Darwin Core (often abbreviated to DwC ) is an extension of Dublin Core for biodiversity informatics . It is meant to provide a stable standard reference for sharing information on biological diversity ( biodiversity ). The terms described in this standard are a part of a larger set of vocabularies and technical specifications under development and maintained by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) (formerly the Taxonomic Databases Working Group).
22-643: The Darwin Core is a body of standards intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity. The DwC includes a glossary of terms, and documentation providing reference definitions, examples, and commentary. An overview of the currently adopted terms and concepts can be found in the Darwin Core quick reference guide maintained by TDWG . The DwC operational unit is primarily based on taxa , their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, and samples, and related information. Included in
44-807: A fundamental contribution to the discipline of biodiversity informatics . Taxonomic databases digitize scientific biodiversity data and provide access to taxonomic data for research. Taxonomic databases vary in breadth of the groups of taxa and geographical space they seek to include, for example: beetles in a defined region, mammals globally, or all described taxa in the tree of life. A taxonomic database may incorporate organism identifiers (scientific name, author, and – for zoological taxa – year of original publication), synonyms, taxonomic opinions, literature sources or citations, illustrations or photographs, and biological attributes for each taxon (such as geographic distribution, ecology, descriptive information, threatened or vulnerable status, etc.). Some databases, such as
66-594: A global species checklist, numerous other taxonomic database projects such as Fauna Europaea , the Australian Faunal Directory, and more supply rich ancillary information including descriptions, illustrations, maps, and more. Many taxonomic database projects are currently listed at the TDWG "Biodiversity Information Projects of the World" site. The representation of taxonomic information in machine-encodable form raises
88-413: A number of issues not encountered in other domains, such as variant ways to cite the same species or other taxon name, the same name used for multiple taxa ( homonyms ), multiple non-current names for the same taxon ( synonyms ), changes in name and taxon concept definition through time, and more. Non-standardized categories and metadata in taxonomic databases hampers the ability for researchers to analyze
110-552: A simply-structured way. It is likely what is meant if someone were to suggest "formatting your data according to the Darwin Core". Darwin Core was originally created as a Z39.50 profile by the Z39.50 Biology Implementers Group (ZBIG), supported by funding from a USA National Science Foundation award. The name "Darwin Core" was first coined by Allen Allison at the first meeting of the ZBIG held at
132-506: A standard by Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) since then, Darwin Core has had numerous previous versions in production usage. The published standard contains a normative term list with the complete history of the versions of terms leading to the current standard. Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) , originally called the Taxonomic Databases Working Group ,
154-635: Is a non-profit scientific and educational association that works to develop open standards for the exchange of biodiversity data, facilitating biodiversity informatics . It is affiliated with the International Union of Biological Sciences . It is best known for the Darwin Core standard for exchanging biodiversity, which has been used by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to collect millions of biological observations from museums and other organizations from around
176-583: The Biodiversity Information Science and Standards ( BISS ), published by Pensoft . This article about a biology organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Taxonomic database A taxonomic database is a database created to hold information on biological taxa – for example groups of organisms organized by species name or other taxonomic identifier – for efficient data management and information retrieval . Taxonomic databases are routinely used for
198-655: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database and the Barcode of Life Data System , store the DNA barcode of a taxon if one exists (also called the Barcode Index Number (BIN) which may be assigned, for example, by the International Barcode of Life project (iBOL) or UNITE, a database for fungal DNA barcoding ). A taxonomic database aims to accurately model the characteristics of interest that are relevant to
220-544: The University of Kansas in 1998 while commenting on the profile's conceptual similarity with Dublin Core. The Darwin Core profile was later expressed as an XML Schema document for use by the Distributed Generic Information Retrieval (DiGIR) protocol. A TDWG task group was created to revise the Darwin Core, and a ratified metadata standard was officially released on 9 October 2009. Though ratified as
242-411: The automated construction of biological checklists such as floras and faunas , both for print publication and online; to underpin the operation of web-based species information systems; as a part of biological collection management (for example in museums and herbaria ); as well as providing, in some cases, the taxon management component of broader science or biology information systems. They are also
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#1733094474647264-458: The data types and constraints are not provided in the term definitions, recommendations are made about how to restrict the values where appropriate, for instance by suggesting the use of controlled vocabularies . DwC standards are versioned and are constantly evolving, and working groups frequently add to the documentation practical examples that discuss, refine, and expand the normative definitions of each term. This approach to documentation allows
286-728: The data. One forum that has promoted discussion and possible solutions to these and related problems since 1985 is the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) , originally called the Taxonomic Database Working Group. While online databases have great benefits (for example, increased access to taxonomic information), they also have issues such as data integrity risks due to on- and off-line versions and continuous updates, technical access issues due to server or internet outage, and differing capacities for complex queries to extract taxonomic data into lists. As
308-467: The organisms which are in scope for the intended coverage and usage of the system. For example, databases of fungi , algae , bryophytes and vascular plants ("higher plants") encode conventions from the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature while their counterparts for animals and most protists encode equivalent rules from the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature . Modelling
330-460: The relevant taxonomic hierarchy for any taxon is a natural fit with the relational model employed in almost all database systems. Scientific consensus is not reached for all taxon groups, and new species continue to be described; therefore, another goal of taxonomic databases is to aid in resolving conflicts of scientific opinion and unify taxonomy. Possibly the earliest documented management of taxonomic information in computerised form comprised
352-411: The standard are documents describing how these terms are managed, how the set of terms can be extended for new purposes, and how the terms can be used. Each DwC term includes a definition and discussions meant to promote the consistent use of the terms across applications and disciplines. In other contexts, such terms might be called properties, elements, fields, columns, attributes, or concepts. Though
374-460: The standard to adapt to new purposes without disrupting existing applications. In practice, Darwin Core decouples the definition and semantics of individual terms from application of these terms in different technologies. Darwin Core provides separate guidelines on how to encode the terms as RDF, XML or text files. The Simple Darwin Core is a specification for one particular way to use the terms and to share data about taxa and their occurrences in
396-597: The still current Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). A number of other taxonomic databases specializing in particular groups of organisms that appeared in the 1970s through to the present jointly contribute to the Species 2000 project, which since 2001 has been partnering with ITIS to produce a combined product, the Catalogue of Life . While the Catalogue of Life currently concentrates on assembling basic name information as
418-574: The taxonomic coding system developed by Richard Swartz et al. at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science for the Biota of Chesapeake Bay and described in a published report in 1972. This work led directly or indirectly to other projects with greater profile including the NODC Taxonomic Code system which went through 8 versions before being discontinued in 1996, to be subsumed and transformed into
440-695: The world. TDWG was founded in 1985 as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group; the first meeting took place on September 28–30, 1985, at the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva in Switzerland. The organisation was formed as an international collaboration to promote the wider and more effective dissemination of information about biological organisms. Its name was changed to Taxonomic Databases Working Group for Plant Sciences in 1986. It
462-571: Was accepted as a commission of the International Union of Biological Sciences in October 1988. The name changed to International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences in 1988. Initially focusing on plant taxonomic databases , in 1994 it expanded its scope to cover all taxonomic databases and changed its name to International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. In 2006 the group decided to change their name to emphasise their focus
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#1733094474647484-531: Was on standards for sharing biodiversity data, rather than on taxonomy or the databases themselves. However, they wished to retain TDWG for historical continuity, so the name became Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) . TDWG organises an annual meeting for its members. The organization was founded at the first meeting in Geneva in 1985. The association currently: This organization publishes conference proceedings in
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