API Docs#

galah.atlas_counts(taxa=None, scientific_name=None, identifiers=None, specific_epithet=None, filters=None, group_by=None, total_group_by=False, use_data_profile=False, polygon=None, bbox=None, config_file=None, crs=None)#

Prior to downloading data, it is often valuable to have some estimate of how many records are available, both for deciding if the query is feasible, and for estimating how long it will take to download. Alternatively, for some kinds of reporting, the count of observations may be all that is required, for example for understanding how observations are growing or shrinking in particular locations, or for particular taxa.

To this end, galah.atlas_counts() takes arguments in the same format as galah.atlas_occurrences(), and provides either a total count of records matching the criteria, or a pandas dataframe of counts matching the criteria supplied to the group_by argument. It can also return the total number of groups by using the total_group_by argument.

Parameters:
  • taxa (string) – one or more scientific names. Use galah.search_taxa() to search for valid scientific names.

  • identifiers (string / list) – one or more taxonomic identifiers (such as guid or taxonConceptID) to search.

  • specific_epithet (list) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “specificEpithet”.

  • scientific_name (dictionary) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “scientificName”.

  • filters (pandas.DataFrame) – filters, in the form field logical value (e.g. "year=2021")

  • group_by (string) – zero or more individual column names (i.e. fields) to include. See galah.show_all() and galah.search_all() to see valid fields.

  • total_group_by (logical) – If True, galah gives total number of groups in data. Defaults to False.

  • use_data_profile (string) – A profile name. Should be a string - the name or abbreviation of a data quality profile to apply to the query. Valid values can be seen using galah.show_all(profiles=True)

  • polygon (shapely Polygon) – A polygon object denoting a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • bbox (dict or shapely Polygon) – A polygon or dictionary object denoting four points, which are the corners of a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • crs (str) – The Coordinate Reference System of your shape. All atlases are EPSG: 4326 though default value here is None

  • config_file (string) – If you want to specify your own config file, put the path and name of the file here. This is applicable when you are running on a server and each user has different configurations. Defaults to None.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

Return total records in your chosen atlas

galah.atlas_counts()
[19]
   totalRecords
0     185090015

Return records from 2020 onwards, grouped by year

galah.atlas_counts(filters="year>2019",group_by="year")
[19]
   year     count
0  2020   8188386
1  2021   9717209
2  2022  10636634
3  2023  12542573
4  2024  13633019
5  2025  10815812
6  2026   3052695
galah.atlas_media(taxa=None, scientific_name=None, identifiers=None, specific_epithet=None, filters=None, fields=None, multimedia=None, use_data_profile=False, polygon=None, bbox=None, collect=False, path=None, thumbnail=False, progress_bar=True, config_file=None, mint_doi=False, doi=None, crs=None)#

In addition to text data describing individual occurrences and their attributes, ALA stores images, sounds and videos associated with a given record. galah.atlas_media() displays metadata for any and all of the media types.

Parameters:
  • taxa (string / list) – one or more scientific names. Use galah.search_taxa() to search for valid scientific names.

  • identifiers (string / list) – one or more taxonomic identifiers (such as guid or taxonConceptID) to search.

  • specific_epithet (list) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “specificEpithet”.

  • scientific_name (dictionary) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “scientificName”.

  • filters (string / list) – filters, in the form field logical value (e.g. "year=2021")

  • fields (string / list) –

    Name of one or more column groups to include. Valid options are “basic”, “event” and “assertions” Default is set to "fields=basic", which returns:

    • decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, eventDate, scientificName, taxonConceptID, recordID, dataResourceName, occurrenceStatus

    Using "fields="event" returns:

    • eventRemarks, eventTime, eventID, eventDate, samplingEffort, samplingProtocol

    Using fields="media" returns:

    • multimedia, multimediaLicence, images, videos, sounds

    See galah.show_all() and galah.search_all() to see all valid fields.

  • multimedia (string / list) – This is for specifying what types of multimedia you would like, i.e “images”. Defaults to [‘images’,’videos’,’sounds’]

  • assertions (string) – Using “assertions” returns all quality assertion-related columns. These columns are data quality checks run by each living atlas. The list of assertions is shown by galah.show_all(assertions=True).

  • use_data_profile (logical) – if True, uses data profile set in galah_config(). Valid values can be seen using galah.show_all(profiles=True). Default is False

  • polygon (shapely Polygon) – A polygon shape denoting a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • bbox (dict or shapely Polygon) – A polygon or dictionary type denoting four points, which are the corners of a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • crs (str) – The Coordinate Reference System of your shape. All atlases are EPSG: 4326 though default value here is None

  • collect (logical) – if True, downloads full-sized images and media files returned to a local directory.

  • path (string) – path to directory where downloaded media will be stored. Defaults to current directory.

  • thumbnail (logical) – if True, downloads thumbnail images rather than the full image. Defaults to False.

  • progress_bar (logical) – if True, shows a progress bar while images are downloading. Defaults to True.

  • config_file (string) – If you want to specify your own config file, put the path and name of the file here. This is applicable when you are running on a server and each user has different configurations. Defaults to None.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame. If collect=True, available image & media files are downloaded to a user local directory.

Examples

galah.galah_config(atlas="Australia",email="youremail@example.com")
galah.atlas_media(taxa="Ornithorhynchus anatinus",filters=["year=2020","decimalLongitude>153.0")
atlas in galah_config: Australia
atlas in galah_config again: Australia
[23]
[17]
   decimalLongitude            scientificName  decimalLatitude  \
0        153.005873  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -30.297841   
1        153.005912  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -30.298183   
2        153.006628  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -30.300649   
3        153.007479  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -30.298361   
4        153.015910  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -30.311448   
5        153.297699  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -28.678673   
6        153.300439  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -28.661653   
7        153.300439  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -28.661653   
8        153.386929  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -28.213785   
9        153.386929  Ornithorhynchus anatinus       -28.213785   

              eventDate occurrenceStatus multimedia  \
0  2020-09-26T17:39:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
1  2020-09-04T18:28:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
2  2020-08-30T18:37:43Z          PRESENT      Image   
3  2020-08-30T18:35:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
4  2020-09-08T17:26:47Z          PRESENT      Image   
5  2020-08-13T00:00:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
6  2020-10-12T17:20:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
7  2020-10-12T17:20:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
8  2020-01-17T07:09:00Z          PRESENT      Image   
9  2020-01-17T07:09:00Z          PRESENT      Image   

                                 images  sounds  \
0  14374712-1c37-4e2d-af28-4572f64e7d3a     NaN   
1  40aadbde-3918-4bba-9dc9-13fa1da3809b     NaN   
2  1aad7125-c6c0-4557-b9a2-112c03ac6709     NaN   
3  09efd0a0-aa51-4d00-80f9-4e78e19aa89e     NaN   
4  792a93d4-6436-4222-9a00-00cda0ec1f14     NaN   
5  393df479-5fbb-464e-82ed-4d6fd19dd863     NaN   
6  7424399a-f327-4ea1-9ffa-aa7a2b69f82b     NaN   
7  cee7bb9f-6b2e-4c47-8ba8-c9a3bdf92fa0     NaN   
8  66904cee-f8ca-4e3a-b7d5-d738f4bd0978     NaN   
9  dfdbd258-d90a-484b-af19-2070705f166c     NaN   

                                      taxonConceptID  \
0  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
1  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
2  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
3  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
4  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
5  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
6  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
7  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
8  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   
9  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ac61fd14-...   

                               recordID             dataResourceName videos  \
0  072bc4f0-7581-44c6-b0ec-e3fe58d251fc        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
1  dd885218-bdb9-404a-8441-e5cd329f6605        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
2  72ad295f-112d-442f-83e1-fd385ef9163a        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
3  42912016-2409-4125-a61f-13ffd4c32fcb        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
4  6882dfe3-5295-493d-a005-66f8392e9d5b        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
5  12d8c7f9-9d66-4312-9245-87a0a1021557        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
6  2a701513-b21d-4baa-bac4-5e6a3a65252b        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
7  2a701513-b21d-4baa-bac4-5e6a3a65252b        iNaturalist Australia    NaN   
8  808b0c19-9616-45f1-994e-e3b33fc32836  Earth Guardians Weekly Feed    NaN   
9  808b0c19-9616-45f1-994e-e3b33fc32836  Earth Guardians Weekly Feed    NaN   

        creator                                         license    mimeType  \
0  Brett Vercoe  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
1  Brett Vercoe  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
2  Brett Vercoe  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
3  Brett Vercoe  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
4  kerrycameron  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
5  julespetroff  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
6  julespetroff  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
7  julespetroff  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/  image/jpeg   
8                                                                image/jpeg   
9                                                                image/jpeg   

   width  height                                           imageUrl  
0   2048    1365  https://images.ala.org.au/store/a/3/d/7/143747...  
1   2048    1365  https://images.ala.org.au/store/b/9/0/8/40aadb...  
2   1365    2048  https://images.ala.org.au/store/9/0/7/6/1aad71...  
3   2048    1238  https://images.ala.org.au/store/e/9/8/a/09efd0...  
4    927     701  https://images.ala.org.au/store/4/1/f/1/792a93...  
5    638     426  https://images.ala.org.au/store/3/6/8/d/393df4...  
6    713     401  https://images.ala.org.au/store/b/2/8/f/742439...  
7    661     500  https://images.ala.org.au/store/0/a/f/2/cee7bb...  
8   2988    5312  https://images.ala.org.au/store/8/7/9/0/66904c...  
9   2988    5312  https://images.ala.org.au/store/c/6/6/1/dfdbd2...
galah.atlas_occurrences(taxa=None, scientific_name=None, specific_epithet=None, identifiers=None, filters=None, fields=None, use_data_profile=False, species_list=False, status_accepted=True, polygon=None, bbox=None, crs=None, mint_doi=False, doi=None, print_doi=True, config_file=None)#

The most common form of data stored by living atlases are observations of individual life forms, known as ‘occurrences’. This function allows the user to search for occurrence records that match their specific criteria, and return them as a pandas.DataFrame for analysis. Optionally, the user can also request a DOI for a given download to facilitate citation and reuse of specific data resources.

Parameters:
  • taxa (string) – one or more scientific names. Use galah.search_taxa() to search for valid scientific names.

  • identifiers (string / list) – one or more taxonomic identifiers (such as guid or taxonConceptID) to search.

  • specific_epithet (list) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “specificEpithet”.

  • scientific_name (dictionary) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “scientificName”.

  • filters (string / list) – filters, in the form field logical value (e.g. "year=2021")

  • test (logical) – Test if the API is up and running correctly. Prints status of Atlas and returns.

  • fields (string / list) –

    Name of one or more column groups to include. Valid options are “basic”, “event” and “assertions” Default is set to "fields=basic", which returns:

    • decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, eventDate, scientificName, taxonConceptID, recordID, dataResourceName, occurrenceStatus

    Using "fields="event" returns:

    • eventRemarks, eventTime, eventID, eventDate, samplingEffort, samplingProtocol

    Using fields="media" returns:

    • multimedia, multimediaLicence, images, videos, sounds

    Using fields="assertions returns:

    • all available assertions from the ALA

    See galah.show_all() and galah.search_all() to see all valid fields.

  • assertions (string / list) – Using “assertions” returns all quality assertion-related columns. These columns are data quality checks run by each living atlas. The list of assertions is shown by galah.show_all(assertions=True).

  • use_data_profile (string) – A profile name. Should be a string - the name or abbreviation of a data quality profile to apply to the query. Valid values can be seen using galah.show_all(profiles=True)

  • species_list (logical) – Denotes whether or not you want a species list for GBIF. Default to False. For species lists, refer to atlas_species

  • status_accepted (logical) – Denotes whether or not you want only accepted taxonomic ranks for GBIF. Default to True. For species lists, refer to atlas_species

  • polygon (shapely Polygon) – A polygon shape denoting a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • bbox (dict or shapely Polygon) – A polygon or dictionary type denoting four points, which are the corners of a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • crs (str) – The Coordinate Reference System of your shape. All atlases are EPSG: 4326 though default value here is None

  • config_file (string) – If you want to specify your own config file, put the path and name of the file here. This is applicable when you are running on a server and each user has different configurations. Defaults to None.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

Download records of Vulpes vulpes in 2023

import galah
galah.galah_config(atlas="Australia",email="your-email@example.com")
galah.atlas_occurrences(taxa="Vulpes vulpes",filters="year=2023")
atlas in galah_config: Australia
atlas in galah_config again: Australia
[23]
[17]
                                   recordID scientificName  \
0      0000b436-0613-4991-839a-14b57e573bc9  Vulpes vulpes   
1      00010f5d-f8fd-4546-be65-3a1c954e85aa  Vulpes vulpes   
2      000a75de-419e-4ad4-bda5-85ba4b552837  Vulpes vulpes   
3      001355be-9407-4911-950c-625b7ae3d340  Vulpes vulpes   
4      0018cc1a-7104-4044-b87d-717e27cba27e  Vulpes vulpes   
...                                     ...            ...   
10530  ffe44ebf-dc5b-4509-98ee-3ae22057a81a  Vulpes vulpes   
10531  ffe5d7b2-5061-450d-af02-0012b0fc4d32  Vulpes vulpes   
10532  ffebb23c-58c3-4bf8-8f5c-b49f890154c9  Vulpes vulpes   
10533  fff5636e-01b7-4b62-a21b-24af14390e77  Vulpes vulpes   
10534  fff87988-89de-4533-837c-61f6cf8a82e6  Vulpes vulpes   

                                          taxonConceptID  decimalLatitude  \
0      https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -34.892754   
1      https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -34.194160   
2      https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -34.531578   
3      https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -33.367572   
4      https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -35.599890   
...                                                  ...              ...   
10530  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -37.753096   
10531  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -38.846330   
10532  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -33.834716   
10533  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -33.803655   
10534  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/2869ce8a-...       -37.388981   

       decimalLongitude             eventDate              dataResourceName  \
0            138.557344  2023-12-07T00:00:00Z                     FeralScan   
1            139.634240  2023-03-26T00:00:00Z                      SA Fauna   
2            150.638468  2023-02-22T00:00:00Z              NSW BioNet Atlas   
3            151.382845  2023-08-29T00:00:00Z                     FeralScan   
4            138.332510  2023-08-07T00:00:00Z                      SA Fauna   
...                 ...                   ...                           ...   
10530        144.935377  2023-11-22T00:00:00Z                     FeralScan   
10531        146.187360  2023-03-21T00:00:00Z  Victorian Biodiversity Atlas   
10532        151.141071  2023-02-20T00:00:00Z                     FeralScan   
10533        151.153854  2023-11-09T00:00:00Z                     FeralScan   
10534        144.266958  2023-01-05T15:16:00Z         iNaturalist Australia   

      occurrenceStatus  
0              PRESENT  
1              PRESENT  
2              PRESENT  
3              PRESENT  
4              PRESENT  
...                ...  
10530          PRESENT  
10531          PRESENT  
10532          PRESENT  
10533          PRESENT  
10534          PRESENT  

[10535 rows x 8 columns]

Download records of Vulpes vulpes in 2023, returning only eventDate field

import galah
galah.galah_config(atlas="Australia",email="your-email@example.com")
galah.atlas_occurrences(taxa="Vulpes vulpes",filters="year=2023",fields="eventDate")
atlas in galah_config: Australia
atlas in galah_config again: Australia
[23]
[17]
                  eventDate
0                       NaN
1                       NaN
2                       NaN
3                       NaN
4                       NaN
...                     ...
10530  2023-12-31T00:00:00Z
10531  2023-12-31T00:00:00Z
10532  2023-12-31T00:00:00Z
10533  2023-12-31T14:01:00Z
10534  2023-12-31T16:56:00Z

[10535 rows x 1 columns]
galah.atlas_species(taxa=None, scientific_name=None, identifiers=None, specific_epithet=None, rank='species', group_by=None, filters=None, status_accepted=True, use_data_profile=False, counts=False, polygon=None, bbox=None, crs=None, config_file=None)#

While there are reasons why users may need to check every record meeting their search criteria (i.e. using galah.atlas_occurrences()), a common use case is to simply identify which species occur in a specified region, time period, or taxonomic group. This function returns a pandas.DataFrame with one row per species, and columns giving associated taxonomic information.

Parameters:
  • taxa (string / list) – one or more scientific names. Use galah.search_taxa() to search for valid scientific names.

  • identifiers (string / list) – one or more taxonomic identifiers (such as guid or taxonConceptID) to search.

  • specific_epithet (list) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “specificEpithet”.

  • scientific_name (dictionary) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “scientificName”.

  • rank (string) – the rank you ultimately want to get names for, i.e. “genus” or “species”. Default is species.

  • filters (string) – filters, in the form field logical value (e.g. "year=2021")

  • status_accepted (logical) – If True, galah gives you only the accepted taxonomic ranks. Default is False. **FOR GBIF ONLY

  • polygon (shapely Polygon) – A polygon shape denoting a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • bbox (dict or shapely Polygon) – A polygon or dictionary type denoting four points, which are the corners of a geographical region. Defaults to None.

  • crs (str) – The Coordinate Reference System of your shape. All atlases are EPSG: 4326 though default value here is None

  • config_file (string) – If you want to specify your own config file, put the path and name of the file here. This is applicable when you are running on a server and each user has different configurations. Defaults to None.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

galah.atlas_species(taxa="Heleioporus")
[17]
                                             Species  \
0  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/4437371b-...   
1  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/d497c571-...   
2  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/f0d1bb06-...   
3  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/55de9548-...   
4  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/4f42e8dd-...   
5  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/40389159-...   

                Species Name Scientific Name Authorship Taxon Rank   Kingdom  \
0          Heleioporus eyrei               (Gray, 1845)    species  Animalia   
1   Heleioporus australiacus      (Shaw & Nodder, 1795)    species  Animalia   
2  Heleioporus albopunctatus                 Gray, 1841    species  Animalia   
3   Heleioporus psammophilus         (Lee & Main, 1954)    species  Animalia   
4     Heleioporus barycragus                  Lee, 1967    species  Animalia   
5      Heleioporus inornatus         (Lee & Main, 1954)    species  Animalia   

     Phylum     Class  Order           Family        Genus  \
0  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   
1  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   
2  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   
3  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   
4  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   
5  Chordata  Amphibia  Anura  Limnodynastidae  Heleioporus   

        Vernacular Name  
0          Moaning Frog  
1  Giant Burrowing Frog  
2  Western Spotted Frog  
3             Sand Frog  
4    Western Marsh Frog  
5           Plains Frog
galah.galah_config(email=None, email_notify=None, atlas=None, data_profile=None, ranks=None, reason=None, verbose=None, timeout=600, usernameGBIF=None, passwordGBIF=None, config_file=None, authenticate=None, auth_filename=None, auth_clear=None, qgis=None)#

The galah package supports large data downloads, and also interfaces with the ALA which requires that users of some services provide a registered email address and reason for downloading data. The galah_config() function provides a way to manage these issues as simply as possible.

Parameters:
  • email (string) – An email address that has been registered with the chosen atlas. For the ALA, you can register here.

  • email_notify (string) – Used to receive an email for each query to galah.atlas_occurrences(). Defaults to None, but can be useful in some instances, for example for tracking DOIs assigned to specific downloads for later citation.

  • atlas (string) – Living Atlas to point to, Australia by default. Can be an organisation name, acronym, or region (see show_all(atlases=True) for admissible values)

  • data_profile (string) – A profile name. Should be a string - the name or abbreviation of a data quality profile to apply to the query. Valid values can be seen using galah.show_all(profiles=True)

  • ranks (string) – A string letting galah know what taxonomic ranks to show. Use ‘all’ to see all 69 possible ranks, and ‘gbif’ to see the 9 most common ranks.

  • reason (integer) – A number (integer) providing the reason you are downloading data. Default is set to 4 (scientific research). For a list of all possible reasons run galah.show_all_reasons()

  • verbose (logical) – If True, galah gives you the URLs used to query all the data. Default to False.

  • usernameGBIF (string) – Your username for GBIF atlas. Default is ‘’.

  • passwordGBIF (string) – Your password for GBIF atlas. Default is ‘’.

  • authenticate (logical) – An argument to

Returns:

  • - No arguments (A pandas.DataFrame of all current configuration options.)

  • - >=1 arguments (None)

Examples

import galah
galah.galah_config(email='yourname@example.com')
galah.search_all(assertions=None, atlases=None, apis=None, collection=None, datasets=None, fields=None, licences=None, lists=None, profiles=None, providers=None, ranks=None, reasons=None, column_name=None, verbose=False, config_file=None)#

The living atlases store a huge amount of information, above and beyond the occurrence records that are their main output. In galah, one way that users can investigate this information is by searching for a specific option or category for the type of information they are interested in. search_all() is a helper function that can do searches within multiple types of information.

Parameters:
  • assertions (string) – Search for results of data quality checks run by each atlas

  • atlases (string) – Search for what atlases are available

  • apis (string) – Search for what APIs & functions are available for each atlas

  • collection (string) – Search for the specific collections within those institutions

  • datasets (string) – Search for the data groupings within those collections

  • fields (string) – Search for fields that are stored in an atlas

  • licences (string) – Search for copyright licences applied to media

  • lists (string) – Search for what species lists are available

  • profiles (string) – Search for what data profiles are available

  • providers (string) – Search for which institutions have provided data

  • ranks (string) – Search for valid taxonomic ranks (e.g. Kingdom, Class, Order, etc.)

  • reasons (string) – Search for what values are acceptable as ‘download reasons’ for a specified atlas

  • column_name (string) – Determines what column in the table this function will search for the string specified as the argument

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame containing all data of interest.

Examples

import galah
galah.search_all(apis='Australia')
        atlas          system                   api_name  \
0   Australia     collections    collections_collections   
1   Australia         species             species_lookup   
2   Australia         species           species_children   
3   Australia         spatial             spatial_layers   
4   Australia         records            records_species   
5   Australia         records        records_occurrences   
6   Australia         records             records_fields   
7   Australia         records             records_facets   
8   Australia         records             records_facets   
9   Australia         records             records_counts   
10  Australia         records         records_assertions   
11  Australia   name-matching        names_search_single   
12  Australia   name-matching       names_search_epithet   
13  Australia   name-matching      names_search_multiple   
14  Australia         species  names_search_bulk_species   
15  Australia   name-matching               names_lookup   
16  Australia          logger             logger_reasons   
17  Australia           lists               lists_lookup   
18  Australia           lists                  lists_all   
19  Australia          images             image_download   
20  Australia          images        image_bulk_metadata   
21  Australia          images             image_metadata   
22  Australia          images             image_licences   
23  Australia             doi               doi_download   
24  Australia    data-quality            profiles_lookup   
25  Australia    data-quality               profiles_all   
26  Australia     collections      collections_providers   
27  Australia     collections       collections_datasets   
28  Australia     occurrences            occurrences_qid   
29  Australia  authentication             authentication   

                                              api_url  \
0       https://api.ala.org.au/metadata/ws/collection   
1   https://api.ala.org.au/species/childConcepts/{id}   
2   https://api.ala.org.au/species/childConcepts/{...   
3       https://api.ala.org.au/spatial-service/fields   
4   https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences...   
5   https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences...   
6     https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/index/fields   
7   https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences...   
8   https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences...   
9   https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/occurrences...   
10  https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/assertions/...   
11  https://api.ala.org.au/namematching/api/search...   
12  https://api.ala.org.au/namematching/api/search...   
13  https://api.ala.org.au/namematching/api/search...   
14  https://api.ala.org.au/species/species/lookup/...   
15  https://api.ala.org.au/namematching/api/getByT...   
16  https://api.ala.org.au/logger/service/logger/r...   
17  https://api.ala.org.au/specieslist/ws/speciesL...   
18  https://api.ala.org.au/specieslist/ws/speciesList   
19  https://api.ala.org.au/images/ws/image/{id}/or...   
20  https://api.ala.org.au/images/ws/getImageInfoF...   
21   https://api.ala.org.au/images/ws/image/{imageID}   
22           https://api.ala.org.au/images/ws/licence   
23  https://api.ala.org.au/doi/api/doi/{doi_string...   
24  https://api.ala.org.au/dqf-service/api/v1/data...   
25  https://api.ala.org.au/dqf-service/api/v1/data...   
26    https://api.ala.org.au/metadata/ws/dataProvider   
27    https://api.ala.org.au/metadata/ws/dataResource   
28             https://api.ala.org.au/occurrences/qid   
29    https://api.ala.org.au/common/api/getAuthConfig   

                    called_by  functional method  
0        show_all-collections        True    GET  
1              atlas_taxonomy        True    GET  
2              atlas_taxonomy        True    GET  
3             show_all-fields        True    GET  
4               atlas_species        True    GET  
5           atlas_occurrences        True    GET  
6             show_all-fields        True    GET  
7          show_values-fields        True    GET  
8                atlas_counts        True    GET  
9                atlas_counts        True    GET  
10        show_all-assertions        True    GET  
11                search_taxa        True    GET  
12                search_taxa        True    GET  
13                search_taxa        True   POST  
14              atlas_species        True   POST  
15         search_identifiers        True    GET  
16           show_all-reasons        True    GET  
17          show_values-lists        True    GET  
18             show_all-lists        True    GET  
19             media_download        True    GET  
20             media_metadata        True   POST  
21             media_metadata        True    GET  
22          show_all-licences        True    GET  
23               doi_download        True    GET  
24       show_values-profiles        True    GET  
25          show_all-profiles        True    GET  
26         show_all-providers        True    GET  
27          show_all-datasets        True    GET  
28          atlas_occurrences        True   POST  
29  get_authentication_tokens        True    GET
galah.search_taxa(taxa=None, identifiers=None, specific_epithet=None, scientific_name=None, config_file=None)#

Look up taxonomic names before downloading data from the ALA, using atlas_occurrences(), atlas_species() or atlas_counts(). Taxon information returned by search_taxa() may be passed to the taxa argument of atlas functions.

search_taxa() allows users to disambiguate homonyms (i.e. where the same name refers to taxa in different clades) prior to downloading data.

Parameters:
  • taxa (string) – one or more scientific names to search.

  • identifiers (string / list) – one or more taxonomic identifiers (such as guid or taxonConceptID) to search.

  • specific_epithet (list) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “specificEpithet”.

  • scientific_name (dictionary) – search taxonomic levels by using the argument “scientificName”.

  • verbose (logical) – If True, galah gives more information like URLs of your queries. Defaults to False

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

Get taxonomic identifiers for “Vulpes vulpes”

import galah
galah.search_taxa(taxa="Vulpes vulpes")
[17]
  scientificName scientificNameAuthorship  ...     issues vernacularName
0  Vulpes vulpes           Linnaeus, 1758  ...  [noIssue]            Fox

[1 rows x 14 columns]

Get the species name from a taxonomic identifier

import galah
galah.search_taxa(identifiers="https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2914510")
[13]
        scientificName scientificNameAuthorship  \
0  Eucalyptus blakelyi                   Maiden   

                                     taxonConceptID     rank     matchType  \
0  https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2914510  species  taxonIdMatch   

   kingdom      phylum         classs     order     family       genus  \
0  Plantae  Charophyta  Equisetopsida  Myrtales  Myrtaceae  Eucalyptus   

               species   issues     vernacularName  
0  Eucalyptus blakelyi  noIssue  Blakely's Red Gum

Search taxonomic levels by using the key word “specificEpithet”

import galah
galah.search_taxa(specific_epithet=["class=aves","family=pardalotidae","genus=pardalotus","specificEpithet=punctatus"])
[16]
                      scientificName scientificNameAuthorship  \
0  Pardalotus (Pardalotus) punctatus             (Shaw, 1792)   

                                      taxonConceptID     rank   matchType  \
0  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/5254fe03-...  species  exactMatch   

    kingdom    phylum classs          order        family       genus  \
0  Animalia  Chordata   Aves  Passeriformes  Pardalotidae  Pardalotus   

                species   issues     vernacularName  
0  Pardalotus punctatus  noIssue  Spotted Pardalote

Search taxonomic levels by using the key word “scientificName”

import galah
galah.search_taxa(scientific_name={"family": ["pardalotidae","maluridae"],"scientificName": ["pardolatus striatus","malurus cyaneus"]})
[16]
                       scientificName scientificNameAuthorship  \
0  Pardalotus (Pardalotinus) striatus           (Gmelin, 1789)   
1           Malurus (Malurus) cyaneus            (Ellis, 1782)   

                                      taxonConceptID     rank   matchType  \
0  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/e3103245-...  species  fuzzyMatch   
1  https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/ae56080e-...  species  exactMatch   

    kingdom    phylum classs          order        family       genus  \
0  Animalia  Chordata   Aves  Passeriformes  Pardalotidae  Pardalotus   
1  Animalia  Chordata   Aves  Passeriformes     Maluridae     Malurus   

               species   issues      vernacularName  
0  Pardalotus striatus  noIssue  Striated Pardalote  
1      Malurus cyaneus  noIssue   Superb Fairy-wren
galah.search_values(field=None, value=None, lists=False, column_name=None, config_file=None)#

Users may wish to see the specific values within a chosen field, profile or list to narrow queries or understand more about the information of interest. search_values() allows users for search for specific values within a specified field.

Parameters:
  • field (string) – A string to specify what type of parameters should be searched.

  • value (string) – A string specifying a search term. Not case sensitive.

  • lists (logical) – This lets show_values() know if you want to look up fields, or if you want to look up species in lists. Default is False.

  • verbose (logical) – This option is available for users who want to know what URLs this function is using to get the value. Default to False.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

import galah
galah.search_values(field='basisOfRecord',value='OBS')

#.. program-output:: python -c ‘import galah; print(galah.search_values(field='basisOfRecord',value='obs'))’

galah.show_all(assertions=False, atlases=False, apis=False, collection=False, datasets=False, fields=False, licences=False, lists=False, profiles=False, providers=False, ranks=False, reasons=False, config_file=None)#

The living atlases store a huge amount of information, above and beyond the occurrence records that are their main output. In galah, one way that users can investigate this information is by showing all the available options or categories for the type of information they are interested in. show_all() is a helper function that can display multiple types of information, displaying all valid options for the information specified.

Parameters:
  • assertions (logical) – Show results of data quality checks run by each atlas

  • atlases (logical) – Show what atlases are available

  • apis (logical) – Show what APIs & functions are available for each atlas

  • collection (logical) – Show the specific collections within those institutions

  • datasets (logical) – Shows all the data groupings within those collections

  • fields (logical) – Show fields that are stored in an atlas

  • licences (logical) – Show what copyright licenses are applied to media

  • lists (logical) – Show what species lists are available

  • profiles (logical) – Show what data profiles are available

  • providers (logical) – Show which institutions have provided data

  • ranks (logical) – Show valid taxonomic ranks (e.g. Kingdom, Class, Order, etc.)

  • reasons (logical) – Show what values are acceptable as ‘download reasons’ for a specified atlas

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame containing all data of interest.

Examples

import galah
galah.show_all(datasets=True)
                                                   name  \
0      ALA Taxonomy List for Species Missing from Co...   
1                                        "A" Flora EPBC   
2                                   "H to O" flora EPBC   
3                                   "P to Z" flora EPBC   
4     (Appendix 2) Stratigraphic distribution of key...   
...                                                 ...   
8287  Zooplankton data from voyages of the research ...   
8288  Zooplankton samples from Heron net trawls alon...   
8289  Zooplankton sampling in the coastal waters of ...   
8290                         Zoos Victoria Moth Tracker   
8291                                                zza   

                                                    uri      uid  
0     https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr23929  
1     https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr24170  
2     https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr24172  
3     https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr24173  
4     https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr30390  
...                                                 ...      ...  
8287  https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr29594  
8288  https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr23120  
8289  https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr15943  
8290  https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr22371  
8291  https://collections.ala.org.au/ws/dataResource...  dr33432  

[8292 rows x 3 columns]
galah.show_values(field=None, lists=False, config_file=None)#

Users may wish to see the specific values within a chosen field, profile or list to narrow queries or understand more about the information of interest. show_values() provides users with these values.

Parameters:
  • field (string) – A string to specify what type of parameters should be shown.

  • lists (logical) – This lets show_values() know if you want to look up fields, or if you want to look up species in lists. Default is False.

  • verbose (logical) – This option is available for users who want to know what URLs this function is using to get the value. Default is False.

Return type:

An object of class pandas.DataFrame.

Examples

import galah
galah.show_values(field='basisOfRecord')
           field             category
0  basisOfRecord    HUMAN_OBSERVATION
1  basisOfRecord   PRESERVED_SPECIMEN
2  basisOfRecord           OCCURRENCE
3  basisOfRecord          OBSERVATION
4  basisOfRecord  MACHINE_OBSERVATION
5  basisOfRecord      MATERIAL_SAMPLE
6  basisOfRecord      LIVING_SPECIMEN
7  basisOfRecord      FOSSIL_SPECIMEN
8  basisOfRecord    MATERIAL_CITATION