Hello! I was using the GBIF iNaturalist Research-grade observations dataset to download observation data for pitcher plant species found in Florida and found an odd spatial pattern. There are many rectangular clusters of data that don’t make sense based on landscape morphology / protected areas alone. Besides, it is reproduced several times. The same clustering can be seen on the website’s observation map for the species. To me, it seems like there is an issue with the geocoding of the observations. I’ll include a few examples below.
Ex 1 Species list [“‘Sarracenia flava’”, “'Sarracenia leucophylla '”, “'Sarracenia minor '”, “'Sarracenia psittacina '”, “'Sarracenia rubra subsp. gulfensis '”, “‘Sarracenia rosea’”]
Different colors represent different species. Some of the data looks ‘normal’ but the area west of Jacksonville and east of Orlando look suspicious to me…
Ex 2 Burk’s southern pitcher plant (Sarracenia rosea) · iNaturalist
The map shows quite a few observations in the Gulf of Mexico! Most are research grade and have images attached
Anyone have a clue what could be up?
jb