Darwin Core
Introduction
Darwin Core is a group of standards designed for sharing biodiversity data. Developed by the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), it allows data owners to publish biodiversity information in a format that can be understood and used by everyone. From the Darwin Core website:
The Darwin Core is a body of standards. It includes a glossary of terms (in other contexts these might be called properties, elements, fields, columns, attributes, or concepts) intended to facilitate the sharing of information about biological diversity by providing reference definitions, examples, and commentaries. The Darwin Core is primarily based on taxa, their occurrence in nature as documented by observations, specimens, and samples, and related information. Included 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. The Simple Darwin Core is a specification for one particular way to use the terms – to share data about taxa and their occurrences in a simply structured way – and is probably what is meant if someone suggests to “format your data according to the Darwin Core”.
Documents
- Darwin Core website
- List of Darwin Core terms (also available as a Google Document)
- Simple Darwin Core – Darwin Core as a flat file
- Darwin Core archive – Darwin Core as a zipped text file + metadata
- Darwin Core archives in the GBIF network
- Wieczorek, J. et al, 2011. Darwin Core: An evolving community-developed biodiversity data standard
- DwC/IPT workshop (Berkeley 2010)
Darwin Core and Canadensys
Data within the Canadensys network will be shared as Darwin Core, formatted as text files (= Darwin Core archive). Participants can choose between two options:
- Data is shared as one text file (= Simple Darwin Core) and a metadata file.
- Data is shared as multiple text files (including one core and one or more extensions) and a metadata file.
Instructions regarding what option to choose will be published here soon, together with a list of expected fields for each type of collection (mycological, entomological, botanical or herbaria).
Mapping to Darwin Core
One of the first steps in publishing your data, is transforming or “mapping” your data from its current format to Darwin Core. For example, you might have the field “Collection Date” in your database or spreadsheet, which maps to “EventDate” in DarwinCore. In other cases it might not be so straightforward, which is why we are working on mapping guidelines to help you publish your data.
One-to-one mapping can be done with the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), but more advanced mapping functionalities are lacking. The mapping exercises done at our DwC/IPT workshop (Berkeley 2010) should help us to provide requirements for the IPT development team to tackle this issue.
Should you use Darwin Core to design a database?
Darwin Core is designed to exchange biodiversity information, not to manage data. You should design your database/spreadsheet in a way that fits the needs of your collection in the first place, but the list of Darwin Core terms might give you an idea of what fields you could include and how you could share it as Darwin Core later.