Once there is a species record for a county and month, is there a need to add more records for the same species, county and month for subsequent years?

You mean observations of the same species? Yes.

It might be that the species, for whatever reason, might not persist in the region anymore. So for science it may be important to track when a species is present in the area and for how long, and one way to do this is to keep making observations. It’s especially relevant around climate change and c…

It’s really entirely up to you. If you feel that making more observations has value, then please do so. iNaturalist data are used in many ways, and there is no single scientific end for these observations. Recent publications based on iNaturalist data, for example, have included an analysis of shelt…

County records have been used for many years as a somewhat coarse way to document and map species distributions. For herpetofauna, a new county record is probably worth publishing a note in the journal Herpetological Review. Of course iNat isn’t the only place where records are documented but it d…

Counties are fairly coarse geographical areas for understanding species distribution. How about recording at ‘site’ level or even better at 2 metre ‘point’ level to enable site and area managers to understand the species make-up of different ecological/habitat areas within their sites to enhance th…

Yes. The data can show early/late timings for migrants, or species that would not be around during certain months (winter). I think specifically of birds and moths, that I focus on observing.

Also note that counties vary a lot in size. One county in my state (Catron, NM) is bigger than a few US states.

Why would your records be linked to a county or whatever? You observe as many specimens as you wish every day, it shouldn’t be a system of 1 per county/state/country.

[image] dinofelis: It’s especially relevant around climate change and changes made to the landscape by human activities. On that note, if the map view updates whenever someone views that observation, it may not show the habitat in which the observation was made. A woodland taxon, but the wood…

Are you saying they paved paradise and put up a parking lot? I have a series of observations on a once vacant lot in my neighborhood that is currently under construction, so I certainly understand the concern.

Duplicate County Records

General

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Duplicate County Records

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