Glossary

Specify-defined terms

Algorithm

An algorithm is a procedure or formula for solving a problem. There are multiple algorithms for computing Species Distribution Models (SDM) which define the relationship between a set of points and the environmental values at those points.

Container

A Docker instance which runs as an application on a Host machine. The Docker container contains all software dependencies required by the programs it will run.

CSV

CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a file format for records, in which fields are separated by a delimiter. Commas and tabs are common, but other characters may be used as delimiters.

Data Catalog

The Specify database of tables and fields containing all data related to one or more Collections.

Data Validation

Testing processes to run on data values ensuring that they meet the conditions defined for the field, table, and database. This could include data type, formatting, content restrictions such as a controlled vocabulary, numeric range, or existence of an database identifier.

Docker

Docker is an application which can run on Linux, MacOSX, or Windows. With a Docker-ized application, such as this tutorial, a user can run the application on their local machine in a controlled and sequestered environment, with a set of dependencies that may not be easy, allowed, or even available for their local machine.

Docker image

A Docker-ized application, built into a single package, with all required software dependencies and files.

DwCA

DwCA (Darwin Core Archive) is a packaged dataset of occurrence records in Darwin Core standard format, along with metadata about the contents.

Host machine

A physical or virtual machine on which Docker can be run.

Mapped Spreadsheet

A spreadsheet that has a mapping document that matches spreadsheet columns to Specify database fields.

Mapping Template

A document that matches terms in a Mapped Spreadsheet to fields in the Specify database.

Occurrence

An occurrence is a record of a specimen occurrence including metadata about the specimen and the spatial location where it was found.

Occurrence Data

Point data representing specimens collected for a single species or taxon. Each data point contains a location, x and y, in some known geographic spatial reference system.

Tree

A Tree is a set of hierarchical data. Several tables in Specify are defined as trees: Taxonomy, Geography, Storage Location.