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Search results can be refined at different points in the process of searching for the biodiversity information you’re looking for. This article focuses on tailoring your results after you’ve performed your initial search. If you’d like help performing an initial search see our search by species article for searches centered around the name of a species, or the search by location article for searches focused on finding groups of species in specific geographic areas.
Facets
Search results can be filtered by many different record attributes, these are known as facets.
There are many different facets within each filter at the ALA, see the table below for a comprehensive list of filters and facets.
Filter category | Facet | Extra information |
Taxon | Scientific name | Default selected |
Scientific name (unprocessed) | This will allow you to search by the name that the record was submitted with | |
Subspecies |
| |
Species |
| |
Genus |
| |
Family | Default selected | |
Order |
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Class |
| |
Phylum |
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Kingdom |
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Identified to rank |
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Name match metric |
| |
Lifeform | Default selected | |
Common name (processed) | Default selected | |
Species subgroups |
| |
Species interaction |
| |
Identification | Identified by |
|
Raw identification qualifier |
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Taxon identification issue |
| |
Specimen type | Isotype, Holotype etc | |
Original name usage |
| |
Occurrence | Collector |
|
Sex |
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Life stage |
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Establishment means |
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State conservation | See our Working with Conservation and Sensitive Species Information article for more information | |
State conservation (unprocessed) |
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Country conservation |
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Event | Dataset/Survey name |
|
Parent Event ID |
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Field Number |
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Event ID |
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Month | Default selected | |
Year |
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Date precision |
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Year(by decade) | Default selected | |
Location | Country |
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State or Territory | Default selected | |
Elevation |
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Min elevation |
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Local Government Areas |
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IBRA 7 regions | Interim Biogeographic Regionalisations for Australia | |
IBRA 7 Subregions |
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IMCRA Meso-scale Bioregions |
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IMCRA Regions | Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia | |
National Dynamic Land Cover |
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Vegetation types-native |
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Vegetation types-present |
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Species habitats |
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Coordinate uncertainty (in metres) |
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Spatial validity |
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Location ID |
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States including coastal waters |
| |
Record | Record type | Default selected (Human observation, preserved specimen, etc) |
Multimedia | Default selected | |
Presence/Absence | Default selected | |
Content types | Default selected | |
Assertions | Sensitive | See our Working with Conservation and Sensitive Species Information article for more information |
Record issues |
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Outlier for layer |
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Outlier layer count |
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Has user assertions | User assertions are otherwise known as 'flags' | |
Assertions by user |
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Associated records |
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Attribution | License |
|
User ID |
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Collection |
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Institution | Default selected | |
Data provider |
| |
Data resource | Default selected |
Within each filter category there will be facets that you can filter by. Some of these will be reasonably universal for all searches, for example, “State or Territory”. However, others will be greatly dependent on your search, for example, scientific name.
Customising your results (filtering by conservation status example)
As an example, let's filter by conservation status.
First, we are going to do a search at the genus level rather than at the species level so we can refine it using filters. This will also work well with any search, including a location-based search such as Explore your area.
- From the ALA homepage, type Eucalyptus into the search bar
- Select Eucalytpus L’Hér, and then view records. You now have all Eucalyptus records for all of Australia.
- First we need to add our preferred facet, as it's not showing by default. Select the “Customise filters” button in the top left-hand corner of the page.
4. A popup should appear. In the customize filters pop-up, in the occurrence section select State conservation and Country conservation.
5. These facets will now appear in the list on the left-hand side of the page:
6. From the State conservation list, select Critically Endangered. You may need to first select the 'choose more' option in the state conservation list if it's not showing. This will open a popup, where you can select Critically Endangered followed by “INCLUDE selected items” You could select multiple facets here, or exclude certain facets:
7. The results have now been filtered, from over 1,000,000 records down to several thousand. From here, you can see the list of Scientific Names that are included, and you may wish to filter further. You can also continue to download the occurrence records, a species checklist or a field guide.
If you started with an explore your area search, this process might have left you with a list of all (in any) critically endangered species in your chosen area. This could be a useful dataset to work with!