Sharing and usingbiodiversity data with (open science AND citizen science)
Presentation at Earlham College
By Carrie E. Seltzer, Ph.D. (Earlham ’04)
March 31, 2016
iNaturalist makes it easy for people to share what they see
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
Elements of an observation
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
What? Who? When?
Where?
Details?
Community ID
Evidence (photo or sound)
iNaturalist has an underlying taxonomy
• Observations should somehow be attached to the tree of life (i.e. not rocks, water, trash, etc.)
• Observations can be attached at any taxonomic level
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
Crowd source species IDs
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Research quality observations need peer reviewed
identifications
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
Working together to hang observations
on the Tree of Life
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
Automatically protect sensitive species
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Open data for use and re-use
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
US iNat OccurrencesUS Species US Occurrences
Unlocking other Taxa with Social Networks
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
Monarch Occurrences in GBIF
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
60% from iNat - 98% from iNat this decade
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
All Recent United States Monarch Occurrences (2006-2015)
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
All United States Butterfly and Moth Occurrences in GBIF
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
BioBlitz: an intensive survey of a defined area, inventorying as many species as possible in a
short amount of time.
Why it’s great for BioBlitzes
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Find one! natgeo.org/bioblitz
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Resources and ideas for the classroom
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Manage your class as a project
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Communicate with students
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Export Data
• Use for analysis or tracking student work
• Filter data and select relevant fields to export data as .csv or .kml (for Google Earth)
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Analyze and Visualize Data
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
GBIF
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
Create Species Guides
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
What CAN’T you do with iNaturalist?
• Abiotic recording/monitoring (water quality, precipitation, temperature, air quality, etc.)
• Recording/mapping entire plant communities
• Absence (iNat is best for presence-only)
• Difficult to record metadata around sampling effort
• Not a GIS itself, but you can use the data in another GIS.
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
How many species on campus?
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
Only 170 observers!
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
Help fill in Indiana!