Wicked problems in the geosciences cannot be solved by data from a single discipline alone. Interoperability is key to making use of the many community-curated data resources (CCDRs) in the paleogeosciences to answer these pressing social problems. Data cannot be easily integrated and reused for large scale, systems-scale research without the use of common standards and data formats. 

Achieving interoperability is easier said than done. There are numerous technical and cultural obstacles to this work: agreeing to common definitions and concepts of time, norms for collection of metadata in different-yet-overlapping fields, and standardized ways of describing strata across localities and disciplines. Often, commonly understood field names have specific meanings within the disciplinary context of a particular CCDR. Additionally, adhering to CARE guidelines may require reframing how we think about interoperability; we must ensure that efforts to make databases open do not come at the cost of Indigenous data sovereignty.

We employ a semi-structured interview methodology within the Quaternary sciences (e.g. “shallow time” paleoecology, archaeology, and recent paleoclimatology) as a case study to assess community challenges and needs for future interoperability amongst Quaternary science data resources. Our results highlight a spectrum of definitions of interoperability, and the elevated role data repositories play in curating and stewarding FAIR and CARE-compliant data. These differences make it clear that greater interoperability requires more in-person social interaction between CCDRs to support further research advances using multi-disciplinary data resources.