Viewing Sample Records in EcoPlots

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Viewing Sample Records in EcoPlots

Results View

Once a user make selection in the facet and select “Show Results” for their query, applicable samples will show on the screen. Each sample type selected by the user will be shown in a separate tab. Note that the user can switch between tabs for the various sample types searched and site visits and results will filter based on the tab selected.

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View of sample results by sample type

 

As with results for observation data, users are able to widen the results panel by clicking on the chevron buttonimage-20250321-022218.png, as well as selecting the number of results displayed on the page. These buttons are highlighted on the above screenshot.

 

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Options for columns to display on the sample results page

Users can also customise the columns displayed in the results using the eye button image-20250321-022522.png, highlighted on the previous screenshot. When clicked, the list of available columns opens and users can select or deselect checkboxes from the available options.

By default, the following columns are selected:

  • IGSN,

  • Data source,

  • Site id,

  • Site visit id,

  • Site visit date,

  • Latitude,

  • Longitude,

  • Sample id, and

  • Sample type.

 

If the user has selected either a Sample Type of either Plant Tissue Sample or Plant Voucher Specimen, then the Scientific name column will also display by default. In contrast, for Sample Types of Soil Subsite Sample, Soil Pit Sample or Soil Metagenomic Sample, the Soil subsite id, Soil depth Min and Soil depth Max will display by default.

 

Viewing Individual Sample Records

As with observation data, when users click on the links within each column of a result, pop ups with further information appears. Information contained in these pop ups is dependent on the column and record selected. Orange superscripts within pop ups can be clicked on to provide further information about the specific data item.

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Example of further information available when the “Site id” column of a result is clicked

 

While most pop ups have a similar layout to the above “Site id” example, and a small amount of information contained within. All samples published in TERN will have International Generic Sample Number (IGSN), a persistent unique identifier for physical samples. Users can click on IGSN number from the table and see the complete information related to the sample.

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Location of IGSN page link

 

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Example of an IGSN sample record

 

This information includes:

  • Sample identification information: including barcode, sample name, type and ID

  • IGSN information: including identification information, creators and publishers of the sample record and publication year

  • Geographical information: including information about the site the sample was collected from, coordinates and various landscape descriptors

  • Sample information: Depending on the sample type, information may include scientific names, identification attributes, specimen holding institution, soil depth range, pH, electrical conductivity and other attributes

  • Taxonomic information: including scientific name, name authorship and taxonomic hierarchy

  • Related samples: including links to parent, sibling or child samples.

    • Parent samples: refers to samples from which the current record is derived. For example, a leaf tissue sample might have a parent plant voucher, from which the leaf tissue was taken for analysis.

    • Sibling samples: refers to different samples taken from the same source at a single point in time. For example:

      • where multiple vegetation samples are taken from one plant on the same day/at the same time,

      • where multiple leaf tissue samples are taken for genetic vouchering from the one plant voucher sample

      • where soil samples are taken from different depths at the same site and same date/time

    • Child samples: refers to samples derived from the current sample record. For example, a plant voucher might have had a small amount of leaf tissue taken for analysis, and this leaf tissue would be considered a child sample and have its own (child) leaf tissue sample record.

  • Sample images: any images of the sample

 

Note that for records with images, images can be enlarged and downloaded at full resolution.

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Option to download full resolution image

 

 

Next Page: Selecting Samples to Request Access

 

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