Abstract
Although plot or monitoring data are quite often associated with objects collected in the plot and stored in specific collections, controlled vocabularies currently available do not cover both disciplines. This situation limits the possibility to publish common data sets and consequently brings a loss of significant information by combining plot-based research with collection object associated data. To facilitate the exchange and publication of these important data sets, experts in natural history collection data, ecological research, and environmental science met for a one-day workshop in Berlin. The participants discussed data standards and ontologies relevant for each discipline and collected requirements for a first application schema covering terms important for both, collection object related data and plot-based research.
Highlights
Plot sampling is a widely used method in ecology and biodiversity research
Whereas gathered information of plot observations are usually assigned to a plot or a plot observation to a particular time, specimen in natural history collections are managed on unit level with all information and measurements attached to a specimen
ABCD is no longer fixed in its hierarchical and collection object centralized form. This will facilitate the link to other appropriate vocabularies and to draw application schema for different plot-based research questions
Summary
Plot sampling is a widely used method in ecology and biodiversity research. These inventories are commonly accompanied with the collection of voucher specimen for e.g. further identification or analysis. Controlled vocabularies for the natural history as well as ecological and environmental science have been developed in separated domains, despite their huge amount of overlapping terms Both disciplines need to describe properties such as locality, (taxonomic) determinations, species traits, project metadata, involved persons and their affiliations etc. In addition to (technical) mandatory elements and elements of general importance, application schemata comprise parts of the ABCD schema relevant for specific purposes; i.e. discipline, collection, or for the publication in a particular data portal. It is a defined subset of concepts available in the whole ABCD schema and if necessary supplemented with concepts from other standards. Necessary tasks towards an application schema for plot data were discussed and are documented here
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