Vocabulary

This defined vocabulary aims at providing all essential terms to describe datasets of functional trait measurements and facts for ecological research.

The list of terms is ordered into a core section with essential columns for trait data, extensions which are allowing to provide additional layers of information, as well as a vocabulary for metadata information of particular importance for trait data. Another section provides defined terms for trait definitions to be included in the metadata or published along with the dataset.

We provide four extensions of the vocabulary, that allow for additional information on the trait measurement.

This glossary of terms is available as

The rationale for developing the Ecological Trait-data standard has been cast in a paper that is available as pre-print:

Schneider, F.D., Jochum, M., Le Provost, G., Ostrowski, A., Penone, C., Fichtmüller, D., Gossner, M.M., Güntsch, A., König-Ries, B., Manning, P. and Simons, N.K. (2018) Towards an Ecological Trait-data Standard, biorxiv.org DOI: 10.1101/328302

The vocabulary builds on terms of the Darwin Core Standard and its extensions (DWC; these are referenced in field ‘Refines’; the full Darwin Core Standard can be found here: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/index.htm) as well as on terms of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (http://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/). Note that the documentation page resolves deprecated terms to the term that replaces them in definition, unless they differ in definition. Via API access or in the OWL and CSV source file, the definition is accessible for each deprecated term.

Core traitdata terms

For the essential primary data (1. trait value, 2. taxon assignment, 3. trait name), it is recommended to report standardised names and value units following the community consensus in the field. By linking to (public) ontologies via the field taxonID, further taxonomic information can be extracted for analysis. Alternatively, taxonID may also link to an accompanying datasheet that contains information on the taxonomic resolution or specification of the observation. Similarly, linking to published trait definitions in public thesauri or ontologies via the field traitID allows an unambiguous interpretation of the trait measurement. If no online ontology is available, an accompanying data table should specify the trait definitions by making use of terms provided in the section ‘Traitlist’ below.

Additionally, ‘verbatim’ duplicates of the core terms are provided to capture the original data provider’s values and labels. This ensures compatibility on the provider’s side and transparency for data users on the reported measurements and facts, and enables checking for inconsistencies and misspellings in the complete dataset provided by the author. This practice of double recordof author-side and standardised data has successfully established for the TRY database on plant traits, for instance (Kattge et al. 2011. TRY – a global database of plant traits. Global Change Biology, 17, 2905–2935).

traitID

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traitID
Definition Unique identifier of the trait according to a public ontology, or a user-provided thesaurus of traits.
Comment Examples: TO:0000181; TOP103; http://top-thesaurus.org/annotationInfo?viz=1&&trait=Seed_mass;
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitID
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitid
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

scientificName

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scientificName
Definition The full name, with authorship and date information if known. This should resolve to the currently valid (zoological) or accepted (botanical) taxon.
Comment Provide reference taxonomy in metadata of the dataset. Examples: “Coleoptera” (order), “Vespertilionidae” (family), “Manis” (genus), “Ctenomys sociabilis” (genus + specificEpithet), “Ambystoma tigrinum diaboli” (genus + specificEpithet + infraspecificEpithet), “Roptrocerus typographi (Györfi, 1952)” (genus + specificEpithet + scientificNameAuthorship), “Quercus agrifolia var. oxyadenia (Torr.) J.T. Howell” (genus + specificEpithet + taxonRank + infraspecificEpithet + scientificNameAuthorship). For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:scientificName
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/scientificName
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified 2019-03-25
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/scientificName
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/scientificNameStd
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

traitName

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traitName
Definition Descriptive Name of the trait reported. This should follow the controlled vocabulary of a thesaurus of traits available online or published along with the dataset.
Comment Accompanying this, the traitID should provide an unambiguous link to the trait definition in the thesaurus or supplementary dataset.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitName
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified 2019-03-25
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementType
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitNameStd
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

traitValue

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traitValue
Definition Standardized measured value or factor level for this species trait. Numerical values must use the correct unit. Factor levels must be compliant with the thesaurus of traits.
Comment Using “.” as a decimal separator! The standardized data values or factor levels must correspond to the expected units and factor levels of the trait thesaurus, e.g. “32.423”, “female”, “apter”, “3”
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitValue
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified 2019-03-25
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementValue
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitValueStd
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

traitUnit

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traitUnit
Definition The units associated with the measurementValue. The expected standard unit for this trait as defined in the traitlist/ thesaurus.
Comment Recommended best practice is to use the International System of Units (SI). Examples: “mm”, “C”, “km”, “ha”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:measurementUnit
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitUnit
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified 2019-03-25
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementUnit
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitUnitStd
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

verbatimScientificName

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verbatimScientificName
Definition Original character string provided as species name or taxon identifier by the data provider.
Comment kept for reference and continuity on the provider side; Can be any scientific taxon identifier used by the data provider, or in a project-specific context
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/verbatimScientificName
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/scientificName
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

verbatimTraitName

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verbatimTraitName
Definition Original character string provided as trait label by the data provider.
Comment kept for reference and continuity on provider side; this can be a short name or user defined coded trait name. However, it is recommended to provide definition of the user provided trait names in the metadata.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/verbatimTraitName
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementType
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

verbatimTraitValue

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verbatimTraitValue
Definition Measured raw value or factor level for this species trait as measured and provided by the data provider.
Comment Must respect the unit given in ‘measurementUnit_user’ for numerical traits. For categorical traits, the factor levels should be harmonized across the dataset and explained in the metadata.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/verbatimTraitValue
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementValue
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

verbatimTraitUnit

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verbatimTraitUnit
Definition Unit that the value reported in ‘verbatimTraitValue’ was measured in, if applicable (only for numeric values).
Comment For unitless numerical values, use ‘unitless’ in this field. For categorical values, leave empty or provide NA. For numerical values report unit in format for lengths “mm”, for volumes “mm3” / “mm^3”, areas “mm2” / “mm^2”, for movement “m/s”, or for volume to surface ratios: “mm3/mm2”
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/verbatimTraitUnit
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementUnit
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

taxonID

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taxonID
Definition An identifier for the set of taxon information (data associated with the Taxon class). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the data set.
Comment Examples: “GBIF Backbone Taxonomy:497924”, “8fa58e08-08de-4ac1-b69c-1235340b7001”, “32567”, “http://species.gbif.org/abies_alba_1753”, “urn:lsid:gbif.org:usages:32567”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:taxonID
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonID
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementID

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measurementID
Definition An identifier for the MeasurementOrFact (information pertaining to measurements, facts, characteristics, or assertions). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the data set.
Comment Links multi-value trait measurements, e.g. x-y-z coordinates of a morphometric landmark, biochemical compound quantities for different chainlengths. In this case, the trait names must specify the sub-measurement, e.g. “landmark32_x”, and must be specified in a reference trait list, given in the field “measurementMethod”.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementID
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementID
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementid
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

occurrenceID

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occurrenceID
Definition An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique.
Comment For a specimen in the absence of a bona fide global unique identifier, for example, use the form: “urn:catalog:[institutionCode]:[collectionCode]:[catalogNumber]. Examples:”urn:lsid:nhm.ku.edu:Herps:32“,”urn:catalog:FMNH:Mammal:145732“. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:occurrenceID. This is important for the analysis of co-variation of morphometric data or intraspecific variation. It also couples multiple measurements on a single specimen, which also could be a leaf or a single bone without an assignment to an individual organism. If available, upload related dataset to describe specimens more precisely, e.g. environmental parameters or identity related information.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/occurrenceID
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/occurrenceID
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/occurrenceid
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

warnings

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warnings
Definition Warnings on the quality or reliability of the reported trait value.
Comment Warnings from autogenerated data should be stored here, e.g. regarding a lack of match between the provided taxonID and the ontology, or the trait names or values, a mismatch in the units provided and the unit expected according to the trait table. User defined warnings and flags can be added as well, e.g. ‘NOTUSE’ to mark data that are unreliable or erroneous.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/warnings
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

Metadata vocabulary

To describe trait-datasets unambiguously, we suggest the following terms to be used in the metadata accompanying the publication of trait-data.

Each dataset should have a self-assigned title provided in datasetName and a description in datasetDescription. To retain the attribution to the original data contributor use author. Data owner rightsHolder states the person or organization that owns or manages the rights to the data; bibliographicCitation states a bibliographic reference which should be cited when the data is used; rights and license specify under which terms and conditions the data can be used, re-used and/or published. Since trait data are of great use for synthesis studies, information about how the data may be distributed, re-used and attributed to are of particular importance for trait datasets. Most researchers encourage re-use of their published datasets while making sure they are sufficiently credited. The use of permissive licenses for traitdata publications, such as Creative Commons Attribution or Creative Commons Zero/Public Domain release, has been established as the gold standard.

When combining datasets from different sources, datasetID may keep the reference to an external data sheet specifying the metadata. Alternatively, the terms of this section can be added as columns to the dataset to maintain important information about authorship and terms of use at the measurement level.

datasetID

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datasetID
Definition An identifier for the set of data. May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to a collection or institution.
Comment Examples: BExIS ID, or a DOI referring to the published dataset ; For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:datasetID
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/datasetID
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

datasetName

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datasetName
Definition The name identifying the data set from which the record was derived.
Comment Examples: “Grinnell Resurvey Mammals”, “Lacey Ctenomys Recaptures”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:datasetName
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/datasetName
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2019-03-25
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

datasetDescription

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datasetDescription
Definition An account of the resource.
Comment Description may include but is not limited to: an abstract, a table of contents, a graphical representation, or a free-text account of the resource.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/datasetDescription
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

author

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author
Definition The person, organization or service primarily responsible for making the dataset.
Comment Multiple names may be provided; Examples: John Doe; Bob, Anne; http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1494-5684
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/author
DateIssued 2017-09-05
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/creator
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

issued

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issued
Definition Date of formal issuance (e.g., publication) of the resource. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as ISO 8601:2004(E).
Comment
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/issued
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/issued
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

version

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version
Definition The version of the dataset.
Comment Can be a date or numeric versioning scheme, e.g. following semantic versioning https://semver.org/
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/version
DateIssued 2017-09-05
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

bibliographicCitation

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bibliographicCitation
Definition A bibliographic reference for the resource as a statement indicating how this record should be cited (attributed) when used. Recommended practice is to include sufficient bibliographic detail to identify the resource as unambiguously as possible.
Comment Examples: “Ctenomys sociabilis (MVZ 165861)” for a specimen, “Oliver P. Pearson. 1985. Los tuco-tucos (genera Ctenomys) de los Parques Nacionales Lanin y Nahuel Huapi, Argentina Historia Natural, 5(37):337-343.” for a Taxon. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:bibliographicCitation
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/bibliographicCitation
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/bibliographicCitation
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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conformsTo

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conformsTo
Definition An established standard to which the described resource conforms.
Comment Literal reference (incl. version or date issued) and/or DOI of data standard that the dataset applies. Example: “Ecological Trait-data Standard Vocabulary, v0.9.1, URL: https://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ets/pages/, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1485739”
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/conformsTo
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/conformsTo
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

rightsHolder

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rightsHolder
Definition A person or organization owning or managing rights over the resource, i.e. this dataset.
Comment Example: “The Regents of the University of California.”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:rightsHolder
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/rightsHolder
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/rightsHolder
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

rights

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rights
Definition Information about rights held in and over the resource.
Comment Typically, rights information includes a statement about various property rights associated with the resource, including intellectual property rights.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/rights
DateIssued 2019-03-25
FirstIssuedIn v0.10
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/rights
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

license

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license
Definition A legal document giving official permission to do something with the resource.
Comment Examples: “http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/legalcode”, “http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:license
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/license
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/license
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

Terms for trait definitions

To cope with the variety of data types, trait-data should make use of globally valid and unambiguous trait definitions from public ontologies or thesauri, by providing their URIs in the field traitID. Using this standardized terminology will facilitate merging trait definitions from multiple sources.

If no published trait definition is available that can be referenced, trait-datasets should be accompanied by a dataset-specific glossary of traits that would provide a definition specific to the study context. To be unambiguous, this list should be defining terms based on other well-defined terms from semantic ontologies, e.g. for units or higher hierarchical terms from trait ontologies (using broaderTerm). Also refer to well-defined terms of other ontologies that describe standard units, morphological body parts, protein characteristics (Protein Ontology) or chemical terms (e.g. the ChEBI, http://www.obofoundry.org/ontology/chebi.html).

The following vocabulary helps to provide trait definitions as a separate data table or within the metadata object along with the publication of the trait dataset.

identifier

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identifier
Definition A unique identifier for the trait; globally unique or dataset-specific
Comment Identifiers are ideally globally unique and stable URIs which link to the source of the trait description in a public ontology or thesaurus of traits;
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/identifier
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/identifier
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/Identifier
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

trait

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trait
Definition A descriptive trait name
Comment Trait names should be unique but intuitively comprehensible. Additional specifications such as unit of measurement can be included in the name. Several words are separated by “_“.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/trait
DateIssued 2017-10-24
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/title
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

broaderTerm

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broaderTerm
Definition One or several terms that enclose the trait definition.
Comment The broader term is given as the unique identifier (traitID) of the broader trait. Each trait can only have one broader term.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/broaderTerm
DateIssued 2017-08-24
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-15
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

narrowerTerm

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narrowerTerm
Definition One or several terms that are enclosed by the trait definition.
Comment This allows to derive hierarchical trees of traits. Several traits can be listed as narrower terms of one trait.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/narrowerTerm
DateIssued 2017-08-24
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-15
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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relatedTerm

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relatedTerm
Definition One or several terms that relate to this term
Comment This allows to link terms of the same hierarchical level or of other branches of the ontology
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/relatedTerm
DateIssued 2018-09-18
FirstIssuedIn v0.9
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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valueType

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valueType
Definition Type of trait values. Possible entries are ‘numeric’, ‘integer’, ‘categorical’, ‘ordinal’, ‘logical’, or ‘character’.
Comment Numerical values represent measurements of length, volumes, ratios, rates or timespans. Integer values apply to count data (e.g. eggs per clutch). Binary data (encoded as 0 or 1) or logical data (coded as TRUE or FALSE) may apply to qualitative traits such as specific behavior during mating (e.g. are territories defended) or specialization to a given habitat (e.g. species restricted to relicts of primeval forests). Categorical traits should define a constrained set of factor levels, such as sex differences in wing morphology (both sexes winged, both sexes unwinged, only males winged, only females winged) or unconstrained entries such as color. Ordinal categorical traits may be better encoded as integer values, e.g. a logical sequence as in the case of life stages or hibernation stages, or habitat preference traits such as horizontal stratum use.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/valueType
DateIssued 2017-09-27
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-15
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

expectedUnit

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expectedUnit
Definition The unit expected for measurement entries.
Comment Only applies to numerical traits. Should be given in SI units.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/expectedUnit
DateIssued 2017-10-24
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-15
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

factorLevels

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factorLevels
Definition A comma separated list of terms comprising the constrained vocabulary for categorical traits or ordinal binary traits.
Comment Ordinal traits may be encoded with numerically indexed factor levels; e.g. 1_egg, 2_larvae, 3_pupae, 4_adult; the field traitDescription should define the factor levels;
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/factorLevels
DateIssued 2017-09-27
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-15
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

maxAllowedValue

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maxAllowedValue
Definition A lower boundary for accepted numerical values.
Comment May be used for eliminating invalid data. This boundary may constrain a range of values of meaningful orders of magnitude, or constrain entries to positive values.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/maxAllowedValue
DateIssued 2017-09-27
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

minAllowedValue

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minAllowedValue
Definition An upper boundary for accepted numerical values.
Comment May be used for eliminating invalid data. This boundary may constrain a range of values of meaningful orders of magnitude.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/minAllowedValue
DateIssued 2017-09-27
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

traitDescription

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traitDescription
Definition A short, unambiguous definition of the trait as used in the specific study context; may refer to a method of measurement; may copy the description of a public trait ontology;
Comment The definition should make use of terms provided by existing public ontologies, e.g. ‘the mass (PATO:mass), either fresh or dried, of a fruit (PO:fruit)’
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/traitDescription
DateIssued 2017-09-27
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/description
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

comments

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comments
Definition Details and Examples for clarification of the trait definition.
Comment Can contain definition of trait levels or requirements for standardized conditions.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/comments
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/Comments
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

source

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source
Definition The original source of the trait definition
Comment Can be a DOI or bibliographic reference to the original publication of this trait definition
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/source
DateIssued 2018-09-18
FirstIssuedIn v0.9
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

Extension: Taxon

This section provides terms to specify taxonomic resolution and hierarchical depth of the observed measurement or fact.

Especially when only providing a ‘scientificName’ an entry in kingdom is recommended to identify homonyms. Additionally, class, order, phylum, family and genus are variables to filter the dataset by. The entry taxonRank should be specified to name the hierarchical level to which the observation applies, i.e. if data were measured on a verified instance of species “Agrotis exclamationis”, taxonRank would be “species”. If the reported fact was generali

If the dataset provides a URI within taxonID that maps to a taxonomic online reference or lookup table of an unambiguous and commonly accepted or verified species name, most of these information are redundant. They should be provided nonetheless to enable sorting and analysis by higher hierarchical levels.

taxonRank

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taxonRank
Definition The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.
Comment This is to clarify cases where information is not given on a species level. Examples: “subspecies”, “varietas”, “forma”, “species”, “genus”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:taxonRank
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/taxonRank
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-03-21
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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kingdom

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kingdom
Definition The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Animalia”, “Plantae”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:kingdom
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/kingdom
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-03-21
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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phylum

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phylum
Definition The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Chordata” (phylum), “Bryophyta” (division). For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:phylum
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/phylum
DateIssued 2018-03-21
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

class

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class
Definition The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Mammalia”, “Hepaticopsida”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:class
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/class
DateIssued 2018-03-21
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

order

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order
Definition The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Carnivora”, “Monocleales”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:order
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/order
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-03-21
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

family

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family
Definition The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Felidae”, “Monocleaceae”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:family
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/family
DateIssued 2018-03-21
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

genus

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genus
Definition The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified.
Comment Examples: “Puma”, “Monoclea”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:genus
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/genus
DateIssued 2018-03-21
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

Extension: Measurement or Fact

This section provides additional information about a reported measurement or fact and in most cases can easily be included as extra columns to the core dataset.

As a high-level discrimination of the source of the measurement or fact, the Darwin Core Term basisOfRecord takes an entry about the type of trait data recorded: Were they taken by own measurement (distinguish “LivingSpecimen”, “PreservedSpecimen”, “FossilSpecimen”) or taken from literature (“literatureData”), from an existing trait database (“traitDatabase”), or is it expert knowledge (“expertKnowledge”). It is highly recommended to provide further detail about the source in the column basisOfRecordDescription.

To keep track of potential sources of noise or bias in measured data, the method of measurement (measurementMethod), the person conducting the measurement (measurementDeterminedBy), and the date at which the measurement was obtained (measurementDeterminedDate) are recorded. Authors would often report aggregate data of repeated or pooled measurements, e.g. by weighing multiple individuals simultaneously and calculating an average. In these cases, recording the number of individuals (individualCount) along with a dispersion measure (e.g. variance or standard deviation, dispersion) or range of values (e.g. min and max of values observed in the field measurementValueMin, measurementValueMax) is adviced. The field statisticalMethod names the method for data aggregation (e.g. mean or median) as well as the variation or range (e.g. reporting variance or standard deviation).

For data not obtained from own measurement, the field references provides a precise reference to the source of data (e.g. a book or existing database) or the authority of expert knowledge. For literature data, the original source might report trait values on the family or genus level, but the dataset author infers and reports the trait data at species level (e.g. if the entire genus reportedly shares the same trait value). To preserve this information, the column measurementResolution should report the taxon rank for which the reported value was originally assessed.

basisOfRecord

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basisOfRecord
Definition How and from which kind of specimen were the data obtained? Make use of controlled vocabulary. Valid entries are: ‘LivingSpecimen’; ‘PreservedSpecimen’; ‘FossilSpecimen’; ‘literatureData’; ‘traitDatabase’; ‘expertKnowledge’ (see Comments)
Comment Options are: Taken by own measurement (defined in DwC: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/LivingSpecimen; http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/PreservedSpecimen; http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/FossilSpecimen ) or taken from literature (enter ‘literatureData’), from an existing trait database (enter ‘traitDatabase’), or expert knowledge (enter ‘expertKnowledge’). Provide further information in field ‘basisOfRecordDescription’ and ‘references’.
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/basisOfRecord
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/basisOfRecord
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/basisofrecord
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

basisOfRecordDescription

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basisOfRecordDescription
Definition Adding more detail to the basisOfRecord.
Comment If life specimens were sampled, where did they come from? Have they been reared in cultivation? If literature data or online database, provide type of literature, e.g. textbook, website, URL, etc. If preserved specimens were used, which method of preservation? In case of expert knowledge, give the name of the authority.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/basisOfRecordDescription
DateIssued 2018-11-01
FirstIssuedIn v0.9.1
DateModified
Refines
Replaces http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/basisofrecorddescription
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

references

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references
Definition Precise reference to the source. If literature data, this should quote the book or online database. If museum specimen, this should report the name of the collection. If expert knowledge, this should name the authority, preferably using ORCID. If trait database, provide reference to the original publication, DOI or URL of the trait-database.
Comment Examples: “http://mvzarctos.berkeley.edu/guid/MVZ:Mamm:165861”; “http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/show_species_details.php?record_id=6197868”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:references
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/references
DateIssued 2017-08-24
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://purl.org/dc/terms/references
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementResolution

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measurementResolution
Definition If the trait information was originally given on another taxonomic level than species. Applies mainly for literature and expert knowledge data. not applying for measured data. The hierarchical level to which the trait data would refer.
Comment For example, information given in literature could state ‘most species in this genus are winged’, but the trait data could be given for each species in this genus.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementResolution
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementMethod

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measurementMethod
Definition Applies primarily to measured data. The method, tools and scales used to measure a (numerical) trait value. A description of or reference to (publication, URI) the method or protocol used to determine the measurement, fact, characteristic, or assertion.
Comment Should be a concise and standardized text entry or reference (publication, URI), referring to a particular method (e.g. ‘direct weighing’, ‘length-mass regression’, ‘intertegular span’, ‘length between node X and y’ ) and measurement conditions (e.g. certain temperature or humidity, name of device or scale used for measurement). To avoid repetition or lengthy entries, authors should use global identifiers of methodological terms if available, or enter dataset specific identifiers and provide a more detailed description of the method or protocol used to determine the measurement, fact, characteristic, or assertion in the metadata of the dataset.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementMethod
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementMethod
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementDeterminedBy

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measurementDeterminedBy
Definition A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups, or organizations who determined the value of the measurement.
Comment The recommended best practice is to separate the values with a vertical bar (‘|’). Examples: “Rob Guralnick”, “Julie Woodruff | Eileen Lacey”. Can be encoded by dataset-specific identifiers for reasons of privacy. This is kept as a co-factor for repeated measurements.
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementDeterminedBy
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementDeterminedDate

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measurementDeterminedDate
Definition The date on which the MeasurementOrFact was made. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as ISO 8601:2004(E).
Comment Examples: “1963-03-08T14:07-0600” is 8 Mar 1963 2:07pm in the time zone six hours earlier than UTC, “2009-02-20T08:40Z” is 20 Feb 2009 8:40am UTC, “1809-02-12” is 12 Feb 1809, “1906-06” is Jun 1906, “1971” is just that year, “2007-03-01T13:00:00Z/2008-05-11T15:30:00Z” is the interval between 1 Mar 2007 1pm UTC and 11 May 2008 3:30pm UTC, “2007-11-13/15” is the interval between 13 Nov 2007 and 15 Nov 2007. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:measurementDeterminedDate
valueType Date
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementDeterminedDate
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementRemarks

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measurementRemarks
Definition Remarks concerning a particular measurement, e.g. additional information on the quality and reliability, reference or acknowledgements.
Comment Any particularities about the individual measurement or specimen that might affect trait measuremnt, e.g. ‘last antenna segment missing’.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementRemarks
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementRemarks
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

aggregateMeasure

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aggregateMeasure
Definition Is measurementValue reporting an individual measurement or an aggregate Measure? Takes a binary entry: TRUE or FALSE
Comment This is flagging aggregate data in an unambiguous way. Aggregate measures are often reported for repeated measures, e.g. replicate measurements of leaf size from a single plant individual or for grouped measurement, e.g. for weightings of a counted number of specimens (e.g. leaves or small organisms).
valueType logical
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/aggregateMeasure
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

individualCount

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individualCount
Definition If measurement is an aggregate measure of multiple individuals or specimens, report number of specimens as count, i.e. integer number. Defaults to 1
Comment Examples: “1”, “25”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:individualCount
valueType integer
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/individualCount
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/individualCount
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

dispersion

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dispersion
Definition If aggregate measure of multiple individuals or specimens, the numeric value of dispersion (variance or standard deviation) for the mean value reported in measurementValue_user (no unit conversion is provided by the R-package!). Defaults to 0. If a value is provided, report the statistical method in the field statisticalMethod.
Comment
valueType numeric
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/dispersion
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementValue_min

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measurementValue_min
Definition The lower boundary of observed values. Instead of or in addition to dispersion metric.
Comment
valueType numeric
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementValue_min
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementValue_max

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measurementValue_max
Definition The upper boundary of observed values. Instead of or in addition to dispersion metric.
Comment
valueType numeric
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementValue_max
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

measurementAccuracy

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measurementAccuracy
Definition The description of the potential error associated with the measurementValue.
Comment Examples: “0.01”, “normal distribution with variation of 2 m”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:measurementAccuracy
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/measurementAccuracy
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/measurementAccuracy
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

statisticalMethod

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statisticalMethod
Definition For aggregated measures, the method for data aggregation or averaging as well as the variation or range.
Comment Example: ‘mean and standard deviation’, ‘median and 95% confidence interval’, ‘mean and variance’, ‘mean and range of values’, ‘median and 95% interquantile range’
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/statisticalMethod
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

Extension: Occurrence

This category of terms contains further information about the individual specimen or occurrence that has been observed and measured. Especially for analyses of intra-specific trait variation, this composes valuable data. It also helps tracking the methodology and primary source of the data and keep the reference to the actual specimen (e.g. for museum collections or related data analysis).

For both literature and measured data, trait values may be recorded for different sub-categories of individuals of a taxon to capture polymorphisms, for instance differentiated by sex or life stage. The template provides the fields sex, lifeStage, age, and morphotype for this distinction.

Sampling may be further specified using a unique identifier for the sampling event (eventID) which references to an external dataset. The record of a samplingProtocol may capture bias in samling methods. Further procedures and methods of preservation should be reported in preparations.

Seasonal variation of traits may be recorded by assigning a date and time of sampling to the occurrence, using the fields year, month and day, depending on resolution. Further field definitions of the Darwin Core Standard can be applied instead, to refer to a geological stratum, for instance.

To capture geographic variation of traits, a set of fields for georeferencing can put the observation into spatial and ecological context (habitat, decimalLongitude, decimalLatitude, elevation, geodeticDatum, verbatimLocality, country, countryCode). The field locationID may be used to reference the occurrence to a dataset-specific or global identifier. This allows the trait data to double as observation data, e.g. for upload to the GBIF database.

For most trait data compiled from literature or expert knowledge, the level of information on an ‘occurrence’ would not apply, since no specific individual has been observed. In this case, the field ‘occurrenceID’ should be left blank in the core data. In cases where different aggregate ranges or averages are reported for male and female individuals, the columns sex or developmental stage may be used without the reference to an occurrence ID.

sex

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sex
Definition The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.
Comment Use vocabulary: “male”, “female”, “subadult”, “unknown”, “hermaphrodite” (no abbreviations or numerical encodings)
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/sex
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/sex
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

lifeStage

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lifeStage
Definition The age class or life stage of the biological individual(s) at the time the Occurrence was recorded. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.
Comment Recommended factor levels are: seed, seedling, sapling, adult, egg, larval_instar_1, larval_instar_2, larval_instar_3, … , pupa; For very taxon-specific life stages, it is recommended to provide detailed explanation in the metadata of the dataset.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/lifeStage
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/lifeStage
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

age

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age
Definition The age of the specimen in years.
Comment Use integer or float numbers. Example: “2”, “0.16”.
valueType numeric
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/age
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

morphotype

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morphotype
Definition The morphotype of the observed specimen.
Comment Examples: “worker”, “drone”, “queen”. Since morphotypes can differ between organism groups, provide definition of morphotypes in the metadata of the dataset.
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/morphotype
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

eventID

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eventID
Definition The sampling event or campaign. A globally valid URI or user specified character string that links to another table providing detailed information, e.g. environmental or temporal parameters, descriptions on methods etc..
Comment Examples: a combination of date and sampling region
valueType character
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/eventID
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/eventID
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

preparations

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preparations
Definition For preserved specimens, a list (concatenated and separated) of preparations and preservation methods for the occurrence.
Comment Do not report procedures for measurement or sampling here (see samplingProtocol and measurementMethod). The recommended best practice is to separate the values with a vertical bar (‘|’). Examples: “fossil”, “cast”, “photograph”, “DNA extract”, “skin |”skull | skeleton“,”whole animal (ETOH) | tissue (EDTA)“. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:preparations
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/preparations
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

samplingProtocol

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samplingProtocol
Definition The name of, reference to, or description of the method or protocol used for obtaining the specimen.
Comment Examples: “UV light trap”, “mist net”, “bottom trawl”, “ad hoc observation”, “point count”, “Penguins from space: faecal stains reveal the location of emperor penguin colonies, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-8238.2009.00467.x”, “Takats et al. 2001. Guidelines for Nocturnal Owl Monitoring in North America. Beaverhill Bird Observatory and Bird Studies Canada, Edmonton, Alberta. 32 pp.”, “http://www.bsc-eoc.org/download/Owl.pdf”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:samplingProtocol
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/samplingProtocol
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

year

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year
Definition The four-digit year, at which the specimens were extracted or sampled.
Comment Example: “2008”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:year
valueType integer
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/year
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

month

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month
Definition The ordinal month, in which the specimens were extracted or sampled.
Comment Examples: “1” (=January), “10” (=October). For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:month
valueType integer
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/month
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

day

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day
Definition The integer day of the month on which the specimens were extracted or sampled.
Comment Examples: “9”, “28”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:day
valueType integer
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/day
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

eventDate

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eventDate
Definition The date-time or interval during which an Event occurred. For occurrences, this is the date-time when the event was recorded. Not suitable for a time in a geological context. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as ISO 8601:2004(E). For lower precision, use year, month and day field instead.
Comment Note: this is not to record the date when the specimens were measured (use measurementDeterminedDate for this). If applicable, at least provide a year. Providing a date is highly viable for studies analyzing temporal variation in traits. Examples: “1963-03-08T14:07-0600” is 8 Mar 1963 2:07pm in the time zone six hours earlier than UTC, “2009-02-20T08:40Z” is 20 Feb 2009 8:40am UTC, “1809-02-12” is 12 Feb 1809, “1906-06” is Jun 1906, “1971” is just that year, “2007-03-01T13:00:00Z/2008-05-11T15:30:00Z” is the interval between 1 Mar 2007 1pm UTC and 11 May 2008 3:30pm UTC, “2007-11-13/15” is the interval between 13 Nov 2007 and 15 Nov 2007. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:eventDate
valueType Date
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/eventDate
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/eventDate
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

locationID

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locationID
Definition An identifier for the set of location information (data associated with dcterms:Location). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the data set.
Comment Could report the plot within the experimental setting which would be further specified in the metadata or in a separate dataset. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:locationID
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/locationID
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

habitat

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habitat
Definition A category or description of the habitat in which the specimen occurred.
Comment Example: ‘forest’, ‘grassland’, ‘oak savanna’, ‘pre-cordilleran steppe’. It is recommended to link to ecological ontologies, if available, using public URIs. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:habitat
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/habitat
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/habitat
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

decimalLongitude

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decimalLongitude
Definition The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive.
Comment Example: “-121.1761111”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:decimalLongitude
valueType numeric
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/decimalLongitude
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

decimalLatitude

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decimalLatitude
Definition The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic center of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive.
Comment Example: “-41.0983423”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:decimalLatitude
valueType numeric
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/decimalLatitude
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

elevation

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elevation
Definition The geographic elevation in meters above sea level.
Comment May map to verbatimElevation (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/verbatimElevation) or minimumElevationInMeters (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/minimumElevationInMeters) and maximumElevationInMeters (http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/maximumElevationInMeters); Example: “200”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:maximumElevationInMeters
valueType numeric
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/elevation
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/verbatimElevation
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

geodeticDatum

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geodeticDatum
Definition The ellipsoid, geodetic datum, or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude as based. Recommended best practice is use the EPSG code as a controlled vocabulary to provide an SRS, if known. Otherwise use a controlled vocabulary for the name or code of the geodetic datum, if known. Otherwise use a controlled vocabulary for the name or code of the ellipsoid, if known. If none of these is known, use the value “unknown”.
Comment Examples: “EPSG:4326”, “WGS84”, “NAD27”, “Campo Inchauspe”, “European 1950”, “Clarke 1866”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:geodeticDatum
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/geodeticDatum
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

verbatimLocality

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verbatimLocality
Definition The specific description of the place.
Comment Less specific geographic information can be provided in other geographic terms of Darwin Core (higherGeography, continent, country, stateProvince, county, municipality, waterBody, island, islandGroup). This term may contain information modified from the original to correct perceived errors or standardize the description. Example: “25 km NNE Bariloche por R. Nac. 237”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:verbatimLocality
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/verbatimLocality
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

country

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country
Definition The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the Location occurs. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names.
Comment Examples: “Germany”, “Denmark”, “Colombia”, “España”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:country;
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/country
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

countryCode

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countryCode
Definition The standard code for the country in which the Location occurs. Recommended best practice is to use ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 country codes.
Comment Examples:“DE” for Germany, “AR” for Argentina, “SV” for El Salvador. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:countryCode
valueType factor
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/countryCode
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
ReplacedBy

occurrenceRemarks

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occurrenceRemarks
Definition Comments or notes about the Occurrence.
Comment Example: “found dead on road”. For discussion see http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:occurrenceRemarks
valueType character
Identifier http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/occurrenceRemarks
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-11-01
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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Extension: Biodiversity Exploratories

This section records location in the context of the Biodiversity Exploratories project (www.biodiversity-exploratories.de). The field OriginExploratories flags trait measurements originating from samples in the project context. Exploratory and ExploType allow to place the sample within a region or a landscape type (Grassland or Forest). From ExploratotriesPlotID a detailled georeference can be inferred. Additional spatial resolution, e.g. on subplots, may be provided in locationID of the Occurence extension.

Trait data uploaded to the Biodiversity Exploratories Information System (BExIS) should use the vocabulary in a single-file longtable format (no DwC-Archives supported).

OriginBE

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OriginBE
Definition Did measured specimens originate from Exploratories Plots? TRUE or FALSE, defaults to FALSE
Comment As unambiguous flag for data and specimens that are originating from Exploratories sites.
valueType logical
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/OriginBE
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified
Refines
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Deprecated NA
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BEPlotID

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BEPlotID
Definition EP plot ID (or also any valid Gridplot ID or MIP ID) where the measured specimen was extracted.
Comment Only for specimen that were extracted from the Exploratories directly (or direct offspring, if hatched in the lab). Please also report it, even if this was not part of your research question and provide a Date (a year at last) if available.
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/BEPlotID
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-03-21
Refines
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Deprecated NA
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Exploratory

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Exploratory
Definition Exploratories Region (Hainich, Schorfheide, Alb) for sorting purpose and readability, or if exact Plot ID is not available.
Comment Use vocabulary: ‘HAI’; ‘SCH’; ‘ALB’
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/Exploratory
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2017-11-01
Refines
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Deprecated NA
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BEType

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BEType
Definition Defined code for landscape type of the exploratories plot.
Comment Use vocabulary: “W” for forest and “G” for grassland plot
valueType factor
Identifier http://terminologies.gfbio.org/terms/ETS/BEType
DateIssued 2017-07-07
FirstIssuedIn v0.8
DateModified 2018-05-29
Refines
Replaces
Deprecated NA
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