This is a database for heterogeneous bioresources, also referred to as materials in this context. There are materials, that are defined by their name. Several samples from each material can exist, describing the material in its context. The database structure follows the design as used in material flow analysis. The composition of a material is expressed as components, which make up a certain weight fraction of the total material. To account for the different ways of describing a composition of a given material, components can be grouped. Components of each group must add up to 100%.
This is the basic list of all materials. The general definition and description of a material with words is done here.
Material categories are useful for clustering and filtering materials. They can have their own definition and description.
A sample series summarizes individual samples that are linked through a common context. This could mean e.g. samples taken from the same location at different times or samples from the same region.
A sample is linked to a material. Several samples for each material can be created. The samples contain concrete data about the composition of a material, which where measured. A sample can comprise of several analyses of the same material at different times to create a temporal distribution, id desired.
Component groups are closely related to analysis method of the composition of a material sample Likely, if one analysis method was applied (e.g. chrometography) the different data points from that method comprise the components of a joint group.
Every material consists of components. The term component is used in an abstract form here. It can either be another fully defined material (e.g. kitchen waste contains eggshells) or a sum parameter such as organic dry matter, ash etc. Anything that is not a material itself but needs to be included in a composition of materials can be defined here.
Material properties can be used to describe materials apart from components that are relevant for composition. Anything that has a unit, which is not related to mass can be found here.