Proposal to import term dwc:individualCount

[danstowell]

Term Name: dwc:individualCount

Imported from: http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/individualCount

Type: rdf:Property

Label: Individual Count

Required: No

Repeatable: No

Definition: The number of individuals represented present at the time of the Occurrence.

Usage: Numeric number of individuals

Justification for the term addition: The behaviour of individuals may be affected by the number of individuals present (e.g. chorusing). For analysis of bioacoustic traits, recordings of a single individual are often required, rather than a group with overlapping songs.

Proposed by myself and @edwbaker

[baskaufs]

Minor edit: correct rdfs:Property to rdf:Property

[dbloom]

Per my comments during the AC Maintenance Group at TDWG:

Please be careful with the definition of dwc:individualCount. The complete definition is “The number of individuals represented present at the time of the Occurrence.” This is important because the number of individuals present at the time of the occurrence may be different than the number of individuals retained by a given collection or represented on a recording.

[danstowell]

Another comment thanks to Mary Kennedy: "perhaps instead or in addition to number of individuals one could provide organismScope - this could then refer to a pack (of wolves) or a pod (of whales) or a flock (of birds), etc"

[danstowell]

@dbloom that's a good point. It seems to me there's a problem: the definition is not grammatical, so I don't know how to interpret "represented present". Does it mean "represented and present" or does it mean "represented/present"? See tdwg/dwc#285 where I request clarified wording.

[edwbaker]

I think individualCount (subject to clarification) covers neatly the case of laboratory recordings.

organismScope seems to neatly cover a lot of cases where there is an obvious social structure (e.g. flock). I'm not sure it covers cases where there is a chorus (whether the behaviour is structured or unstructured) but there is no obvious social structure (e.g. a field of crickets, a swamp of frogs).

Perhaps import both, and expand the guidance of organismScope to allow for "chorus" or equivalent to representing an indeterminate number of individuals?

[edwbaker]

Following discussion at the 2024 Working Group meeting, individualCount will be proposed at the next opportunity, with organismScope reserved for later discussion at an MG meeting.

[tucotuco]

Are you sure you don't want to consider the more expressive and explicit combination of dwc:organismQuantity and dwc:organismQuantityType? There was once an attempt to deprecate dwc:individualCount in favor of this combination, but consensus could not be reached to dispense with dwc:individualCount despite the fact the the new combination completely supersedes it.

[edwbaker]

"Are you sure" - no.

I will delay this one until the Maintenance Group can discuss it more thoroughly.