taxonomic_searches: Look up taxon information

In galah: Biodiversity Data from the GBIF Node Network

Look up taxon information

Description

search_taxa() allows users to look up taxonomic names, and ensure they are being matched correctly, before downloading data from the specified organisation.

By default, names are supplied as strings; but users can also specify taxonomic levels in a search using a data.frame or tibble. This is useful when the taxonomic level of the name in question needs to be specified, in addition to it's identity. For example, a common method is to use the scientificName column to list a Latinized binomial, but it is also possible to list these separately under genus and specificEpithet (respectively). A more common use-case is to distinguish between homonyms by listing higher taxonomic units, by supplying columns like kingdom, phylum or class.

search_identifiers() allows users to look up matching taxonomic names using their unique taxonConceptID. In the ALA, all records are associated with an identifier that uniquely identifies the taxon to which that record belongs. Once those identifiers are known, this function allows you to use them to look up further information on the taxon in question. Effectively this is the inverse function to search_taxa(), which takes names and provides identifiers.

Note that when taxonomic look-up is required within a pipe, the equivalent to search_taxa() is identify() (or galah_identify()). The equivalent to search_identifiers() is to use filter() to filter by taxonConceptId.

Details

search_taxa() returns the taxonomic match of a supplied text string, along with the following information:

• search_term: The search term used by the user. When multiple search terms are provided in a tibble, these are displayed in this column, concatenated using ⁠_⁠.

• scientific_name: The taxonomic name matched to the provided search term, to the lowest identified taxonomic rank.

• taxon_concept_id: The unique taxonomic identifier.

• rank: The taxonomic rank of the returned result.

• match_type: (ALA only) The method of name matching used by the name matching service. More information can be found on the name matching github repository.

• issues: Any errors returned by the name matching service (e.g. homonym, indeterminate species match). More information can be found on the name matching github repository.

• ⁠taxonomic names⁠ (e.g. kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus)

When querying using request_metadata(), you have the option to pass select() within the query. The easiest way to do this is select(everything()), but for completeness, the following additional fields are available:

• success: Logical indicating success or failure of the search

• scientific_name_authorship: Author and year for the name in question

• name_type: Usually "SCIENTIFIC"

• lft and rgt: Numeric indices for taxonomic lookups

• species_group and species_subgroup: List-columns giving group names

• ⁠_id⁠ fields for rank and any taxonomic rank fields (kingdom_id, phylum_id etc.)

See Also

search_all() for how to get names if taxonomic identifiers are already known. filter(), select(), identify() and geolocate() for ways to restrict the information returned by atlas_() functions.

Examples

## Not run: 
# Search using a single string. 
# Note that `search_taxa()` is not case sensitive
search_taxa("Reptilia")

# Search using multiple strings. 
# `search_taxa()` will return one row per taxon
search_taxa("reptilia", "mammalia")

# Search using more detailed strings with authorship information
search_taxa("Acanthocladium F.Muell")

# Specify taxonomic levels in a tibble using "specificEpithet"
search_taxa(tibble::tibble(
  class = "aves", 
  family = "pardalotidae", 
  genus = "pardalotus", 
  specificEpithet = "punctatus"))

# Specify taxonomic levels in a tibble using "scientificName"                    
search_taxa(tibble::tibble(
  family = c("pardalotidae", "maluridae"), 
  scientificName = c("Pardalotus striatus striatus", "malurus cyaneus")))

# Use OOP for the same effect
# `identify()` tells the code that we want to search for _taxonomic_ metadata.
request_metadata() |>
  identify("crinia") |>
  collect()

# This approach has the advantage that we can call `select()`
request_metadata() |>
  identify("crinia") |>
  select(everything()) |>
  collect()

# Look up a unique taxon identifier
search_identifiers(query = "https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2914510")

# OOP process for identifiers uses `filter()`, not `identify()`
# In these cases the `field` argument is used to specify `type`
request_metadata() |>
  filter(identifier = "https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2914510") |>
  select(everything()) |>
  collect()

## End(Not run)

galah documentation built on Feb. 11, 2026, 9:11 a.m.