A thesaurus for phytoplankton trait-based approaches: Development and applicability

Following semantic web standard technologies, the thesaurus was implemented in Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a common data model based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF). PhytoTraits is freely available online, it can be queried through a SPARQL endpoint (http://thesauri.lifewatchitaly.eu/PhytoTraits/sparql.php) and is also accessible via API (http://thesauri.lifewatchitaly.eu/PhytoTraits/services.php) for integration with other systems. If adopted as a standard and rigorously applied and enriched by the scientific community, PhytoTraits, providing harmonized concepts with associated unique and resolvable URIs, has the potential to significantly reduce the barriers to data discovery, integration, and exchange.