Naturgit

Naturgit is a hypothetical, open-source project that combines Git version control with natural history data management to help researchers track changes to observations, specimens, photographs, GIS layers, and related notes.

The design centers on a repository-centric workflow in which datasets, field notebooks, and media are stored in a Git repository alongside metadata files. This enables fine-grained versioning, branching for different field campaigns, and reproducible analyses by capturing the full history of data curation. Naturally, access control and collaboration features mirror those found in standard Git workflows, with additional tooling aimed at researchers who manage evolving datasets.

Naturgit supports both textual metadata and structured records using compatible schemas such as Darwin Core or custom YAML/JSON schemas. It leverages Git LFS or external storage for large media and spatial data, and offers tooling for validating records, generating provenance, and exporting to standard formats. The project emphasizes data integrity and traceability, allowing researchers to annotate changes, link observations to sources, and preserve the lineage of records through commits and branches.

The project is designed to be interoperable with existing research practices, providing templates for specimen registers, occurrence records, and checklists, and aiming to integrate with data repositories and analysis workflows. It is discussed as a concept in discussions about data governance, reproducibility, and collaborative field science within ecology and natural history communities.

As a hypothetical concept, naturgit has no official release, governance body, or widespread adoption. It is presented here as an illustration of how version control concepts could apply to natural history data management.