Observing/collection method filtering

[laurabrenskelle]

Where and how would be the best way to share information about observing/collection method at an occurrence-level? I mean something that is more detailed than the controlled vocabulary currently listed under dwc:basisOfRecord. This question comes from conversations between GBIF and the marine life ocean observing community (example: MBON), to facilitate the filtering of occurrence records by method such as passive acoustic monitoring, eDNA, animal telemetry, etc. Are there any existing or in-progress semantic resources or controlled vocabularies that define different observing methods? If such a resource exists or is in progress, it would be good for it to cover all types of observing/collection methods, not just limited to marine or terrestrial. How can we engage if there is something in progress? If there is nothing in progress, is this within the scope of TDWG given that it is an enhancement that GBIF is exploring? As mentioned in some of the related issues linked below, we have looked at the NERC vocabulary or GCMD keywords as other possibilities for hosting this controlled vocabulary.

Related issues:

• add observing method field iobis/bioeco-geonode#168
• Breakdown MBON datasets by collection methods (eDNA, SCUBA, Passive Acoustic, Animal Tracking, etc..) ioos/mbon-docs#53

[CecSve]

GBIF has made a first draft of a dataset category vocabulary that seems to cover at least some of the methods you mention here. The concepts are derived from this discussion and a point has been raised whether sub-categories (child concepts) should refer to methodology specifically.

However, it is currently undecided how, and if, this vocabulary should be implemented in GBIF. The GBIF secretariat welcomes any feedback from the community, both in terms of concepts needed and relevance.