Published: Nov 7, 2026 by Steve Baskauf
In May 2026, the Darwin Core standard for biodiversity data had its largest update since its original ratification in 2009.
One major addition was creation of a conceptual model to describe how the classes of the Darwin Core vocabulary are related to each other. This model was influenced in part by the Darwin-SW model that Cam Webb and I published in 2016, but was shaped primarily by a number of use cases collected by John Wieczorek and his author team.
The primary purpose of the model was to support a new specification for publishing biodiversity datasets having more complicated interrelationships than could be described existing publishing systems. The Darwin Core Data Package (DwC-DP) Guide is an extension of the Data Package container format specification. As such, many of the tools built to handle Data Packages can also be used to support DwC-DP.
This long-awaited advance in the capabilities of Darwin Core has been welcomed by data providers who have molecular, publication, or survey data that are linked to the core biodiversity data in ways that the more simplistic “star schema” model of the Darwin Core Archives publishing system could not handle.
As the convener of the Darwin Core Maintenance Group over the past year, my role was to guide the DwC-DP Guide and Conceptual Model document through an extended public review period with the goal of gaining consensus on those proposals as well as over a hundred smaller changes to the Darwin Core vocabulary in order to make it consistent with the new model. Following the successful conclusion of the public review and ratification by the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) Executive Committee, the changes were published in May.
Following publication of the specification, the first set of schemas compliant with the specification were ratified and published in October, setting the stage for the development of publishing software making use of the DwC-DP format by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and other publishers.
Image from http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/doc/cm/ by TDWG available under a CC BY license
