occurrence.md

Darwin Core Occurrence mapping

• recordedBy is of the form First name Last name, F. Last name or an anonymous unique code
• M recordedBy delimits multiple values with |
• individualCount are all integers
• individualCount has limited outliers
• individualCount has no 0 (would indicate absense data)
• sex uses this lowercase vocabulary (alternative terms allowed)
• sex delimits multiple values with |
• lifeStage uses this lowercase vocabulary (alternative terms allowed)
• lifeStage delimits multiple values with |
• eventID refers to an internal ID
• M samplingProtocol is a lowercase controlled vocabulary (or refers to a DOI)
• samplingEffort indicates the effort as a number
• samplingEffort is valid JSON
• M eventDate is ISO 8601
• eventDate does not contain date ranges (use verbatimEventDate)
• locationID refers to an internal ID
• M continent is Europe
• M countryCode is BE
• stateProvince is a vocabulary of English names
• municipality is ideally a vocabulary of local names
• verbatimLocality contains the fullest location name/description
• verbatimCoordinates is used for (UTM) grid codes only
• verbatimLatitude is the UTM y coordinate
• verbatimLongitude is the UTM x coordinate
• verbatimCoordinateSystem is Belgian Lambert 72 for coordinates or e.g. UTM 5km for grids
• verbatimCoordinateSystem is only populated when there are verbatim coordinates/lat/long
• verbatimSRS is Belgian Datum 1972, ED50 or WGS84
• verbatimSRS is only populated when there are verbatim coordinates/lat/long
• M decimalLatitude has a precision of 5 decimals
• M decimalLongitude has a precision of 5 decimals
• The coordinates are verified on a map
• M geodeticDatum is WGS84
• geodeticDatum is only populated when there are decimal coordinates
• M coordinateUncertaintyInMeters is the radius of a circle containing the complete area where the occurrence might have been seen, e.g. 3536 for a 5x5km grid square
• coordinateUncertaintyInMeters is only populated when there are decimal coordinates
• georeferenceRemarks shortly describes the coordinates calculation, e.g. coordinates are centroid of used grid square
• georeferenceRemarks is only populated when there are decimal coordinates
• identifiedBy is of the form First name Last name, F. Last name or an anonymous unique code
• identifiedBy delimits multiple values with |, but is generally a single person
• M scientificName is the accepted taxon name, without author
• M kingdom is always populated, e.g. Animalia
• phylum is generally populated
• class can be populated
• order can be populated
• taxonRank uses this lowercase vocabulary
• M taxonRank matches the rank of the scientificName
• M scientificNameAuthorship is the author of the scientificName (not populated for forms, hybrids)
• vernacularName is the English or Dutch vernacular name of the scientificName
• M nomenclaturalCode is ICZN or ICBN

Terms we seldom use

• references would contain a public URL with more information about an occurrence, and we don't have those
• informationWithheld could be see metata, where it is described in additional information
• dataGeneralizations could be coordinates are generalized to a 5x5km UTM grid, but only use this if we reduce the precision of the original coordinates
• behavior is seldom noted in an easy to retrieve way
• behavior uses a lowercase vocabulary
• establishmentMeans like invasive is more a property for a checklist
• establishmentMeans uses this lowercase vocabulary (alternative terms allowed)
• occurrenceStatus is assumed to be present, except for sample datasets
• occurrenceStatus uses this lowercase vocabulary (alternative terms allowed)
• associatedReferences could be used to indicate source literature
• associatedTaxa could be used to indicate relations, such as host plants
• verbatimEventDate is only populated for records with a date range
• verbatimEventDate is ISO 8601
• habitat is seldom noted in an easy to retrieve way
• habitat is lowercase
• waterBody uses a vocabulary
• georeferencedBy is only used for more complicated georeferencing
• georeferencedDate is only used for more complicated georeferencing
• georeferencedDate is ISO 8601
• georeferenceProtocol is only used for more complicated georeferencing, e.g. doi:10.1080/13658810412331280211
• georeferenceSources is only used for more complicated georeferencing
• georeferenceVerificationStatus is only used for more complicated georeferencing
• georeferenceVerificationStatus uses a lowercase vocabulary, e.g. unverified
• identificationVerificationStatus can be used for citizen science data with validation
• identificationVerificationStatus uses a lowercase vocabulary, e.g. verified
• taxonID is a publicly known code or URL, e.g. euring:07610
• family is generally not populated, except for datasets with very few species
• genus is generally not populated, except for datasets with very few species
• specificEpithet is generally not populated, except for datasets with very few species

Terms we don't use

This is not a full list, just terms we might have populated before.

• country is not used, we use countryCode
• locality is not used, as our vocabularies only apply to municipality and higher, or waterBody
• dateIdentified is assumed to be the eventDate and is thus not populated
• identificationReferences is almost never known
• verbatimTaxonRank is not used since we only have regular taxonRanks
• originalNameUsage is reserved for checklists
• taxonomicStatus is reserved for checklists

Specialized datasets

Specimen records

Populate the following terms:

• type is PhysicalObject
• basisOfRecord is PreservedSpecimen
• collectionCode refers to the collection acronym
• catalogNumber refers to the ID on the specimen

Tracking data

Try to populate these terms:

• organismID the code for the indivual
• organismName the name of the individual
• minimumElevationInMeters is 0
• minimumDistanceAboveSurfaceInMeters is the recorded flight altitude

The following mandatory terms cannot be populated:

• recordedBy
• continent
• countryCode

Event core

Try to populate these terms:

• organismQuantity
• organismQuantityType
• parentEventID
• sampleSizeValue
• sampleSizeUnit
• eventRemarks