Field Specification for Data Reporting

The following document provides a description of the eLTER Data specification for data reporting and reflects a description of the structure (columns, fields) and content (description) of the data-reporting template. The data-reporting template consists of core fields (basic reporting) and possible extensions (extended reporting) providing additional fields (e.g. aggregation or quality flags). The data reporting consists of different entities providing the data together with the necessary additional documentation to ensure the use- and re-use of the data: ? DATA - containing the observation values ? STATION - containing information on the location of observation and sampling plots including the reference to the eLTER site ? METHOD - containing descriptions of the variables and the methods and protocols applied ? REFERENCE - containing information on code lists (e.g. taxon names, land cover type, soil type) ? EVENT - containing information observation events (e.g. vegetation relevee, observation campaigns, sampling events), only provided if events or sampling campaigns are documented ? SAMPLE - containing information on samples collected during a sampling event, only provided if samples are collected and stored and the information is provided with the data ? LICENSE - providing information on the data license applied and the usage restrictions