Here are my notes on the draft.
Term Name: day Definition: The two-digit day of the month on which the Event occurred. Comment: Example: "9", "28".
To be two-digit it would have to be "09" instead of "9" in the comment. I would recommend omitting "two-digit" from the definition.
Term Name: higherGeographyID Definition: A unique identifier for the geographic region within with the Location occurred.
within with -> within which
Term Name: locality Definition: The specific description of the place. Less specific geographic information can be provided in other geographic terms (higherGeography, continent, country, stateProvince, county, waterBody, island, islandGroup). This term may contain information modified from the the original to correct perceived errors or standardize the description.
delete 2nd "the"
Term Name: minimumDistanceAboveSurfaceInMeters Definition: The lesser distance in a range of distance from the nearest surface in the vertical direction (positive for above, negative for below), in meters. Comment: Example: 1.5 meter sediment core from the bottom of a lake (at depth 20m) at 300m elevation; VerbatimElevation: "300m" MinimumElevationInMeters: "300", MaximumElevationInMeters: "300", VerbatimDepth: "20m", MinumumDepthInMeters: "20", MaximumDepthInMeters: "20", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMinimum: "0", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMaximum: "-1.5".
Those would be the distances above the surface if the core was raised to the surface of the water. If it was still in place the numbers would be: Example: 1.5 meter sediment core from the bottom of a lake (at depth 20m) at 300m elevation; VerbatimElevation: "300m" MinimumElevationInMeters: "300", MaximumElevationInMeters: "300", VerbatimDepth: "20m", MinumumDepthInMeters: "20", MaximumDepthInMeters: "20", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMinimum: "-21.5", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMaximum: "-20".
No reason the distance above surface should take the length of the core into account and the depth should not, so: Example: 1.5 meter sediment core from the bottom of a lake (at depth 20m) at 300m elevation; VerbatimElevation: "300m" MinimumElevationInMeters: "300", MaximumElevationInMeters: "300", VerbatimDepth: "20m", MinumumDepthInMeters: "21.5", MaximumDepthInMeters: "20", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMinimum: "-21.5", DistanceAboveSurfaceInMetersMaximum: "-20".
ditto maximumDistanceAboveSurfaceInMeters
These terms are redundant with depth but I can't think of a way to redefine either depth or above surface that would not be confusing for users, e.g. eliminating above surface and recording distance above surface as negative depth; or eliminating depth and recording depths as negative distance above the surface.
Why are the verbatimLatitude and verbatimLongitude terms needed? Isn't verbatimCoordinates sufficient?
Term Name: coordinateUncertaintyInMeters Definition: The upper limit of the distance (in meters) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing a circle within which the whole of the Location is contained. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated, or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term.
change "upper limit" to "lower limit"
Term Name: scientificName Definition: The taxon name (with date and authorship information if applicable). When forming part of and Identification, this should be the name in lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. This term should not contain identification qualifications, which should instead be supplied in the IdentificationQualifier term.
part of and Identification-> part of an Identification
Steve Ginzbarg