The ontology of Cerrado wood plant dynamics was created
in order to represent the set of concepts about the dynamics, that is,
changes over time of the wood vegetation structure, of Cerrado. Ccon
describes the main parameters used to measure the changes, such as
mortality rate and recruitment rate.
The lates OWL encoding for Ccon can be found here
The Ccon is an OWL2 ontology according to the W3C recommendations [6], developed to represent the scientific knowledge about vegetation ecology focused to describe the dynamics of wood plants in the Brazilian Cerrado Domain. This ontology will be part of the GeoLinked Data Ontology network to enrich the web of data with geospatial information of the Cerrado Biome, especially with regard the wood plant dynamics. It aims to store data and collect information about biodiversity, composition and wood plant dynamics, to manage, integrate and query data about Cerrado plant community, and search for changes in Cerrado species populations over time. An interesting example can be the possibility of data integration from different scientific studies over different locations. Once the data available on line of studies carried out in different places can be integrated, geolocated, linked with qualitative models and, finally, inferences can be performed.
The ontology describe conceptually how the Cerrado biome is structurally organized, in terms of biological organization levels. Once many types of physiognomies have been described and studied [2; 4; 5], there is not a universal consensus about the definitions and characteristics of each one [2]. Thus, the concepts used in the Ontology are the most accepted and used by researchers in Brazilian institutions such as IBGE (Portuguese acronym for Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) and Embrapa (Portuguese acronym for Brazilian Enterprise for Agricultural Research). The Physiognomies differ mainly according to it's vegetation structure, that is, the percentage of wood cover, and composition [2; 4]. There are other types of vegetation which are not savanna like communities, such as Tropical seasonal forests and Grasslands. The ontology define the different characteristics of the physiognomies, and also define the concept of savanna, one of the major types of terrestrial biome and the most representative biome type in the Cerrado domain.
Figure 1. Graphical representation of the main Physiognomies found in Cerrado and its structure present in the Ccon Ontology. Boxes represent Classes and arrows represent Object properties.
The other important aspects represented in the ontology are those regarding the dynamics of the vegetation, characteristics such as Mortality rate, Recruitment rate, Growth rate. They all account to evaluate the changes in the systems structure and composition over time and they were represented graphically in figure 2.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#PopulationDynamics
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CampoLimpo
Dry grassland without shrubs or trees
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CampoCerrado
Scattered trees and shrubs and a large proportion of grassland
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CampoSujo
Grassland with a scattering of shrubs and small trees
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Angiosperm
A seed-bearing plant with the ovules borne enclosed by a sporophyll whose margins are fused, i.e., the ovules are borne in an ovary.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#BasalArea
It's the area of a breast-high cross section of a tree or of all the trees in a stand.
Source: Merriam-Webster dictionary (www.merriam-webster.com)
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Biodiversity
It's the degree of veriation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or planet.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#BiologicalOrganizationLevel
The hierarchy of complex biological structures and systems that define life using a reductionistic approach
IRI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000428
A major class of ecologically similar communities of plants, animals, and other organisms. Biomes are defined based on factors such as plant structures (such as trees, shrubs, and grasses), leaf types (such as broadleaf and needleleaf), plant spacing (forest, woodland, savanna), and other factors like climate. Unlike ecozones, biomes are not defined by genetic, taxonomic, or historical similarities. Biomes are often identified with particular patterns of ecological succession and climax vegetation.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Biosphere
The entire world of living organisms.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Natality
The rate in which new borns are added to a population, or in other words, the number of new borns over time.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Cerrado
It's a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CerradoDeterminingFactors
Environmental factos that affect the current occurrence and geographical distribution of the cerrado ecoregion.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CerradoSensuLato
It's a regional large scale vegetation which consists of a floristic and vegetational province
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#CerradoSensuStricto
The vegetation is dominated by trees and shrubs with over 30% of canopy cover, but with stiil a fair amount of herbaceous vegetation between them
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Cerradao
Portuguese augmentative of cerrado, is an almost closed woodland with crown cover of 50% to 90%, made up of trees, often 8-12m or even taller, casting a considerable shade so that the ground layer is much reduced
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Climate
The type of average weather, the state, including statistical description, of the climate system.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Community
Any group of organisms belonging to a number of different species that co-occur in the same habitat or area and interact through trophic and spatial relationships.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#ComunityDynamics
The community dynamics is the study of changes over time of the structure of biological communities.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#CommunityStructure
Community structure is a set of parameters that we can use to describe a ecological community.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#ConservationStatus
The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group is extant (members of it are still alive) and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Mortality
It's the number of individuals dead over time.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Density
The number of individuals of a population or cummunity occupying an area.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#DiameterClassDistribution
Consists of the distribution of the number of individuals in diameter classes.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Difference
It's the difference of any parameter (size, number of deads, number of recruits etc.) between two dates.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Diversity
1) The variety of plant and animal taxa, including genes, amino acids, flowers, species, or populations. 2) The variety of plant and animal communities, forest types, stand conditions, age classes, and landscape components.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#DiversityIndex
It's a quantitative measure that reflects how many different types (such as species) there are in a dataset, and can simultaneously takes into account how evenly the basic units (such as individuals) are distributed among those types.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#DrySeason
Consists of the period of the year in some tropical climate areas with average rainfall less than 60mm by month.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#EcologicalPhenomena
Ecological phenomenon is any event - regarding interactions among organisms and their environment - that is observable, however common it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe, record, or compile data concerning it.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Ecoregion
An ecologically defined large unit of land or water containing a geographically distinct assemblage of species, natural communities, and environmental conditions
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Ecosystem
A complex of organisms and their environment forming a functioning whole.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Environment
The environment of an organism consists of all those factors and phenomena outside the organism that influence it, whether these
are physical and chemical (abiotic) or other organisms (biotic) (Begon et al., 2006)
IRI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000203
An abiotic environmental factor that influences the functioning of living organisms (Begon et al., 2006).
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Eukaryote
An organism having eukaryotic cells with true nuclei.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#FireRegime
It's the pattern of veriation in fire occurence, frequency and severity.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#FireIncidence
The occurrence of burning in ecosystems.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#GeographicalDistribution
The total area of habitat in which a species can inhabit.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Grass
Grasses or graminoids are monocotyledonous from Poales Order, usually herbaceos plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include some of the most versatile plant life-forms and became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period.
Source: wikipedia.org; eol.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#GroundLayer
It is the understory vegegtation which consistis of mainly grass and herbaceous plants
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#GrowthRate
It's a measure of the changes in population or community size over time.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Habitat
Environment in a given area occupied by an organism or a group of organisms.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#HerbaceousPlant
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground. Herbaceous plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Metapopulation
Consists of a group of spatially separated populations of the same species which interact at some level.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#NumberOfIndividuos
It's the amount of individuals of a population or community.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Organism
Any living creature. A plant, animal, or micro-organism.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Periodicity
Periodicity is used to define events that are recurrent or the repetition of similar events.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#PielousEvenness
It's a representation of the evenness and quantifies how equal the community is numerically.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Plant
Any of a kingdom (Plantae) of living beings typically lacking locomotive movement or obvious sensory organs, generally making its own food, possessing cell walls, and unlimited growth.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#PlantCommunity
An assemblage of individuals of one or more species that influence one another and modify their environment (after Mueller-Dombois and Ellenberg, 1974).
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Population
A group of interbreeding organisms not separated by geographic barriers which would inhibit breeding between all individuals.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#PopulationDensity
The number of individuals per unit area.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#PopulationSize
It's the amount of individuals in a population
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Precipitation
Any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapour that falls under gravity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation)
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Recruitment
It's the rate on which new individuals establishes in a certain community either by new born individuals or immigration.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#RelativeHumidity
The relative amount of whater vapour in the atmosphere
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Sample
A part of a population, consisting of one or more units selected and examined as representative of the whole
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Savanna
grasslands with scattered trees
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#SavannaHabitat
It's a terrestrial habitat consisting of grasslands with scattered trees.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Season
A subdivision of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of day light
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#SeasonalVariation
It's the change of climate seasons during a one year period.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#shannonsDiversityIndex
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Shrub
A shrub is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 6 m tall. Plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SimpsonsIndex
The simplest measure of the character of a community that takes into account both the abundance (or biomass) patterns and the species richness (Begon et al., 2006).
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Soil
It's a natural body consisting of layers (soil horizons) that are primarily composed of minerals, mixed with at least some organic matter, which differ from their parent materials in their texture, structure, consistency, color, chemical, biological and other characteristics. It is the loose covering of fine rock particles that covers the surface of the earth.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Species
A group of organinsms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SpeciesCompositionSimilarity
It's how many different species occurs in a community or ecosystem.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SpeciesDiversity
the effective number of different species that are represented in a collection of individuals, it consists of two components: species richness and species evenness
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SpeciesEvenness
Evenness is simply a measure of how similar specie are in their abundances.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SpeciesRichness
the number of differnet species represented in an ecological community, landscape or region
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SpecificName
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Specimen
An individual from a scientific sample; sometimes an individual regarded as typical of the group.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#SorensensSimilarityIndex
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Temperature
It is a measure of the thermal energy per particle of matter or radiation; it is measured by a thermometer, which may be calibrated in any of various temperature scales, Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temperature).
IRI: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000446
A biome that applies to the terrestrial realm.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#TerrestrialHabitat
It's the terrestrial environment occupied by an organism, population or community.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#Tree
A tree can be defined as a large woody perennial plant.
Source: wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#TropicalGrassland
Dry grassland without shrubs or trees
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#TropicalSeason
Most of tropical areas has only two distinct seasons during the year, which are called tropical seasons and they can be distinguish as wet season and dry season.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#TropicalSeasonalForest
A tropical forest grows in regions with a marked dry season. There is some defoliation during the dry season, the degree depending on the severity of the moisture deficit. The structure of the forest is also simpler than of the rain forest, with fewer tree strata, and less luxuriant growths of climbing and herbaceous plants.
www.oxfordreference.com
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#VascularPlant
A general name for any plant that has xylem and phloem.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Vegetation
The assemblage of plant species in a given area; also used as a general term for plant life.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#VegetationCover
It's the type of the dominant vegetation or the dominant plant-life form in a certain location.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#WetSeason
Consists of the period of the year in some tropical climate areas with average rainfall greater than 60mm by month.
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#WoodLayer
It consists of mainly wood plants and many researchers include monocots like palm trees becouse of their woody like trunks, but they are not considered trees.
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#Woodland
Woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade.
Source: Wikipedia.org
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasNumberOfIndividuals
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#affects
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#decreases
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasComponent
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasDistribution
IRI: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#exactMatch
skos:exactMatch is disjoint with each of the properties skos:broadMatch and skos:relatedMatch.
has characteristics: symmetric, transitive
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasGrowth
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasMortality
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasNatality
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasRecruitment
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasSpecificName
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#hasStatus
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#increases
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isAffectedBy
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isCharacteristicOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isCharacterizedBy
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isDecreasedBy
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isGrowthOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isHabitatOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isIncreasedBy
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isMortalityOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isNatalityOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isPartOf
IRI: http://www.fao.org/aims/aos/cwr.owl#isPartOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isRecruitmentOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isSpecificNameOf
IRI: http://cerrado.linkeddata.es/ecology/ccon#isStatusOf
IRI: http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#mappingRelation
has characteristics: symmetric
[1] Crop-wild Relatives Ontology. Agricultural Information Management Standards – AIMS. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed in August 2013.
[2] Eiten, G. (1972). The cerrado vegetation of Brazil. The Botanical Review, 38(2), 201–341.
[3] Environmental Ontology (EnvO). Accessed in: August 2013.
[4] Oliveira-Filho, A., & Ratter, J. (2002). Vegetation physiognomies and woody flora of the cerrado biome. In P. S. Oliveira & R. J. Marquis (Eds.), The Cerrados of Brazil. Ecology and natural history of a neotropical savanna (pp. 91–120). New York: Columbia University Press.
[5] Ratter, J. A., Bridgewater, S., & Ribeiro, J. F. (2003). Analysis of the Floristic Composition of the Brazilian Cerrado Vegetation III: Comparison of the Woody Vegetation of 376 Areas. Edinburgh Journal of Botany, 60(01), 57–109.
The authors would like to thanks Silvio Peroni for developing LODE, a Live OWL Documentation Environment used for representing the Corss Referencing Section of this document and Daniel Garijo for developing the script used to create the template of this document.
It's the study of the changes of the size of a population over time.