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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
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iNaturalist makes it easy for people to share what they see
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
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Elements of an observation
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
What? Who? When?
Where?
Details?
Community ID
Evidence (photo or sound)
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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
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Crowd source species IDs
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Research quality observations need peer reviewed
identifications
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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Working together to hang observations
on the Tree of Life
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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Automatically protect sensitive species
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Open data for use and re-use
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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US iNat OccurrencesUS Species US Occurrences
Unlocking other Taxa with Social Networks
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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Monarch Occurrences in GBIF
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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60% from iNat - 98% from iNat this decade
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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All Recent United States Monarch Occurrences (2006-2015)
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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All United States Butterfly and Moth Occurrences in GBIF
Scott Loarie, iNaturalist
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BioBlitz: an intensive survey of a defined area, inventorying as many species as possible in a
short amount of time.
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Why it’s great for BioBlitzes
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Find one! natgeo.org/bioblitz
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Resources and ideas for the classroom
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Manage your class as a project
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Communicate with students
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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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
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Analyze and Visualize Data
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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GBIF
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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Create Species Guides
C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY
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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
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How many species on campus?
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
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Only 170 observers!
C.E. Seltzer. CC BY
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Help fill in Indiana!