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Scope and completeness

What are survey scope and survey completeness?

Scope relates to the biodiversity targeted (or not targeted) during a survey. Completeness indicates the thoroughness of a survey relative to the stated scope. Structured reporting of explicitly stated survey scopes and completeness is necessary for evaluating and reporting completeness and is critical to understanding if the data can be used to assert absences (non-detections) of taxa.

Scope terms can be applied at any event level and recommended best practice is to report only the information that is explicitly available.

Verbatim scope

The full verbatim scope explicitly identifying the full suite of stated parameters defining the breadth of a sampling event should be reported using term:eco[eco:verbatimTargetScope]. term:eco[eco:verbatimTargetScope] is particularly useful for capturing scope conditions not covered by existing taxonomic or organismal scope terms.

Table 1. General scope terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries.

Status	Term	Example entry
Recommended	term:eco[eco:verbatimTargetScope]	Adult flying insects

Taxonomic scope

Why is taxonomic scope important?

Providing taxonomic scope enables reliable, quantitative, including statistical interpretation of survey and monitoring data. It is essential to interpret local non-detection as local absences.

Taxonomic scope terms

An explicitly stated targeted or intentionally excluded taxonomic scope should be reported using term:eco[eco:targetTaxonomicScope] and term:eco[eco:excludedTaxonomicScope].

• If a specific person or persons is recorded as making the taxonomic identifications relevant to the stated survey scope(s), they should be acknowledged via term:dwc[dwc:identifiedBy]. Best practice is to use a unique identifier (e.g. ORCiD), if available.

• If every organism included in term:eco[eco:targetTaxonomicScope] that was observed during an event was reported, then term:eco[eco:isTaxonomicScopeFullyReported] = TRUE; if not, term:eco[eco:isTaxonomicScopeFullyReported] = FALSE.

If taxonomic completeness is known, term:eco[eco:taxonCompletenessReported] should be populated as either reportedComplete or reportedIncomplete and the method used to assess completeness reported in term:eco[eco:taxonCompletenessProtocols]. If taxonomic completeness is not reported, term:eco[eco:taxonCompletenessReported] = notReported.

Table 2. Taxonomic scope terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries.

Status	Term	Example entry
Recommended	term:eco[eco:targetTaxonomicScope]	Arthropods
	term:eco[eco:excludedTaxonomicScope]	Aves, Mammalia
Share if available	term:dwc[dwc:identifiedBy]	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9216-2917, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0786-4069
	term:eco[eco:isTaxonomicScopeFullyReported]	TRUE or FALSE
	term:eco[eco:taxonCompletenessReported]	reportedComplete, reportedIncomplete, or notReported
	term:eco[eco:taxonCompletenessProtocols]	Based on sampling effort

Organismal scope

Why are organismal scope terms important?

As with taxonomic scope, providing organismal scope information when relevant enables reliable, quantitative interpretation of survey and monitoring data and can be essential to interpreting local non-detection as local absences.

Organismal scope terms

An explicitly stated target or excluded organismal scope, and clarification as to whether or not all target organisms observed were reported, should be indicated using the following terms:

• Life stage: term:eco[eco:targetLifeStageScope], term:eco[eco:excludedLifeStageScope], term:eco[eco:isLifeStageScopeFullyReported]

• Growth form: term:eco[eco:targetGrowthFormScope], term:eco[eco:excludedGrowthFormScope], term:eco[ecoLisGrowthFormScopeFullyReported]

• Degree of establishment: term:eco[eco:targetDegreeOfEstablishmentScope], term:eco[eco:excludedDegreeOfEstablishmentScope], term:eco[eco:isDegreeOfEstablishmentScopeFullyReported]

Other organismal scopes should be reported using term:eco[eco:verbatimTargetScope].

Table 3. Organismal scope terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries.

Status	Term	Example entry
Share if available	term:eco[eco:targetLifeStageScope]	larva
	term:eco[eco:excludedLifeStageScope]	adult, juvenile
	term:eco[eco:isLifeStageScopeFullyReported]	TRUE or FALSE
	term:eco[eco:targetDegreeOfEstablishmentScope]	native
	term:eco[eco:excludedDegreeOfEstablishmentScope]	invasive
	term:eco[eco:isDegreeOfEstablishmentScopeFullyReported]	TRUE or FALSE
	term:eco[eco:targetGrowthFormScope]	tree
	term:eco[eco:excludedGrowthFormScope]	shrub

Bycatch

What is bycatch?

Bycatch are organisms detected during a survey that were not explicitly targeted in the scope of a study.

Bycatch terms

Bycatch can be reported at the taxonomic and organismal levels.

If taxonomic bycatch are included in the datasets:

• Populate term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetTaxa] as TRUE at all relevant event levels.

• If ALL taxonomic bycatch (term:eco[eco:asNonTargetTaxa] = TRUE) captured/observed during an Event are reported in the dataset

  • term:eco[eco:areNonTargetTaxaFullyReported] = TRUE

  • a list of taxonomic bycatch should be provided in term:eco[eco:nonTargetTaxa]

If organismal bycatch are included in the dataset:

• Then term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetOrganisms] = TRUE at all relevant event levels.

If the dataset does NOT include taxonomic or organismal bycatch:

• Populate term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetTaxa] and term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetOrganisms] as FALSE at all relevant event levels.

Table 4. Bycatch terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries

Status	Term	Example entry
Share if available	term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetTaxa]	TRUE or FALSE
	term:eco[eco:areNonTargetTaxaFullyReported]	TRUE or FALSE
	term:eco[eco:nonTargetTaxa]	Parabuteo unicinctus, Geranoaetus melanoleucus; Cetoniinae, Aclopinae, Cyclocephala modesta
	term:eco[eco:hasNonTargetOrganisms]	TRUE or FALSE

Habitat scope

Habitat scope terms

An explicitly stated habitat scope should be reported using term:eco[eco:targetHabitatScope] and term:eco[eco:excludedHabitatScope].

Table 5. Habitat scope terms, their recommended usage (status), and example data entries

Status	Term	Example entry
Share if available	term:eco[eco:targetHabitatScope]	deciduous forest
	term:eco[eco:excludedHabitatScope]	urban, grassland