Overview of export options

Data can be downloaded in three different formats:

Data in columns (*.csv)

List of fields returned by the Traits database when "Data as columns" is chosen as an export option from the dowload section. Column label Column description Taxon The taxon for which the information was recorded. Author The author and year of the Taxon for which the information was recorded. Rank Rank of the taxon for which the information was recorded. Valid taxon Currently accepted name of the Taxon (as stored in the Arctic Traits database - information might not be up to date with the WoRMS or the latest taxonomic literature in some cases). Users should check all taxa against WoRMS before use. If Taxon is currently accepted, this field contains the same value as Taxon). Valid author Currently accepted name of the Author (as stored in the Arctic Traits database - information might not be up to date with the WoRMS or the latest taxonomic literature in some cases). Users should check all taxa against WoRMS before use. If Taxon is currently accepted, this field contains the same value as Author. Taxonomic status The status of the use of the Taxon (e.g. objective synonym, subjective synonym) as stored in the Arctic Traits database. Source of synonymy Literature reference for synonymy of taxon (if present). Parent taxon The Taxon's direct parent in the taxonomic classification (as stored in the Arctic Traits database). Trait The biological trait for which information is available (e.g. "Feeding habit"). Category The sub-category of the Trait for which information is available (e.g. "Predator"). Category abbreviation An abbreviated version of the often verbose trait category - useful as a label in further analyses of the data (e.g. "FH(6)"). Traitvalue Describes the affinity of the Taxon to the Category. Values range from 0–3: "0"= no affinity for a certain trait category; "1"= low affinity for a certain trait category; "2"= high affinity for a certain trait category, but other categories can occur with equal (2) or lower (1) affinity; "3"= total and exclusive affinity for a certain trait category. Reference Literature reference leading to the assignment of the Traitvalue to the Category for the Taxon. DOI Digital Object Identifier (where available) of the Reference. Value creator Person who assigned the Traitvalue to the Category for the Taxon, supported by a Reference. Value creation date Date and time when the above information was entered into the database. Value modified by Person who last modified the Traitvalue. Empty if no modifications were done. Value modification date Date and time when the Traitvalue was last modified. If no modification was done since the first entry, this has the same value as Value creation date. Text Excerpt A quotation of the original text passage from the literature source that led to the assignment of assignment of the Category/Traitvalue to the Taxon. Empty if information has not been recorded yet. Text Excerpt creator Person who entered the Text excerpt. Only present if Text Excerpt is present. Text Excerpt creation date Date and time when the Text Excerpt was entered into the database. Only present if Text Excerpt is present. Text Excerpt modified by Person who last modified the Text excerpt. Empty if no modifications were done. Text Excerpt modification date Date and time when the Text Excerpt was last modified. If no modification was done since the first entry, this has the same value as Text Excerpt creation date.

DarwinCore format

List of fields returned by the Arctic Traits database when "Darwin Core" is chosen as an export option from the dowload section. DarwinCore does not provide the same granularity as the "Data as columns" format. The output file consequently contains fewer records.

Data in matrix format (*.csv)

When "Data as matrix" is chosen as an export option from the dowload section, data are returned in the format "Species as rows, trait categories as columns, fuzzy codes as values". In case of synonyms the currently accepted name (WoRMS) is given in the second column. Be aware that in some cases conflicting source information might occur between synonymized taxa. We recommend to check trait information of all synonymized taxa in your dataset in advance of applying the downloaded trait information. Trait categories are abbreviated in the downloadable *.csv files (see “Trait definitions” for how trait categories are abbreviated and "Fuzzy codes” for an explanation about the coding system used. Zeros ("0") are not displayed in the fuzzy matrix."