Corresponding author: Pier Luigi Buttigieg (
Academic editor:
As the volume and diversity of digitised trait data grows with ever-increasing speed, there is a clear need to capture the knowledge which contextualises it. Many researchers are addressing similar challenges by using ontology-based approaches to represent knowledge and use it to better structure data across resources, however, there is immense variation in how and for what purpose these ontologies are built. While some approaches emphasise quick and lightweight deployment for specific projects, others spend considerable effort in creating "heavy duty", finely specified semantics for a wide user base. Effectively ontologising trait data collections is likely to require a hybrid of these strategies and must also consider how to meld emerging efforts with those that have matured into well-adopted, production-oriented systems. This contribution will provide an overview of existng ontologies linked to traits, as well as the best practices used to create and develop them within the
Pier Luigi Buttigieg
TDWG 2017, Ottawa, Canada
PLB was supported by the HGF Infrastructure Program FRAM of the Alfred Wegener Institute and the European Research Council Advanced Investigator grant ABYSS 294757 to Antje Boetius.
PLB primarily develops the Environment Ontology and, in this contribution, summarises a few of the trait-relevant ontology engineering efforts within the framework of the OBO Foundry and Library