core columns¶

from Mark on 2013-11-26..12-2:¶

critical columns are in bold
column names are from our materialized views .

• time (temporal boundaries)
  • date: eventDate, dateCollected
• place (spatial boundaries)
  • location: country, stateProvince, county, locality, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, coordinateUncertaintyInMeters
  • plot ID: locationID, locationName
  • plot dimensions: plotArea_ha
• source (provenance): datasource, specimenHolderInstitutions, collection
  • who collected it: plot__collectors, recordedBy
• taxonomic identity: scrubbed_family, scrubbed_genus, scrubbed_morphospecies_binomial, scrubbed_taxon_name_no_author, scrubbed_author
  • taxon assertion: taxonomic_status
  • taxon concept
• co-occurrence in plot: plot ID and taxonomic identity fields above
• individuals vs. stems: individualObservationID, individualCode, authorStemCode
• counting/aggregation: individualCount, aggregateOrganismObservationID
• resampling: eventDate
• sampling methodologies: samplingProtocol, plotArea_ha
• functional traits: diameterBreastHeight_cm, height_m, growthForm, the taxon_trait table
• associated environmental measurements: temperature_C, precipitation_m

from Mark on 2014-8-9:¶

these critical columns are indicated above in bold

almost EVERY biodiversity observation has several essential pieces of information:

1) Location (geospatial-- not just a cryptic ID, but also country/state/county, and decimal latitude and longitude)

2) Taxonomic ID (e.g. binomial sp or family name etc.- and this field does often appear to have information when I issue your provided query)

3) Temporal information (when was it collected-- again in some readable format like an ISO8601-- YYYYMMDD)

4) PLOT ID (if relevant, and this would be unique when combined with SOURCE below)

5) Source (who collected it-- either as an individual or institution)