU-MGR. (2) Fully managing the sample request workflow through the OSU-MGR web interface. (3) Setting up the OSU-MGR App for future re-use at other repositories while working together with the Lamont-Doherty repository to install this software for their use. (4) Improving and automating annual data reporting to NSF using the OSU-MGR App. (5) Creating a data pipeline from the OSU-MGR App into the CDR online data repository for MST, CT and XRF sensor scanning data. (5) Organizing three OSU-MGR Antarctic Summer Schools in collaboration with IODP to serve between 20-30 participants who are graduate students, post-docs and early-career scientists from within the U.S. and worldwide.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.