Instructions for linking taxon schemes

[rupertclayton]

I agree that this process needs to be better documented (and I really think it’s ripe for a UI improvement). Here’s what I do:

1. Open an iNat taxon page and navigate to the Taxonomy tab, e.g. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1361011-Gelasine-uruguaiensis#taxonomy-tab . If the count next to Taxon Schemes is 0, there is no association with GBIF. If the count is >0, there may be an association with GBIF (or another taxon scheme), but it may still point to the wrong GBIF entry.

   
   
   Note: I’ve noticed recently that there seems to be a delay in updating the Taxon Schemes counter, so that it still shows 0 for some time after I add a GBIF taxon scheme.

2. Open GBIF, search for the same taxon name and open the GBIF taxon entry, e.g. https://www.gbif.org/species/2746636

3. Copy the GBIF taxon id to the clipboard: 2746636

4. Back on the iNat taxon page, click “Taxon Schemes”.

5. On the next page—e.g. “Schemes including Gelasine uruguaiensis”—click Add to a Scheme.

6. On the next page, select “GBIF” as the Taxon scheme and enter the GBIF identifier in both the “Source identifier” and “Taxon name” fields.

   
   
   Note: I’m sure there’s supposed to be a distinction between these fields, but I have never understood it, and I have always found this to work by entering the same value in both fields.

7. Click Save. This will take you to a page with two conflicting messages: “Your taxon scheme taxon was saved.” And, less helpfully, “Sorry, that doesn’t exist! Even our dedicated search mole couldn’t find anything!” Do not despair. This always happens.

8. Click the back arrow in your browser three times to navigate back to the taxon page. Click the Map tab and refresh the page. It may take a couple minutes for iNat to sync locations from geo-located GBIF occurrences. Once that has happened, refreshing the Map page will now show a checkbox option for “GBIF Locations” in the map legend.