OTUs as synonyms instead of children

[thomasstjerne]

When a OTU source dataset (UNITE, BOLD) has a different accepted taxon than GBIF for a parent taxon of an OTU, the OTU ends up as a synonym of the (in GBIF) accepted parent instead of being a child of the accepted taxon.

OTUs of the current version of UNITE should always be accepted taxa, only OTUs from previous versions would be synonyms.

Example: SH1152518.09FU appears as a synonym of Cortinarius vesterholtii because UNITE uses Calonarius vesterholtii as accepted name. The latter is treated as a synonym by the Backbone.

[mdoering]

I don't quite see how to solve this better. The behavior is expected and the same as we deal with Linnean names. What else would you expect? Synonyms of names which are themselves treated as synonyms in the backbone are attached to the accepted name of that backbone synonym. We cannot link a synonym to a synonym.

[thomasstjerne]

In this case it is not synonyms of names that are treated as synonyms in the backbone. It is children of names that are treated as synonyms in the backbone. https://www.gbif.org/species/201844775

I would expect the algorithm to say "It seems the backbone treats the parent (in the source) of this OTU as synonym, then we have to find the accepted taxon in the backbone and place the OTU under that".

In short: the backbone build should never change taxonomic status of an OTU - only if it is given as synonym from the source it can be a synonym in the backbone.

[mdoering]

Oh, I agree with that and are surprised the behavior is different. This should be addressed in the next update for sure!