TABLE OF CONTENTS
Occurrence records should be tabular and shared as a text file. The preferred format is a CSV file but any other delimited text file is also acceptable (e.g. TSV). If your records are held in a spreadsheet we can accept XLS or XLSX files. We do not accept records held in any other formats (e.g. database or geospatial).
We do not accept unformatted records. The NBN Atlas follows the Darwin Core standard for sharing and storing biodiversity data. All required fields in the NBN Atlas Occurrence Record Upload Template (see attached to this article) must be populated. The template only includes our required and desirable terms. Any terms listed under the Additional Darwin Core terms heading can be included as a field in your data. These terms have been tested on the NBN Atlas and confirmed to process correctly.
Any Darwin Core term can be included as a field within your data, but we cannot guarantee terms that are not listed here will process correctly. The Darwin Core Quick Reference Guide is an easy-to-read reference of the currently (as of 2023-09-18) recommended terms maintained as part of the Darwin Core standard. Terms must be formatted and spelled exactly as provided here.
Please send your occurrence records and completed metadata form to data@nbnatlas.org.
Required and Desirable Terms
When providing multiple values within a field, the recommended best practice is to separate the values with a vertical bar | e.g. “Recorder A | Recorder B”.
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
occurrenceID Required | RecordKey | Definition: The unique and persistent row key or ID of the record that can follow any format. Examples:
|
datasetName Required | DatasetTitle | Definition: The title given to the data resource (this should match the name provided in the metadata form). |
license Required | Definition: A legally binding licence giving official permission to do something with the record. One of:
Additional Information: See the Data licence help guide. See the definition of Creative Commons licences. See the Open Government Licence. | |
rightsHolder Required | Definition: A person or organisation owning or managing rights over the resource, usually the name of the Data Partner. | |
taxonID Required | TaxonVersionKey | Definition: The Taxon Version Key (TVK) for the taxon supplied in the scientificName field. Examples:
Additional Information: TVKs can be obtained from the UKSI Sandbox. |
scientificName Required | Definition: The full scientific name. This should be the name of the lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. Examples:
| |
identificationVerificationStatus Required | Definition: A categorical indicator of the extent to which the taxonomic identification has been verified to be correct. One of:
Additional Information: See the Verification Status Terms help guide for more information. | |
eventDate Required | StartDate or EndDate | Definition: The date or range during which the occurrence was recorded. Dates or date ranges can be supplied in the following formats: a complete date YYYY-MM-DD (2008-09-04) DD/MM/YYYY (04/09/2008) partial dates a month and year in YYYY-MM (2008-09) format. a year in YYYY (2008) format. date ranges a complete date range in YYYY-MM-DD/ YYYY-MM-DD (2008-01-01/2009-02-25) format (preferred). a day range within the same month in YYYY-MM-DD/DD (2008-09-04/05) format. a month range within the same year in YYYY-MM/MM (2008-09/10) format. a year range in YYYY/YYYY (2008/2009) format. The year, month, and day can also be supplied in numeric format in fields labelled “year”, “month”, and “day”. These values do not need padding with zeros, e.g. “7” not “07”. Additional Information: Not suitable for a time in a geological context. |
recordedBy Required | Recorder | Definition: Names of people, groups, or organisations responsible for recording the original Occurrence. Examples: John Rodwell Dennis, R. L. H. | Shreeve, T. G. Volunteer Not Provided |
gridReference Required if decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are not supplied | GridReference | Definition: Location of the record using the Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system. British (OSGB) and Irish (OSI) National Grid references are both accepted. Records from Northern Ireland should be supplied with an OSI grid reference or latitude/longitude coordinates. Channel Islands National Grid references are not accepted; CI records should be supplied with latitude/longitude coordinates. Examples: SU122421 SP5405 NT22 Additional Information: Values should not include spaces or any other symbols. This term is not part of the Darwin Core standard. |
decimalLatitude Required if gridReference isn’t provided Must be used in conjunction with decimalLongitude | Definition: The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Examples: 52.952516 | |
decimalLongitude Required if gridReference isn’t provided Must be used in conjunction with decimalLatitude | Definition: The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Examples: -1.144200 | |
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters Required if decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are supplied | Precision | Definition: The horizontal distance (in meters) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. Additional Information: See the Grid and coordinate based records on the NBN Atlas for more information. |
locality Desirable | SiteName | Definition: The specific description of the place or place name where the record was made. |
basisOfRecord Required | Definition: The specific nature of the record. One of:
| |
occurrenceStatus Required | Definition: The presence or absence of individuals in the record. One of:
| |
vitality Required | Definition: Whether the organism was alive or dead at the time of the occurrence. One of:
|
Additional Darwin Core Terms
Record-level terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| modified | Definition: The most recent date-time on which the resource was changed. Must be in YYYY-MM-DD format. Examples: 2014-08-17 | |
| accessRights | Definition: Information about who can access the resource or an indication of its security status. Examples: not-for-profit use only | |
| bibliographicCitation | Definition: A bibliographic reference for the resource. Examples: Rand, K.M., Logerwell, E.A. The first demersal trawl survey of benthic fish and invertebrates in the Beaufort Sea since the late 1970s. Polar Biol 34, 475–488 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0900-2. | |
| institutionCode | Definition: The name (or acronym) of the Data Partner sharing the record. | |
| collectionCode | SurveyKey | Definition: The name, acronym, coden, or initialism identifying the collection or data set from which the record was derived. |
| informationWithheld | Definition: Additional information that exists, but that has not been shared in the given record. Examples: Recorder and verifier names not shared | |
| dataGeneralizations | Definition: Actions taken to make the shared data less specific or complete than in its original form. Suggests that alternative data of higher quality may be available on request. Examples: Coordinates generalized from original GPS coordinates to the nearest half degree grid cell. | |
| dynamicProperties | Definition: A list of additional measurements, facts, characteristics, or assertions about the record. Meant to provide a mechanism for structured content. Recommended best practice is to use a key:value encoding schema for a data interchange format such as JSON. Examples: {“heightInMeters”:1.5} {“targusLengthInMeters”:0.014, “weightInGrams”:120} {“natureOfID”:”expert identification”, “identificationEvidence”:”cytochrome B sequence”} | |
Occurrence terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| catalogNumber | Definition: An identifier (preferably unique) for the record within the data set or collection. | |
| recordNumber | Definition: An identifier given to the occurrence at the time it was recorded. Often serves as a link between field notes and an occurrence record, such as a specimen collector’s number. | |
| individualCount | Definition: The number of individuals represented present at the time of the occurrence. Examples:
Additional Information: Must be provided as an integer. | |
| organismQuantity | Abundance | Definition: A number or enumeration value for the quantity of organisms. The type of value is described by the organismQuantityType term. Examples:
|
| organismQuantityType | Definition: The type of quantification system used for the quantity of organisms. Examples:
| |
| sex | Definition: The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the occurrence record. Examples:
| |
| lifeStage | Definition: The age class or life stage of the biological individual(s) at the time the occurrence was recorded. Examples:
| |
| reproductiveCondition | Definition: The reproductive condition of the biological individual(s) represented in the occurrence. Examples:
| |
| behavior | Definition: The behaviour shown by the subject at the time the occurrence was recorded. Examples:
| |
| georeferenceVerificationStatus | Definition: Description of the extent to which the capture resolution georeference has been verified to represent the best possible spatial description. The resolution on the NBN Atlas may be at a lower resolution than the capture resolution. One of:
| |
| otherCatalogNumbers | Definition: A list (concatenated and separated) of previous or alternate fully qualified catalog numbers or other human-used identifiers for the same occurrence, whether in the current or any other data set or collection. | |
| occurrenceRemarks | Comment | Definition: Comments or notes on the occurrence. Examples: photographed but not collected |
Organism terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| organismScope | Definition: A description of the kind of organism instance. Can be used to indicate whether the organism instance represents a discrete organism or if it represents a particular type of aggregation. Examples:
| |
| organismRemarks | Definition: Comments or notes about the organism instance. Examples:
|
MaterialEntity terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| preparations | Definition: A list (concatenated and separated) of preparations and preservation methods. One of:
| |
| associatedSequences | Definition: A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers (publication, global unique identifier, URI) of genetic sequence information associated with the record. Examples: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/U34853.1 |
Event terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| eventID | SampleKey | Definition: An identifier for the set of information associated with the event (something that occurs at a place and time). |
| fieldNumber | Definition: An identifier given to the event in the field. Often serves as a link between field notes and the event. | |
| eventTime | Definition: The time or interval during which the event occurred. Examples:
| |
| verbatimEventDate | Definition: The verbatim original representation of the date and time information for the event. Examples:
| |
| samplingProtocol | SampleMethod | Definition: The name of, reference to, or description of the method or protocol used during the event. Examples:
|
| sampleSizeValue | Definition: A numeric value for a measurement of the size (time duration, length, area, or volume) of a sample in a sampling event. Examples:
| |
| sampleSizeUnit | Definition: The unit of measurement of the size (time duration, length, area, or volume) of a sample in a sampling event. Examples:
| |
| samplingEffort | Definition: The amount of effort expended during an event. Examples:
| |
| fieldNotes | Definition: One of a) an indicator of the existence of, b) a reference to (publication, URI), or c) the text of notes taken in the field about the event. | |
| eventRemarks | Definition: Comments or notes about the event. Examples: After the recent rains the river is nearly at flood stage. | |
| fundingAttribution | Definition: Text description of agencies, organisations, or individuals who funded the creation of the resource. | |
| fundingAttributionID | Definition: An identifier (URL) of agencies, organisations, or individuals who funded the creation of the resource. |
Location terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| locationID | SiteKey | Definition: An identifier for the set of location information. |
| waterBody | Definition: The name of the water body in which the location occurs. Examples:
| |
| verbatimLocality | Definition: The original textual description of the location or the British vice-county in which the location occurs. Examples:
Additional Information: For every record, the NBN Atlas calculates a vice-county using the Watsonian vice county boundaries GIS layer provided by the Biological Records Centre. This field can therefore retain the historic or current vice-county associated with the record. | |
| verbatimElevation | Definition: The original description of the elevation (altitude, usually above sea level) of the location. Examples:
| |
| verbatimDepth | Definition: The original description of the depth below the local surface. Examples:
| |
| locationRemarks | Definition: Comments or notes about the location. | |
| geodeticDatum | Projection | Definition: The ellipsoid, geodetic datum, or spatial reference system (SRS) upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude as based. One of:
|
Identification terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| verbatimIdentification | Definition: A string representing the taxonomic identification as it appeared in the original record. | |
| identifiedBy | Determiner | Definition: A list of names of people, groups, or organisations who assigned the taxon to the subject. Examples:
|
| identificationRemarks | Definition: Notes or comments on the identification. |
Taxon terms
| Darwin Core Term | NBN Data Exchange Format Equivalent | Definition and Examples |
|---|---|---|
| vernacularName | Definition: A common or vernacular name. | |
| taxonRemarks | Definition: Comments or notes about the taxon or name. |
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