NTR: Arctic tree-line ecotone

[VarshaKhodiyar]

NTR: Arctic tree-line ecotone

From the authors I am working with: We have examined the ENVO nomenclature whether there is an ENVO term for “Arctic tree-line ecotone”. However, there is no other term that could be used. "Arctic tree-line ecotone” is the correct and universally accepted usage, describing one of the world’s most dramatic vegetational boundaries controlled by major climatic divisions.

[cmungall]

It seems it might be useful to have a grouping class and design pattern for ecotones.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotone

See also comments in #286 and comments under cline

[pbuttigieg]

Yes. Some time back I attempted to draft some classes for ecotones, but the focus appears to be on instances.

Would the authors have a proposed definition for the ecotones they have deep knowledge about? We will microcredit with ORCIDs, of course.

On 18 Apr 2017 18:44, "Chris Mungall" notifications@github.com wrote:

It seems it might be useful to have a grouping class and design pattern for ecotones.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotone

See also comments in #286 https://github.com/EnvironmentOntology/envo/issues/286 and comments under cline http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000258

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[VarshaKhodiyar]

I will ask the authors to contribute directly to this discussion, thanks

[VarshaKhodiyar]

Definition supplied by Scientific Data authors

Ecotone: E. P. Odum in 1983 wrote in his textbook Basic Ecology “A sharp transition between two or more diverse communities, for example between forest and grassland, is known as an ecotone.” Random House dictionary (1948) defines ecotone as ”The transition zone between two different plant communities, as that between forest and prairie (origin Greek oikos = home, tonos = stress).” Major vegetational ecotones such as that between the northern edge of the Boreal Forest in North America (or taiga in Russia) and the arctic tundra, known as the arctic tree-line ecotone, are controlled largely by large-scale airmass contrasts and are sensitive to climatic change, as noted by R. A. Bryson (1966).

Harvey Nichols, Ph.D. , April 23, 2017 Emeritus Professor of Biology.

[pbuttigieg]

Great! This is similar to the resources we were looking at, but we're always more confident when users submit a definition so we know that we're on the same page.

[pbuttigieg]

Hi @VarshaKhodiyar, we've created and queued for release the following terms, referencing the author input and other sources we found relevant. The definitions may sound a bit different due to our handling of semantics, but should be workable.

Please note, ENVO doesn't have any instances of environments (i.e. we would have "rainforest", but not "Amazon rainforest") which would belong in GAZ. Thus, we created "polar tree-line ecotone" for this request with "Arctic tree-line ecotone" as a related synonym so users can find the class.

label	definition	PURL
ecotone	An envirommental system which bridges two or more biomes and which includes ecological communities which blend these biomes' phylogenetic and phenotypic compositions.	http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000947
polar tree-line ecotone	An ecotone which bridges a subpolar coniferous forest biome and a tundra biome.	http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000948

[VarshaKhodiyar]

Great, thanks!

[pbuttigieg]

Closed in https://github.com/EnvironmentOntology/envo/commit/05a3e3a8a4629dd15bc444c5332967e76e97f618