[tdwg-content] practical details of recording a determination What is an Occurrence?

[Hilmar Lapp]

On Oct 22, 2010, at 1:03 AM, Cam Webb wrote:

> We can also employ the OBO relational ontology (ro) to indicate that  
> a fruit is
> ro:part_of the particular space-time Occurrence of an Individual  
> (this might require a bit more discussion!).

I don't think you can do that actually, given the definition of the  
relation [1]. I.e., to me the definition sounds like it is true  
meristic parthood that is meant here (and for which it is applied in  
the uses that I have seen). The fruit has some role in Occurrence, but  
isn't a part of it in the sense of meristics, don't you think?

Also, the quantification doesn't match: If A ro:part_of B, then all  
instances of A part_of some instance of B. Obviously, there are some  
fruits that haven't been recorded in an occurrence. Unless you equate  
Occurrence to the fact that a particular instance exists, whether  
someone has recorded it in an observation or not. That would be a  
trivial assertion though and I don't think is the purpose of  
dwc:Occurrence, is it?

	-hilmar

[1] http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/#OBO_REL:part_of

-- 
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: Hilmar Lapp  -:- Durham, NC -:- informatics.nescent.org :
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