OBOE: Extensible Observation Ontology

From abstract: "We describe a core ontology model for semantic annotation that provides a structured approach for integrating the growing number of ecology-relevant ontologies. The ontology defines the notion of 'scientific observation' as a unifying concept for capturing the basic semantics of ecological data. Observations are distinguished at the level of the entity (e.g., location, time, thing, concept), and characteristics of an entity (e.g., height, name, color) are measured (named or classified) as data. The ontology permits observations to be related via context (such as spatial or temporal containment), further supporting the discovery and automated comparison and alignment (e.g., merging) of heterogeneous data. The core ontology also defines a set of extension points that can be used to either directly build new domain ontologies (as extension ontologies), or to provide a common basis to which existing ontologies can be mapped. Thus, by enforcing a well-defined and high-level structure, the core ontology helps organize and integrate the growing number of ontologies, leading to better data discovery and integration techniques for semantically annotated data."