All ecological measurements (plant height, animal count, soil pH, air temperature) in Ecoplots are represented as observations and observation attributes. Observations can also have additional attributes. An example of an attribute would be an “angle count point name”, but not all sampling protocols record this attribute. Therefore that property does not belong to the Observation itself and it is defined as an additional attribute. (TERN’s LinkedData site has more information about Observations).
Users may be only be interested in a small number of the observations or observation attributes that are available. In that case, it is best to extract observations based on several search criteria. Refer to the Search queries section for more details.
Observations
To retrieve observation data available in EcoPlots, you should use the /observations endpoint.
Please note that using this cURL request without any search parameters will results in a huge data download into the commandline. The below example cURL request example has used pagination to restrict the response to one page containing five results.
Request example:
curl -X POST "https://ecoplots.tern.org.au/api/v1.0/observations?dformat=ndjson" -H "accept: */*" -H "X-Api-Key: aAbBcC...xXyYzZ" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"page_num\":1,\"page_size\":5,\"query\":{}}"
Response excerpt:
{
"dataset":"TERN Surveillance Monitoring",
"datasetId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots",
"featureId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site_visit_id-58580-plant_occurr_id-54882275",
"featureType":"plant occurrence",
"featureTypeId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/b311c0d3-4a1a-4932-a39c-f5cdc1afa611",
"observationId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/point_intercept-obs-species_name-54882275",
"resultTime":"2018-05-11T00:00:00Z",
"parameter":"scientific name",
"parameterId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/56195246-ec5d-4050-a1c6-af786fbec715",
"result":"Boraginaceae",
"resultId":"N/A",
"resultUnit":"N/A",
"resultUnitId":"N/A",
"method":"Vegetation vouchering - vascular plants",
"methodId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/ausplots-cv/1d39b897-d6d3-40e9-8113-8ebeab2cd38e",
"instrumentId":"N/A",
"instrumentType":"N/A",
"instrumentTypeId":"N/A",
"siteName":"NSABBS0001",
"siteId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site-nsabbs0001",
"siteVisitName":"20180511",
"siteVisitId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/sv-58580",
"transectName":"NSABBS0001-transect-E4-W4",
"transectId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site-nsabbs0001-transect-e4-w4"
}
...
{
"dataset":"TERN Surveillance Monitoring",
"datasetId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots",
"featureId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site_visit_id-58580-plant_occurr_id-54882275",
"featureType":"plant occurrence",
"featureTypeId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/b311c0d3-4a1a-4932-a39c-f5cdc1afa611",
"observationId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/point_intercept-obs-species_name-54882275",
"resultTime":"2018-05-11T00:00:00Z",
"parameter":"scientific name",
"parameterId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/56195246-ec5d-4050-a1c6-af786fbec715",
"result":"Boraginaceae",
"resultId":"N/A",
"resultUnit":"N/A",
"resultUnitId":"N/A",
"method":"Vegetation vouchering - vascular plants",
"methodId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/ausplots-cv/1d39b897-d6d3-40e9-8113-8ebeab2cd38e",
"instrumentId":"N/A",
"instrumentType":"N/A",
"instrumentTypeId":"N/A",
"siteName":"NSABBS0001",
"siteId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site-nsabbs0001",
"siteVisitName":"20180511",
"siteVisitId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/sv-58580",
"transectName":"NSABBS0001-transect-E4-W4",
"transectId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/site-nsabbs0001-transect-e4-w4"
}
Observation attributes
You can download observation attributes through the /observations/attributes endpoint. A list of all the attributes that are available to be searched is available on TERN’s LinkedData Attributes page.
Please note that using this cURL request without any search parameters will results in a huge data download into the commandline. The below example cURL request example has used pagination to restrict the response to one page containing five results.
Request example:
curl -X POST "https://ecoplots.tern.org.au/api/v1.0/observations/attributes?dformat=ndjson" -H "accept: */*" -H "X-Api-Key: aAbBcC...xXyYzZ" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d "{\"page_num\":1,\"page_size\":50,\"query\":{}}"
Response excerpt:
{
"attributeId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/tern_basal_area-attr-point_id-475048",
"observationId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/tern_basal_area-obs-basal_area-475048",
"attributeName":"angle count point name",
"attributeConceptId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/46d2e568-72cd-4df3-b0ed-4ebdaf771e4c",
"value":"NW",
"valueId":"N/A",
"valueUnit":"N/A",
"valueUnitId":"N/A"
}
...
{
"attributeId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/tern_basal_area-attr-point_id-475069",
"observationId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/dataset/ausplots/tern_basal_area-obs-basal_area-475069",
"attributeName":"angle count point name",
"attributeConceptId":"http://linked.data.gov.au/def/tern-cv/46d2e568-72cd-4df3-b0ed-4ebdaf771e4c",
"value":"E",
"valueId":"N/A",
"valueUnit":"N/A",
"valueUnitId":"N/A"
}
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