Table 1 A summary of information fields and descriptions for each imported sample recorded in the South African plant import dataset used in the datasheet “List of contaminants on SA plant imports 1994–2019.csv”23.
From: Contaminant organisms recorded on plant product imports to South Africa 1994–2019
Field name | Field description | Standardisation reference | Editing notes |
|---|---|---|---|
catalogNumber | A unique numerical identifier | NA | This has been added from the original laboratory number in order to anonymize the data. If needed, DS can conduct a trace-back to the original DALRRD laboratory number. |
year | Year in which sample was received | NA | Dates were checked chronologically by sample number and incorrect dates corrected (e.g. day & month swapped) Due to confidentiality concerns, DALRRD has decided not to publish exact dates. |
month | Month in which sample was received | ||
sample.source | Source of sample | Three sample categories: 1) intervention; 2) audit; 3) post-entry quarantine (PEQ). (see text and Fig. 1 for more detail) | |
country | Country from which the sample originated | United Nations list of accepted country names: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49 | The recording of a sub-country location does not necessarily mean that the sample originated from that location. Therefore when city or state was listed, it was replaced with country. |
higherGeography | Geographic region | United Nations M49 standard geoscheme: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49 | |
crop.vernacularName | Crop, as listed by the border inspector | Either the vernacular or scientific name was added, as needed. | |
crop.scientificName | |||
crop.family | Taxonomic grouping | GBIF (search: 28 Aug 2020) | Where multiple crops were listed, order and/or family was included if these were the same, but recorded as “multiple” if they were not. |
crop.order | |||
crop.commodity | Commodity type, as recorded by the border inspector | Table 3: List of import commodity types | The original 9 categories were expanded to 30 and assigned to category based on what was recorded as commodity and crop as well as any additional laboratory records or expert experience. |
importer.code | A unique alphanumerical identifier for importer | NA | Anonymization of these data are necessary to protect the confidentiality of the trading companies. |
exporter.code | |||
Contaminants (79 columns) | Contaminants, arranged by order or suborder (where appropriate), plus extra columns for unidentified higher taxa | GBIF (search: 29 July 2020) Recorded in Table 2. | Where taxonomy could not be resolved using GBIF, the taxonomy originally recorded was retained. |
