Scale and support are first-class scientific properties
Scale is not one dimension. Biological organization, taxonomic rank, spatial resolution, spatial extent, temporal cadence and averaging support must be described separately. An ontology identifier for an organism does not determine where or for how long a measurement applies.
Spatial distinctions
| Property | Question | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Where is the referenced thing? | Pixel center coordinate |
| CRS | How are coordinates referenced? | Native EPSG:32613 versus geographic EPSG:4326 footprint |
| Resolution | What detail or spacing is declared? | 10 m pixel spacing |
| Footprint | What area/geometry is associated with the observation? | Native pixel bounds or sensor response area |
| Support | Over which domain/weighting does a value apply? | Plot average, sample area or sensor integration footprint |
| Extent | What total domain is covered? | Scene bounding box or study region |
A shared coordinate or overlapping polygon does not establish comparable support. GeoSPARQL can help describe geometry and spatial relationships; it does not define the biological or statistical justification for averaging values across those areas.
Temporal distinctions
A timestamp might mark acquisition, processing, publication or an interval's center. Reporting cadence differs from duration and averaging support. A daily series can contain daily means, instantaneous samples or incomplete observations; the method and metadata must distinguish them. Instantaneous records may have equal start/end and never receive an invented duration to satisfy a schema.
OWL-Time offers temporal relations and structures. It does not alone decide whether two values with matching timestamps have comparable temporal supports.
Transformations require justification
Aggregation must specify membership, weighting, completeness, target support and uncertainty behavior. Downscaling requires explicit modeling assumptions; smaller output cells do not become independent observations. Cross-scale scientific claims need source evidence, a versioned recipe, tests and human review when consequential or uncertain. A provenance graph records the claim without proving it valid.
Biological organization · Research gap · Glossary · CF guidance
Scale is not one dimension
Location, resolution, support and extent answer different questions. A timestamp is not temporal resolution or temporal support. Compare the definitions.