Missing environment for mountain forest

[olekto]

Hi, we have a lot of samples from "mountain birch forest" in Norway which we want to upload to ENA. However, I cannot figure out a good ENVO term for this. This particular region covers a lot of Norway and parts of Sweden and Finland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavian_montane_birch_forest_and_grasslands) and it would have been great to get a term for it. As it is, I guess I just have to call it mountain or forest.

Thank you.

Ole

[timalamenciak]

Hi @olekto! There are a bunch of WWF ecoregions in ENVO as instances, but "Scandinavian montane birch forest and grasslands" is not among them. We could add that fairly easily, using similar types as a model - for instance Namibian Savanna Woodland Ecoregion

The line between instance and class can be a bit fuzzy. In this case, it's a montane birch forest and grassland that exists specifically in Scandinavia, so I think it may be okay to make it an instance.

I'd be happy to help you craft that change if it works.

Coincidentally, I'm heading to Finland for a conference in September and would love to chat more about ecology in the area.

Curious what @pbuttigieg thinks!

[pbuttigieg]

Hi @olekto @timalamenciak

For INSDC and MIxS compliance, consider

high-elevation forest http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_01000435

You can add other terms in the same slot if you need grasslands too.

Hi @olekto! There are a bunch of WWF ecoregions in ENVO as instances, but "Scandinavian montane birch forest and grasslands" is not among them. We could add that fairly easily, using similar types as a model - for instance Namibian Savanna Woodland Ecoregion

We could, but this is not an official WWF ecoregion, so we'd have to back it up with reference to a regional classification with similat rigour.

The line between instance and class can be a bit fuzzy. In this case, it's a montane birch forest and grassland that exists specifically in Scandinavia, so I think it may be okay to make it an instance.

I wouldn't say there's any fuzziness between classes and instances here.

For MIxS, you'd want a class, as the other metadata in your submission should provide geolocation / regionalisation.

I'd be happy to help you craft that change if it works.

Thanks @timalamenciak - we could expand the high elevation forest branch to get closer, again at a class level

Coincidentally, I'm heading to Finland for a conference in September and would love to chat more about ecology in the area.

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