Until your message, no one has discussed the addition of an ecoregion term on tdwg-content. 

As to the question of country, I see 

On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 5:24 PM, Steve Baskauf <steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
> I've had some time to read through the proposed changes more closely and had
> a question.
>
> I realize that when a property is listed under a class in the dwc:
> namespace, that is kind of a suggestion about the type of resource for which
> that term would be an appropriate property (vs. a formal domain declaration
> which would force the subject resource to BE an instance of that class).  So
> one doesn't really "break the rules" if one uses a DwC term as a property of
> a resource that isn't a member of the class that the term is listed under.
> Nevertheless, for the sake of consistency and to make it possible for
> consuming applications to know what to "expect" as properties for particular
> types of things, it would be good to place DwC properties under the "right"
> class headings.
>
> So my question is, why are the terms dwc:habitat and dwc:biome being placed
> under the dwc:Event class?  I'll start with dwc:biome because that's the
> most straightforward one.  It seems to me that dwc:biome should be organized
> under the class dcterms:Location rather than dwc:Event.  For example, I
> would say
>
> <http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/d0127#loc> dwc:biome "temperate
> broadleaf forest"
>
> (where http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/d0127#loc is a
> dcterms:Location) or something like that.  Although I suppose over time
> climate change could cause that location to be part of a different biome,
> that probably wouldn't happen on a timescale the would be relevant.  One
> could probably also make the case that dwc:habitat is a property of a
> location, although I suppose that the habitat type of a location could
> change, for example if it were a forest, but then somebody chopped down all
> of the trees and converted it to agricultural use.  In that case, it might
> be desirable to record what the state of that location was at a particular
> time (which is the way I think about dwc:Event - something that happens at a
> particular place and time).  Then it would make sense to group it under
> dwc:Event.  But we have other properties of location that could change over
> time, such as dwc:country for which we have several examples in Europe
> within the past few decades.
>
> I suppose the thinking is that the proposed terms (habitat, biome,
> environmentalFeature, environmentalMaterial) would comprise a set of
> properties that would be associated with a collecting or sampling event.
> But it doesn't really make sense to me to call dwc:biome a property of an
> event.
>
> I'm also wondering if there was any consideration about creating a
> dwc:ecoregion property, which I would consider to be something intermediate
> in scale between a biome and a habitat.  I would actually use that term a
> lot, but I may be the only one (and I would use it as a property of a
> location).  If one were to create such a term, it would probably be good to
> have some other term that specified the system used to define the controlled
> vocabulary (e.g. Bailey vs. WWF ecoregions).  Or use URIs but that's a
> different issue and the DwC RDF guide would have a solution for that
> (dwcuri:biome, dwcuri:ecoregion, etc.).
>
> Steve
>
> John Wieczorek wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> The spirit of the proposal is to satisfy use cases defined in the
> document "Meeting Report: GBIF hackathon-workshop on
> Darwin Core and sample data (22-24 May 2013)" found at
> http://www.gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=5424 by reusing terms from the ENVO
> ontology. Steve is correct. All of the ENVO terms are classes in
> keeping with the OBO Foundry way of doing things. As such, they don't
> work in the intended Darwin Core context as they currently stand,
> where what we want are properties whose values can come from ENVO as a
> controlled vocabulary in the way Hilmar described.
>
> To satisfy the spirit of the proposal, I suggest that instead of
> replacing the dwc:habitat property with the envo:habitat class and
> adding the other three ENVO classes, we modify the existing
> dwc:habitat property and introduce new properties whose ranges are
> recommended to be the appropriate ENVO classes, as follows:
>
> Retain the property term dwc:habitat, but amend the definition to be:
>
> Term Name: habitat
> Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/habitat
> Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label: Habitat
> Definition: A spatial region having environmental qualities which may
> sustain an organism or a community of organisms. Recommended best
> practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the
> habitat class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO).
> Comment: Examples: "freshwater habitat",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002037". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2008-11-19
> Date Modified: 2013-09-26
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: habitat-2013-09-26
> Replaces: habitat-2009-04-24
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> Add the following new property terms for biome,
> environmental feature, and environmental material:
>
> Term Name: biome
> Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/biome
> Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label: Biome
> Definition: A major class of ecologically similar communities of
> plants, animals, and other organisms. Biomes are defined based on
> factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs, and grasses),
> leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest,
> woodland, savanna), and other factors like climate. Unlike ecozones,
> biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic, or historical
> similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of
> ecological succession and climax vegetation. Recommended best practice
> is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the biome class
> of the Environment Ontology (ENVO).
> Comment: Examples: "flooded grassland biome",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000195". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-26
> Date Modified: 2013-09-26
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: biome-2013-09-26
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> Term Name: environmentalFeature
> Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/environmentalFeature
> Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label: Environmental Feature
> Definition: A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or
> characteristic of a biome. Recommended best practice is to use a
> controlled vocabulary such as defined by the environmental feature
> class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO).
> Comment: Examples: "meadow",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000108". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-26
> Date Modified: 2013-09-26
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: environmentalFeature-2013-09-26
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> Term Name: environmentalMaterial
> Identifier: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/environmentalMaterial
> Namespace: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/
> Label: Environmental Material
> Definition: Material in or on which organisms may live. Recommended
> best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary such as defined by the
> environmental feature class of the Environment Ontology (ENVO).
> Comment: Examples: "scum",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00003930". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-26
> Date Modified: 2013-09-26
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: environmentalMaterial-2013-09-26
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> I hope this makes better sense.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>
> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 4:03 AM, Steve Baskauf
> <steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Well, the proposal says "The Darwin Core term habitat would be redefined..."
> .  I take that to mean that the term dwc:habitat is being replaced with
> envo:00002036 .  If that's not what it means, then it would be good to
> clarify.  If the intention is to provide values for other terms, that should
> be stated.
>
> Steve
>
>
> Hilmar Lapp wrote:
>
> I was assuming that the proposal was that subclasses of envo:habitat would
> take the place of values for the dwc:habitat property. But perhaps I was
> naive or misunderstanding?
>
> -hilmar
>
> Sent from away
>
> On Sep 25, 2013, at 8:23 PM, Steve Baskauf <steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu>
> wrote:
>
> OK, now that I've had a chance to look at the RDF, it is as I suspected.  If
> I am understanding the proposal correctly, the proposal is to replace the
> term <http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/habitat> (i.e. dwc:habitat) with the term
> <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002036> (which I'll call
> envo:00002036 for brevity)  However, the definition of dwc:habitat which you
> can view at
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/source/browse/trunk/rdf/dwcterms.rdf
> says
>
>  dwc:habitat rdf:type rdfs:Property
>
> whereas the document I received at the end of those four redirects tells me
> that
>
> envo:00002036 rdf:type owl:Class
>
> Since
>
> owl:Class rdfs:subclassOf rdfs:Class
>
> then we are effectively changing the current DwC "habitat" term from a
> property into a class similar to dwc:Occurrence, dwc:Identification,
> dwc:Taxon, etc. which are all of type rdfs:Class.
>
> So I'm left wondering what I can do with the new term.  With the old term I
> could make a statement like
>
> <http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/50750#eve> dwc:habitat "deciduous
> forest"
>
> or something like that if I take the hint from the DwC class groupings that
> dwc:habitat might be a property of dwc:Event instances.  But I can't
> meaningfully say
>
> <http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu/baskauf/50750#eve> envo:00002036
> "deciduous forest"
>
> That doesn't make any sense because the way I understand RDF, predicates
> should be properties, not classes.  Even if we weren't talking about RDF,
> I'd still have the same problem (we are changing a property into a class) -
> it's just easier for me to make plain what the issue is by giving RDF
> examples.  So just exactly what can I "do" with envo:00002036 ?????
>
> I haven't looked up the RDF for the other proposed terms (too much work with
> the four redirects), but I suspect if I did, I'd find that they are also
> classes and not properties.  This particular issue is a case of a broader
> issue that I have about OBO-style ontologies.  They are great for defining
> how many, many kinds of classes are related to each other.  But they provide
> very few properties that could be used as predicates to serve as properties
> of instance data.
>
> Steve
>
> John Wieczorek wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> GBIF has just published "Meeting Report: GBIF hackathon-workshop on
> Darwin Core and sample data (22-24 May 2013)" at
> http://www.gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=5424. Now that this document is
> available for public reference, I would like to formally open the
> minimum 30-day comment period on the new environmental terms proposed
> during the workshop and defined in the referenced document.
>
> The formal proposal would change the term habitat to align it with the
> ENVO habitat term. The related issues in the Darwin Core issue tracker
> is https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=178. The
> Darwin Core term habitat would be redefined as follows:
>
> Term Name: habitat
> Identifier: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002036
> Namespace: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/
> Label: Habitat
> Definition: A spatial region having environmental qualities which may
> sustain an organism or a community of organisms.
> Comment: Examples: "freshwater habitat",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002037". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2008-11-19
> Date Modified: 2013-09-25
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002036
> Replaces: habitat-2009-04-24
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> The formal proposal would add the following new terms for biome,
> environmental feature, and environmental material:
>
> Term Name: biome
> Identifier: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000428
> Namespace: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/
> Label: Biome
> Definition: A major class of ecologically similar communities of
> plants, animals, and other organisms. Biomes are defined based on
> factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs, and grasses),
> leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest,
> woodland, savanna), and other factors like climate. Unlike ecozones,
> biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic, or historical
> similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of
> ecological succession and climax vegetation.
> Comment: Examples: "flooded grassland biome",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000195". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-25
> Date Modified: 2013-09-25
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000428
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> Term Name: environmental feature
> Identifier: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002297
> Namespace: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/
> Label: Environmental Feature
> Definition: A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or
> characteristic of a biome.
> Comment: Examples: "meadow",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000108". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-25
> Date Modified: 2013-09-25
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00002297
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> Term Name: environmental material
> Identifier: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00010483
> Namespace: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/
> Label: Environmental Material
> Definition: Material in or on which organisms may live.
> Comment: Examples: "scum",
> "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00003930". For discussion see
> http://code.google.com/p/darwincore/wiki/Event (there will be no
> further documentation here until the term is ratified)
> Type of Term: http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class
> Refines:
> Status: proposed
> Date Issued: 2013-09-25
> Date Modified: 2013-09-25
> Has Domain:
> Has Range:
> Refines:
> Version: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00010483
> Replaces:
> IsReplaceBy:
> Class: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Event
> ABCD 2.0.6: not in ABCD (someone please confirm or deny this)
>
> The related issues in the Darwin Core issue tracker are
> https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=189
> https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=190
> and
> https://code.google.com/p/darwincore/issues/detail?id=191
>
> If there are any objections to the changes proposed for these terms,
> or comments about their definitions, please respond to this message.
> If there are no objections or if consensus can be reached on any
> amendments put forward, the proposal will go before the Executive
> Committee for authorization to put these additions into effect after
> the public commentary period.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
> _______________________________________________
> tdwg-content mailing list
> tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>
> .
>
>
>
>
> --
> Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
> Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
>
> postal mail address:
> PMB 351634
> Nashville, TN  37235-1634,  U.S.A.
>
> delivery address:
> 2125 Stevenson Center
> 1161 21st Ave., S.
> Nashville, TN 37235
>
> office: 2128 Stevenson Center
> phone: (615) 343-4582,  fax: (615) 322-4942
> If you fax, please phone or email so that I will know to look for it.
> http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> tdwg-content mailing list
> tdwg-content@lists.tdwg.org
> http://lists.tdwg.org/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-content
>
>
> --
> Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
> Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
>
> postal mail address:
> PMB 351634
> Nashville, TN  37235-1634,  U.S.A.
>
> delivery address:
> 2125 Stevenson Center
> 1161 21st Ave., S.
> Nashville, TN 37235
>
> office: 2128 Stevenson Center
> phone: (615) 343-4582,  fax: (615) 322-4942
> If you fax, please phone or email so that I will know to look for it.
> http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu
>
>
> .
>
>
>
>
> --
> Steven J. Baskauf, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer
> Vanderbilt University Dept. of Biological Sciences
>
> postal mail address:
> PMB 351634
> Nashville, TN  37235-1634,  U.S.A.
>
> delivery address:
> 2125 Stevenson Center
> 1161 21st Ave., S.
> Nashville, TN 37235
>
> office: 2128 Stevenson Center
> phone: (615) 343-4582,  fax: (615) 322-4942
> If you fax, please phone or email so that I will know to look for it.
> http://bioimages.vanderbilt.edu