'PhyTaxR', a set of phytoplankton taxonomic curation tools in R

PhyTaxR is an R package that formalizes reproducible phytoplankton taxonomic curation by separating a standardized taxonomic core from ancillary metadata and uncertainty.

• Why it matters: Taxonomic harmonisation is difficult because operational fields mix scientific names with size classes, descriptors, uncertainty qualifiers, vernacular labels, author citations, and historical nomenclature.
• What they did: PhyTaxR applies a conservative resolution workflow using WoRMS searches, supplemented by stringent, cross-validated GBIF matches, then reconciles records to accepted concepts with persistent identifiers and provenance.
• The result: Unresolved labels are routed to semi-automatic review for candidate evaluation, manual identifications, expert review flags, or removal, reducing manual curation while keeping uncertainty explicit in reproducible R workflows.