The PAGES-SISAL (Past Global Changes – Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and AnaLysis) team has created a new global database of cave monitoring data consisting of drip rates and drip water isotopes, and the modern carbonate precipitates that form from these drip waters (so called farmed carbonates, grown on artificial substrates).
The preprint is now available for community comment at: https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-31/
The preprint is led by Pauline Treble (ANSTO, Australia):
Treble, P. C., Zang, Y., Kaushal, N., Hatvani, I. G., Tanos, P., Kern, Z., Baker, A., Hartmann, A., Lechleitner, F. A., Belanger, B., Daudt de Oliveira, B., Sinclair, W., Riechelmann, D. F. C., Hidas, A., Yoshimura, K., Comas-Bru, L., and the SISAL working group members: SISAL_monv1: a global database of cave monitoring observations, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-31, in review, 2026.
In addition to cave hydrology, water isotopes and modern carbonates, the database includes meteoric precipitation amounts and water isotopes at or near to cave sites.
The database contains datasets from 75 caves, with summary information including meta-data on location, elevation, cave depth, lithology, measurement methods and citations for original publications.
Speleothem records previously curated by SISAL in SISAL speleothem database versions and corresponding to monitored drip sites are also identified in the new SISAL monitoring database.
To supplement observational data gaps and provide accessible and consistent climate data for users, surface climate (precipitation, evaporation, temperature) and meteoric water isotope data extracted from global climate model products are also included in the database.
The preprint is now under open review, with community comments invited at https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-31/
Andy Baker 
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