[tdwg-content] A proposal to improve Darwin Core for invasive species data

Quentin Groom quentin.groom at plantentuinmeise.be
Sat Jun 25 09:27:26 CEST 2016


Dear Rich,
Thanks for taking a look at the proposal!

perhaps you could clarify your comment regarding the upper limit of
"population". Is this what I would call the use of Darwin Core for
observations verses checklists?

You can only tell if an organism is invasive if you monitor it over time
therefore this term in inappropriate for a single observation. Also,
whether something is invasive is a different concept to whether something
is native or alien, both can be invasive. I seems to me that the currently
suggested vocabulary for dwc:establishmentMeans is conflating two concepts.
Also, none of these terms have much to do with how the organism became
established.

Currently, there are no fields where nativeness can be properly described
and all we need is 1. This is needed for calculating essential biodiversity
variables, for horizon scanning and invasive species monitoring. This is in
contrast to occurrenceStatus where we currently have three ways to declare
absence.

I would have preferred to deprecate the term dwc:establishmentMeans,
because its definition doesn't match its suggested vocabulary. However, I
chose to retain it for the sake of stability. It has already been suggested
that a better term would be introductionMeans.

I don't understand your way of indicating nativeness or how it would work.
For many species nativeness is a concept based upon limited available
evidence. It isn't something that can be pinned down to a particular event
or location. If Darwin Core was only ever used for single observations I
would agree that we don't need a term for nativeness, but as it is also
used for checklists and we have to accommodate terms that relate to a taxon
over a large area.

Regards
Quentin




Dr. Quentin Groom
(Botany and Information Technology)

Botanic Garden Meise
Domein van Bouchout
B-1860 Meise
Belgium

ORCID: 0000-0002-0596-5376 <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0596-5376>

Landline; +32 (0) 226 009 20 ext. 364
FAX:      +32 (0) 226 009 45

E-mail:     quentin.groom at plantentuinmeise.be
Skype name: qgroom
Website:    www.botanicgarden.be


On 25 June 2016 at 08:13, Richard Pyle <deepreef at bishopmuseum.org> wrote:

> Hi All,
>
>
>
> When we discussed the scope of the class “Organism”, I believe we
> considered the upper limit of “population” – but I can’t remember whether
> we accepted that upper limit.  If so, then the “Organism” instance
> participating in an particular Occurrence instance could logically be
> qualified as “invasive” or “native” (or whatever), in which case it seems
> more appropriate to apply terms such as “native”, “introduced”, “invasive”,
> etc. to dwc:establishmentMeans
>
>
>
> I realize this is squishy, but we don’t really have another class within
> DwC-space to which the property of “native”, “introduced”, “invasive”, etc.
> can be applied.  Moreover, I don’t think there SHOULD be such a class,
> because it short-circuits the basis for the presence of Taxon X at Location
> Y (i.e., this should be established via
> Taxon-->Identification-->Organism-->Occurrence-->Event-->Location).
>
>
>
> I realize this is an extraordinarily convoluted way of saying “Taxon X is
> native to Location Y”; but ultimately that’s what we want…. Right?
>
>
>
> Aloha,
>
> Rich
>
>
>
> *From:* tdwg-content [mailto:tdwg-content-bounces at lists.tdwg.org] *On
> Behalf Of *Steve Baskauf
> *Sent:* Sunday, June 19, 2016 1:45 PM
> *To:* Quentin Groom
> *Cc:* tdwg-content at lists.tdwg.org
> *Subject:* Re: [tdwg-content] A proposal to improve Darwin Core for
> invasive species data
>
>
>
> Getting caught up on this thread after a holiday.
>
> Some previous discussion on dwc:establishmentMeans in 2010 was at:
> http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-October/001730.html
> http://lists.tdwg.org/pipermail/tdwg-content/2010-October/001731.html
>
> The opinion expressed in that thread was that dwc:establishmentMeans was a
> property of an organism at a particular place and time (i.e. an
> Occurrence.): how did a particular organism come to be in that place at
> that time.  In that view, an organism might be at a location because it was
> a representative of a native species, or because it was managed at that
> location by humans.  In that perspective, it would not make sense to use
> the value "invasive" with dwc:establishmentMeans because that is more of a
> property of a species at a location rather than an individual organism at
> that location and time.
>
> Steve
>
> Quentin Groom wrote:
>
> I've been working on a proposal to improve Darwin Core for use with
> invasive species data.
>
>
>
> The proposal is detailed on GitHub at
> https://github.com/qgroom/ias-dwc-proposal/blob/master/proposal.md.
>
>
>
> The proposal is for a new term "origin" and suggested vocabularies for
> establishmentMeans and occurrenceStatus.
>
>
>
> I'd welcome your feedback on the proposal.
>
>
>
> From my perspective it provides some needed clarity on
> the establishmentMeans and occurrenceStatus fields, but also adds the
> origin that is needed for invasive species research and for conservation
> assessments.
>
>
>
> I'm not sure of the best way to discuss this, but if you have concrete
> proposals for changes you might raise them as issues on GitHub, as well as
> mentioning them here.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Quentin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr. Quentin Groom
>
> (Botany and Information Technology)
>
>
>
> Botanic Garden Meise
>
> Domein van Bouchout
>
> B-1860 Meise
>
> Belgium
>
>
>
> ORCID: 0000-0002-0596-5376 <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0596-5376>
>
>
>
> Landline; +32 (0) 226 009 20 ext. 364
>
> FAX:      +32 (0) 226 009 45
>
>
>
> E-mail:     quentin.groom at plantentuinmeise.be
>
> Skype name: qgroom
>
> Website:    www.botanicgarden.be
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> 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
>
> http://vanderbilt.edu/trees
>
>
>
>
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