Observational Data Standard, v 1.0 Lynn Kutner, Donna Reynolds, Jennifer Nichols, Kristin Barker, Kristin Snow April 2007 A Provisional Standard to Facilitate Data Sharing and Aggregation

Working Group NatureServe  Lynn Kutner  Carol Fogelsong  Donna Reynolds  Jennifer Nichols  Bruce Stein  Rickie White  Keith Carr  Kelly Gravuer  Larry Master  Kristin Barker Member Programs  Karen Cieminski (MN)  Karen Walker (MT)  Pete Sorrill (ON)  John Fleckenstein (WA)  Nicole Firlotte (MB)  Jim Morefield (NV)  Tim Howard (NY)  Melanie Arnett (WY) Partners  Parks Canada  Canadian Wildlife Service  Cornell Lab of Ornithology  Larry Morse

Reviewers  Member Programs: Alberta, British Columbia, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Manitoba, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Saskatchewan, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming  NatureServe Central  NatureServe Canada  Canadian Wildlife Service  Cornell Lab of Ornithology  Information Center for the Environment (ICE), University of California, Davis  Parks Canada  U.S. National Park Service  VegBank  Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife

Development of the Standard

Process  Funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation  NatureServe is a co-sponsor of the Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG) Observational Data Subgroup: this is a provisional standard as an input for that group’s work towards an international observational data standard  Multi-institutional Observation Working Group  Compared 16 observation databases to identify breadth and commonalities among attributes: Salvias, ABCD, VegBank, Darwin Core2, Member Program custom databases  Project began mid Version 1.0 published September 2006  Initial implementation in NatureServe’s Kestrel  Revisions expected

What is an Observation? An observation characterizes evidence for the presence or absence of an organism or set of organisms through a data collection event at a location.

Goals & Requirements  Useable—minimal requirements, simple  Extensible, e.g., discipline-specific data  Universal  core set of concepts, broadly applicable, for data sharing and aggregation  compatible with (and incorporating) existing standards  Software-independent  Accommodate:  species AND ecological communities (inc. plots)  historical data  different protocols  negative (absence) data  data quality and validation attributes  monitoring

Overview of the Standard

Major Entities Observation Observation Grouping Survey Species List Project (group of surveys) Protocol (methods) Search Area External Documentation

Ranking of Attributes  Required – cannot be null, but in some cases can be “unknown”  Priority Core – should always be recorded if possible  Core – important but not required (not always available or applicable)  Additional – supplementary data

Attribute Table

Observation: Required Attributes 1.What: Scientific name Calypte anna or Quercus velutina / Ilex opaca Forest or “a community” 2.Where: GIS shape, coordinates, or text New Mexico: Eddy County, 3 mi S of Artesia along Rt When: Date (to year, at least) 30 November Who: Observer Name(s) or “Unknown” D.J. Davis

Observation: “What”  Scientific Name  Author – of scientific name  Concept reference & name used in concept ref  Name Type – “taxon” or “ecological community”  Identification Confidence – high, medium, low  Concept Fit – extent to which observed community fits with published concept  Secondary Designation – other communities / taxa that this observation may relate to  Verbatim Scientific Name  GUID – global universal identifier of a taxonomic concept

Observation: “Where”  Link to GIS feature (point, line, polygon)  Latitude, Longitude, Datum  Location Description (text) OR  Country  Mapping Accuracy – distance within which the location of the observation has believed to have been captured  Location confidence – high, medium, low  Location fuzzed – indicator and/or description of process if data have been randomized / generalized

 Date of the observation – includes either full date, partial date, or range of dates  Date Accuracy – proposed values: accurate within 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 1 year, 3 years, 10 years, >10 years  Observation Start Time and End Time Observation: “When”

 Observer Name – full name(s) of the person(s) who collected data  Observer Affiliation  Observer Postal Address, Phone Number, Address  Observer Role – primary observer, observer, collector, submitter, verifier Observation: “Who”

 Protocol – protocol used to collect data  Found Indicator – used to indicate negative (absence) data  Confidence – confidence in search result (High, Medium, Low)  Level of Effort – effort expended on a given visit  Additional Inventory Needed – Is additional inventory of the area needed for this element? (Y / N)  Evidence Type – sample values: Specimen, Sighting, Literature, Photograph, Tracks  Evidence Comments Observation: “How” Observation: Evidence

Observation: Biology  Number of Individuals (species)  Estimated / Observed – whether number is estimate or actual count  Reproductive Evidence – element reproducing at the location? (Y / N)  Condition of Element – description of the quality of element (e.g., health, alive or dead)  Density / Distribution – distribution of the element on the landscape (e.g., solitary individual, patchy, scattered, solid cover)  Strata – vegetation strata in the community  Origin – sample values: Native, Nonindigenous, Unknown/Undetermined  Invasiveness Comments – notes about the degree of invasiveness

Observation: Environment  Habitat Description – text description of the local or surrounding habitat  IUCN Habitat Category – habitat type, selected from a picklist  Condition of Site – condition of the surroundings (e.g., flooded, burned, etc.)  Weather – description of the weather conditions at the time of the visit  IUCN Threat Category – primary threat, selected from a picklist  Threat Comments – notes about primary or other threats  Management Activities – activities conducted during a particular visit (e.g., pulling or pesticides applied to invasives)  Management Needs – most important management needs (for enhancement or control) at this observation site

 Data Sensitive – Is the observation information sensitive? (Y / N)  Reason Data Sensitive – primary reason why data are sensitive  General Comments – notes about observation not addressed elsewhere  Internal Notes – comments or issues about the observation that are internal to the organization that created the record  Associated Element Scientific Name  Associated Element Origin sample values: Native, Nonindigenous, Unknown/Undetermined  Associated Element Relationship Comments Other Information Associated Elements

Major Entities Observation Observation Grouping Survey Species List Project (group of surveys) Search Area (inc. plot) - GIS Shape Protocol (methods) Documentation

Observation Grouping  Name of Grouping  Criteria – the common characteristic or other criteria used to group the observations (same element, same location, or any other criteria)  Owner – the person who created the observation grouping  Monitoring Comments – changes over time and trends within the grouping

Species List  For community plot data  observation ID  search area ID (plot)  scientific name / concept  stratum  cover class  percent cover  number (per species)  May make an observation record for each species, but not required

Next Steps  Current and future software development projects at NatureServe:  Kestrel  Handheld field data collection tool - funding received from NSF  XML schema, mapping to existing TDWG standards  TDWG Observational Data Subgroup

Kestrel NatureServe’s Web Application for Observations Data Management  XML-based  Web interface  Extensible: Data model is dynamically generated  Libraries and Templates  Open Source

Kestrel Architecture Kestrel XML Web Service Kestrel Web User Interface Kestrel Web User Interface Oracle Database Internet Browser Aggregation Portal Desktop Application Desktop Application Field Device XML HTML

Application Framework Kestrel XML Web Service Kestrel Web User Interface Kestrel Web User Interface Oracle Database IDD Species Web Service Biotics Database Security XML Web Service Users & Permissions Database ArcGIS Server XML Web Service SDE Database

Observation Standard Support  Core Attributes  Who, what, where, when  Managed as relational fields  Extended Attributes  Managed as XML

Attribute Extensibility  Individual Attributes defined in XML  Help to describe observation or survey  Non-trivial effort  Signed by author, optionally by organization

Example Attribute: ObservationType

Example Attribute: Acidity

Attribute Collection  Group of Extended Attributes  Strongly associated with observation or survey  Signed by author/organization  “Work together”  Ad-hoc OR  Protocol support, e.g.  Heritage Methodology  CI Rapid Assessment  Citizen Bird Survey

Timeline  Parks Canada: June 2007 – very basic functionality  NSF Handheld Data Collection Tool: June 2009 – accommodate plots, multivalued data, etc.

Questions / Discussion