schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: tables with parent hierarchies: made parent optional, since the root(s) of the hierarchy will not have an entry for this, and any unique constraints that include this column should be ignored (which they will be if the value is NULL instead of a self-pointer)

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: subplot: renamed to rel_place and inherit from place directly, in order to store other plot elements that are relative to their containing plot

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: taxon_path: converted to an auxiliary table of taxon_name instead of a subclass of it (like geopath for the place table). this causes distinct taxon_paths to be stored only once, instead of repeatedly for each taxon_name.

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: place hierarchy: reorganized to store scrubbed geoplaces in a containment hierarchy instead of a denormalized geopath. this allows each source-specific place to be GNRS-scrubbed to a GADM place, and then have its coordinates geovalidated to see if it is within the matched GADM place. this uses the georeferencing table to store the matched GADM place (scrubbed_geoplace) for each input place, instead of geopath_scrub to store the matched GADM geo*path* for each input geo*path*. (this avoids the need to scrub every combination of place ranks, because just the name of each place is scrubbed relative to its parent place.) geopath instead becomes an auxiliary table to store the place table's verbatim ranks, for easy access and storage.

inputs/SpeciesLink/Specimen/map.csv: conceptual_darwin_2003_1_0_BoundingBox: remapped to UNUSED

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: place: renamed to local_place to distinguish it from geoplace, which is not a subclass of place (it is a separate, global table, while local_place is source-specific). note that renames sometimes need to be done manually on vegbiendev, to avoid triggering a MySQL bug that blocks the new table from being created and requires the entire database to be recreated to clear the error.

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: stem, stem_observation: made associated individual/individual_observation optional, because some stems (e.g. in VegBank) are not grouped together into individuals. note that a stem is still considered to BE-AN individual, but it is a type of individual which may be grouped under another, plant-level individual.

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: fixed lines

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: specimen_observation: added description (vegcore.vegpath.org?specimenDescription). taxon_presence: added occurrence_status (vegcore.vegpath.org?occurrenceStatus). stem_observation, aggregate_observation: made room for them to expand with additional first-class fields.

schemas/VegCore/VegCore.ERD.mwb: taxon_presence, taxon_absence: inherit from taxon_determination rather than taxon_observation, so that the taxon_determination's taxon can be used as the identifying taxon (i.e. the authorPlantName, VegCore.vegpath.org?authorPlantName)