Biodiversity databases are changing the longevity of data in the era of open science. They also represent a collaboration opportunity in analyzing large-scale (paleo)biological patterns beyond a local project or a time scale. Ostracods, microscopic crustaceans, are a component in many biodiversity databases. They live in most kinds of aquatic environments today and their fossil record spans nearly the whole of the Earth's metazoan biosphere history from Ordovician to Holocene. Thus, ostracods provide an ideal model system for understanding large-scale biodiversity patterns and dynamics in both space and time. Thanks to many contributors, current and future ostracodologists have access to databases that have gone through numerous improvements and have been populated by many datasets. However, rapid growth of databases has caused confusion among users regarding available data, technical terms and database aims. We review key databases that include ostracods, summarizing their history of development, current spatial and temporal coverage, various types of data models and the intertwined relationships between databases. We also present a quantitative summary of ostracod diversity history based on the Paleobiology Database. Our investigations show that the database field is transitioning from the traditional single focus to multipurpose, from static to dynamic data display/download and from independent systems to collaborative networks. We compare the ways several databases approach persistent challenges such as taxonomic harmonization, validation of the original sampling metadata and paleolocality uncertainties. With increasing capability of data integration, databases continue to require enormous efforts regarding high-quality data entry and careful coordination among scientists and technical teams.

AbstractA multiproxy record from Twin Ponds, VT, is used to reconstruct climatic variability during the late Pleistocene to early Holocene transition. Pollen, ostracodes, δ18O, and lithologic records from 13.5 to 9.0 cal ka BP are presented. Pollen- and ostracode-inferred climatic reconstructions are based on individual species’ environmental preferences and the modern analog technique. Principal components analysis of all proxies highlights the overall warming trend and centennial-scale climatic variability. During the Younger Dryas cooling event (YD), multiple proxies show evidence for cold winter conditions and increasing seasonality after 12.5 cal ka BP. The early Holocene shows an initial phase of rapid warming with a brief cold interval at 11.5 cal ka BP, followed by a more gradual warming; a cool, wet period from 11.2 to 10.8 cal ka BP; and cool, dry conditions from 10.8 to 10.2 cal ka BP. The record ends with steady warming and increasing moisture. Post-YD climatic variability has been observed at other sites in the northeastern United States and points to continued instability in the North Atlantic during the final phases of deglaciation.

Abstract The Neotoma Paleoecology Database is a community-curated data resource that supports interdisciplinary global change research by enabling broad-scale studies of taxon and community diversity, distributions, and dynamics during the large environmental changes of the past. By consolidating many kinds of data into a common repository, Neotoma lowers costs of paleodata management, makes paleoecological data openly available, and offers a high-quality, curated resource. Neotoma’s distributed scientific governance model is flexible and scalable, with many open pathways for participation by new members, data contributors, stewards, and research communities. The Neotoma data model supports, or can be extended to support, any kind of paleoecological or paleoenvironmental data from sedimentary archives. Data additions to Neotoma are growing and now include >3.8 million observations, >17,000 datasets, and >9200 sites. Dataset types currently include fossil pollen, vertebrates, diatoms, ostracodes, macroinvertebrates, plant macrofossils, insects, testate amoebae, geochronological data, and the recently added organic biomarkers, stable isotopes, and specimen-level data. Multiple avenues exist to obtain Neotoma data, including the Explorer map-based interface, an application programming interface, the neotoma R package, and digital object identifiers. As the volume and variety of scientific data grow, community-curated data resources such as Neotoma have become foundational infrastructure for big data science.

A diverse assemblage of Late Quaternary continental ostracodes (Class Crustacea) belonging to at least 15 genera and 40 species (including 11 new species and one new genus, Plicocandona , described here) was found in sediments of former groundwater discharge deposits located in valleys of southern Nevada, U.S.A. The fossiliferous deposits are located in Las Vegas, Coyote Springs, Indian Springs, Sandy, and Pahrump Valleys. The ostracodes include species that were probably living in wetmeadow, seep, flowing-spring, stream, and wetland environments, and include aquifer species. Those environments indicate a higher level of effective moisture than occurs today during several episodes of the Late Pleistocene to Early Holocene, from ~140 to ~9 ka. The ostracode assemblages are significant to our understanding of regional paleohydrology and also contribute to the growing knowledge of aquifer taxa diversity and biogeography.

Ostracodes (Class Crustacea) have long held place as one of the major groups of useful microfossils in stratigraphy, evolutionary biology, and paleoecology.Ranging in time from the Ordovician Period to the present day, these microscopic crustaceans have proven time and time again their value in applied geology and environmental studies.The non-marine ostracodes of the late Cenozoic Era (including modern populations) have been shown to be particularly useful in the fields of paleoclimate and paleohydrology, and much of that success can be traced to the research efforts of Rick Forester of the United States Geological Survey (USGS).Rick passed away quite suddenly in March of 2014, following his early retirement from the USGS in 2005.This issue of Hydrobiologia will provide the reader with a view of the scope of his research interests, which were primarily in the areas of applied uses of ostracode records to solve problems in late Cenozoic paleoclimate and paleohydrology in North America.He frequently worked with specialists in diatoms and pollen, as well as hydrologists, hydrogeologists, and isotope geochemists, and these papers reflect his interests in these areas.His astonishingly extensive knowledge of geology, physical chemistry, statistics, and paleontology made him a unique figure in the geosciences, and his loss is deeply felt by his many colleagues.Rick studied modern and Late Cenozoic distributions of non-marine ostracodes for their value in solving paleoclimatic and paleohydrologic problems.He was the founder of the public access database ''NANODe'' (www.kent.edu/nanode), a non-marine ostracode biogeographical database with species and associated hydrochemical data from about 600 sites in the United States, now also available through the public access multi-proxy database Neotoma (www.neotomadb.org).In paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental research, a biological ''proxy'' is a taxon with known modern environmental tolerances and biogeographical distribution, and which also has a significant

The Neotoma Paleoecological Database is a Community Curated Data Repository (CCDR) that sits at the interface between the Earth Sciences and the Biological Sciences. With the implementation of new data access tools and continued development and integration with existing tools, the database has grown over the past year, both with regards to the total number of samples recorded within the database, but also with regards to data accessibility, redundancy, and openness. Our recent efforts have focused on the long term sustainability of the database, and on providing greater returns for researchers using the database, either as a source of data, or as a repository for data storage. Results/Conclusions Activities centered around the database over the past year have included the implementation of a DOI system, integration with the Paleobiology Database, a new capability to store specimen-level data, a new system for storing isotopic data from biological specimens or physical samples, new security settings and the implementation of an embargoing system that supports data submission prior to publication. We highlight outreach work in digital cartography, visualization and data access that is currently underway. The integration of faunal data from the MIOMAP and the FAUNMAP II databases means that records now stretch back into the past over nearly 30 million years. This presentation will provide an overview of some of the new key features of the database, its development and future directions.

Once considered one of North America’s most polluted lakes, today Onondaga Lake, New York, USA has surface-water quality last seen prior to 1900. Paleolimnological inference models based on the remains of diatoms and chironomids in an annually dated sediment core were used to reconstruct quantitatively the post-1700 history of phosphorus, specific conductance, and volume-weighted hypolimnetic oxygen levels in the lake. Ostracode and sediment chemical analyses contributed to a detailed interpretation of past lake conditions. Thirteen biostratigraphic intervals are described. Discernible aspects of water quality include climate variability, trophic state, duration of bottom water anoxia, abundance of seasonal algal blooms, trends in specific conductance (a proxy for salinity), nineteenth and twentieth century industrial influences, pollution control efforts back to the late nineteenth century, and the timing of biological response to physical changes in the lake. Before 1822, freshwater, oligotrophic to borderline mesotrophic (~10 µg/l TP) conditions existed in Onondaga Lake and seasonal anoxia occurred in the hypolimnion. After the lowering of its water level in 1822, the lake became mesotrophic (10–20 µg/l TP). It became eutrophic (>20 µg/l) at mid-century, but between 1900 and 1919 there were sporadic returns to mesotrophic conditions. Hypereutrophy (>100 µg/l TP) prevailed from 1944 into the 1980s. Highest TP levels in the lake occurred during the 1950s through 1970s. Hypolimnetic anoxia increased after 1822 and the lake’s profundal benthos declined markedly, disappearing entirely early in the twentieth century. The lake became progressively more saline during the mid-nineteenth century, and was brackish (specific conductance >500 µS/cm) by the late nineteenth century. The highest salinity levels in the lake occurred from 1972 to 1980. Since the 1970s, inferences from paleolimnological analysis of the lake sediments reflect the well documented, steady decline of phosphorus concentration and salinity in Onondaga Lake, although chironomid-based evidence for abatement of deepwater anoxia is still lacking. This study demonstrates that quantitative paleolimnological inference models can be a valuable, complementary addition to lake management mechanistic modeling, as well as a key part of detailed historical water quality assessments.

Ostracodes are microscopic crustaceans common to almost all aquatic and (semi-) terrestrial habitats. Their biogeography, biology, ecology, and shell geochemistry can provide a range of useful information to scientists in many disciplines of the life and earth sciences. With a fossil record that extends into the Paleozoic, the Order Podocopida contains the superfamilies Cypridoidea, Darwinuloidea and Cytheroidea, which in turn contain the extant nonmarine ostracode taxa. An overview of the nonmarine ostracodes is presented here, with information on collecting and analyzing species from a variety of aquatic habitats.

The 1st International Symposium on Ostracoda (ISO) was held in Naples (1963). The philosophy behind this symposium and the logical outcome of what is now known as the International Research Group on Ostracoda (IRGO) are here reviewed, namely ostracodology over the last 50 years is sociologically analysed. Three different and important historic moments for the scientific achievements of this domain are recognised. The first one, between about 1963 and 1983, is related to applied research for the oil industry as well as to the great interest in the better description of the marine environment by both zoologists and palaeontologists. Another important aspect during this period was the work by researchers dealing with Palaeozoic ostracods, who had their own discussion group, IRGPO. Gradually, the merger of this latter group with those dealing with post-Palaeozoic ostracods at various meetings improved the communication between the two groups of specialists. A second period was approximately delineated between 1983 and 2003. During this time-slice, more emphasis was addressed to environmental research with topics such as the study of global events and long-term climate change. Ostracodologists profited also from the research “politics” within national and international programmes. Large international research teams emerged using new research methods. During the third period (2003–2013), communication and collaborative research reached a global dimension. Amongst the topics of research we cite the reconstruction of palaeoclimate using transfer functions, the building of large datasets of ostracod distributions for regional and intercontinental studies, and the implementation of actions that should lead to taxonomic harmonisation. Projects within which molecular biological techniques are routinely used, combined with sophisticated morphological information, expanded now in their importance. The documentation of the ostracod description improved through new techniques to visualise morphological details, which stimulated also communication between ostracodologists. Efforts of making available ostracod information through newsletters and electronic media are evoked.

This chapter of the book The Recent and Fossil meet Kempf Database Ostracoda Festschrift Eugen Karl Kempf - Proceedings of the 15th International German Ostracodologists' Meeting contains a preface followed by acknowledgements. It also presents an extensive reference list on the ostracod family. The selected contributions in the book cover a broad range of biological and palaeontological topics that rely on sound taxonomy and serve as a tribute to the Kempf Database of Ostracoda including a biography on Eugen Karl Kempf. In detail, the scientific contributions are covering freshwater and marine genera/species and the parasitic family Entocytherids.Keywords: Entocytherids; Eugen Karl Kempf; Kempf Database Ostracoda; ostracod family