ekrimmel
commented
6 years ago more discussion from DwC Hour #4: Evolution of Darwin Core Terms and Extensions...
Randy Singer (iDigBio-FLMNH): Is anyone else slightly worried about introducing interpretations to collections data? (e.g. this species is from X and it was established by Y) when this is interpreted data....can anyone convince me otherwise?
Patricia Mergen (Botanic Garden Meise/ Africamuseum): Well even an identification is interpreted data even if the name of the specimen is seen as part of the raw data …Many of our users expect some sort of already interpreted data, but need metadata on how these interpretation was made.
Randy Singer (iDigBio-FLMNH): @Patricia true but its basis is a means to locate a specimen within a collection, not an interpretation of the establishment means or invasive status of an organism.
Quentin, speaking: If you have an individual that you see clearly planted or in captivity then this is clear. If you are observing a wild organism you may not have any basis to determine this, but if your observations evolve into a checklist then you may be able to determine the origin based on the research you are doing for your checklist. At the checklist level you may be talking about a taxon, at the occurrence level you may be talking about an individual organism.
tucotuco
discussion from DwC Hour #4: Evolution of Darwin Core Terms and Extensions...
Andy Bentley: Am I missing something or is this origin field more a taxon related field than a specimen related field?
Erica Krimmel, Chi. Acad. Sci.: @Andy I'm also curious about that.
David Shorthouse - CMN: @Andy, that's my impression. But, what of fossil evidence?
Randy Singer (iDigBio-FLMNH): @Andy/Erica I would assume "origin" etc. would be subjective to the person doing the research. I'm not 100% sure how it would be helpful in the data, which are supposed to be unbiased.
David Shorthouse - CMN: What of phylogenetic origin?
John Wieczorek (Darwin Core): @Andy Yes, it might be good to review a bit Darwin Core's capacity to share specimen data versus checklist data.
Beth Wommack: Could it be related to an individual organism if you found one in an area that was introduced? Say a specimen of an escaped falconry bird?
David Shorthouse - CMN: Or a zoo.
Steve Baskauf (Vanderbilt University): Quentin and I have been experimenting with making a controlled vocabulary for occurrenceStatus conform to the machine-readable parts of the Standards Documentation Specification. You can read about it and see some demos at http://baskauf.blogspot.com/2017/05/using-tdwg-standards-documentation.html
Liz Sellers (USGS BISON): Zoo or Botanical Garden 'specimens' are often represented by basisOfRecord=LivingSpecimen
Gary Motz (Indiana Univ.): @Liz Unless the zoo specimen is contributed to a mammal collection after death.
Liz Sellers (USGS BISON): @Gary Yes indeed - would that then become basisOfRecord=PreservedSpecimen though right?
Gary Motz (Indiana Univ.): @Liz yes, indeed. But then, this could be where "origin" gets to be interesting! How can we differentiate the "origin" of an African wild dog from the Toledo Zoo in Toledo, Ohio?
Teresa Mayfield (UTEP Biodiversity Collections): Or the African parrot received from a rescue facility.
Liz Sellers (USGS BISON): @Gary - Agreed. It will be interesting to say the least, to see just how something like 'Origin' (I also considered 'Provenance') will be implemented by those mapping their data to DwC. It's been 'fun' just trying to do this within the non-native/invasive species information management communities.