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Remote programmatic access to the Neotoma Database

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Sites

Resource URI: 

api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites

Description

Returns metadata for one or more sites.

The Sites resource provides information about sites or localities, including name, geographic coordinates, and description. Sites generally have an areal extent and can be circumscribed by a latitude-longitude box. However, site data ingested from legacy databases have included only point locations. The lat-long box can be used either to circumscribe the areal extent of a site or to provide purposeful imprecision to the site location. Site location may be imprecise because of the original description was vague, e.g. “a gravel bar 5 miles east of town,” or because the investigators, land owner, or land management agency may not want the exact location made public, perhaps to prevent looting and vandalism. In the first case, the lat-long box can be made sufficiently large to encompass the true location and in the second case to prevent exact location.

Request Parameters

Any of the following parameters may be specified in the call. If no parameters are provided, all sites in the database will be returned. Alternatively, use parameters to filter results to a subset of sites.

Parameter Description
sitename Name or partial name of the site.
altmin Minimum site altitude in meters.
altmax Maximum site altitude in meters.
loc Geographic bounding box within which to constrain the search for sites. Coordinates are specified in decimal degrees as a comma-separated list in the following order: longitudeWest, latitudeSouth, longitudeEast, latitudeNorth.
gpid Geopolitical entity id in which the sites occur; see below.

Geopolitical Units

Accepted values are those in the GeoPoliticalID column in the following table: GeoPoliticalUnits.

Response Properties

A site resource is described by the following properties.

Property Description
SiteID Unique database record identifier for the site.
SiteName Name of the site.
Altitude Altitude in meters.
LatitudeNorth North bounding latitude, in decimal degrees, for a site.
LatitudeSouth South bounding latitude, in decimal degrees, for a site.
LongitudeEast East bounding longitude, in decimal degrees, for a site.
LongitudeWest West bounding longitude, in decimal degrees, for a site.
SiteDescription Free form description of a site, including such information as physiography and vegetation around the site.

Extended Response Properties (Single Site)

If the sites resource is called with a single site id, the response is augmented to include an array of objects that describes a site's collection units. In turn, the collection unit object(s) include an array of objects that describes the datasets associated with it.

Specify a single site id in in the URL as indicated below. Do not included any query parameters. 

api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites/<SiteID>

Collection Unit Object

A collection unit object is described by the following properties.

Property Description
CollectionUnitID Unique database record identifier for the collection unit.
HandleCode name for the collection unit. This code may be up to 10 characters, but an effort is made to keep these to 8 characters or less. Data are frequently distributed by collection unit, and the handle is used for file names.
CollTypeThe collection type. Types include cores, sections, excavations, and animal middens. Collection Units may be modern collections, surface float, or isolated specimens. Composite Collections Units include different kinds of Analysis Units, for example a modern surface sample for ostracodes and an associated water sample.
DatasetsAn array of objects that describe datasets associated with a site; see below.

Dataset Object

A dataset object is described by the following properties.

Property Description
DatasetID Unique database record identifier for the dataset.
DatasetType The dataset type, such as: geochronologic, loss-on-ignition, pollen, plant macrofossils, vertebrate fauna, mollusks, insects, ostracodes, etc.

Examples

Request Description
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites All sites
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites/526 Site id 526
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites?sitename=%2Alake%2A Sites with names that contain the string “lake”
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites?altmin=100&altmax=500 Sites with altitude between 100 and 500m
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites?loc=-92.9,46.3,-77.3,55.2 Sites within a region in Ontario, Canada
http://api.neotomadb.org/v1/data/sites?gpid=8412 Sites within geopolitical entity 8412 (Pennsylvania, USA)

View sample response

View sample response

View sample response 

{
    "success":1,
    "data":[
        {
            "SiteID":2933,
            "SiteName":"Wolsfeld Lake",
            "Altitude":291,
            "LatitudeNorth":45,
            "LatitudeSouth":45,
            "LongitudeEast":-93.566667,
            "LongitudeWest":-93.566667,
            "SiteDescription":"Kettle lake. Physiography: rolling stagnation moraine. Surrounding vegetation: elm-maple-basswood-oak forest."
        },
        {
            "SiteID":500,
            "SiteName":"Cottonwood Lake (US:South Dakota)",
            "Altitude":549,
            "LatitudeNorth":44.836111,
            "LatitudeSouth":44.836111,
            "LongitudeEast":-99.906389,
            "LongitudeWest":-99.906389,
            "SiteDescription":"Lake in preglacial stream valley. Physiography: Missouri Coteau, gently rolling. Surrounding vegetation: wheatgrass prairie, small-grain fields."
        }
    ]
}

View sample extended response

View sample extended response

View sample extended response 

{
    "success":1,
    "data":[
        {
            "SiteID":526,
            "SiteName":"Lagoa da Curuça",
            "Altitude":35,
            "LatitudeNorth":-0.766667,
            "LatitudeSouth":-0.766667,
            "LongitudeEast":-47.85,
            "LongitudeWest":-47.85,
            "SiteDescription":"Lake. Physiography: isolated lake, 15 km from the Atlantic. Surrounding vegetation: Amazon rain forest.",
            "Notes":null,
            "CollectionUnits":[
                {
                    "CollectionUnitID":526,
                    "Handle":"CURUCAA",
                    "CollType":"Core",
                    "Datasets":[
                        {
                            "DatasetID":540,
                            "DatasetType":"pollen"
                        },
                        {
                            "DatasetID":8043,
                            "DatasetType":"geochronologic"
                        }
                    ]
                },
                {
                    "CollectionUnitID":2973,
                    "Handle":"CURUCAB",
                    "CollType":"Core",
                    "Datasets":[
                        {
                            "DatasetID":3074,
                            "DatasetType":"pollen"
                        },
                        {
                            "DatasetID":8786,
                            "DatasetType":"geochronologic"
                        }
                    ]
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

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