Using for record keeping, citizen science, & public engagement

Workshop for NAI Beltway ChapterBy Carrie E. Seltzer (@carrieseltzer)

National Geographic Society April 25, 2016

C.E. Seltzer. CC BY

iNaturalist makes it easy for people to share what they see

C.E. Seltzer. CC BY

Elements of an observationWhat? 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

Start with the level of identification you know and others can suggest IDs further up the tree of life

iNaturalist, CC BY

Working together to hang observations on the Tree of Life

iNaturalist, CC BY

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Crowd source species IDs

Automatically protect sensitive species

BioBlitz: an intensive survey of a defined area, inventorying as many species as possible in a

short amount of time.

+ =

x 10

Nearby BioBlitz locations

How you can be involved

Come to the Biodiversity Festival: Explore booths and entertainment at Constitution Gardens.

Attend an inventory: Be a citizen scientist and work with an expert.

Identify observations on iNaturalist: During and after the event, help identify observations & welcome new users!

Be a Pro-Observer: Learn how to use iNaturalist and help record data on inventories.

Why it’s great for BioBlitzes

BioBlitz data collection has evolved

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Data section

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

Open data for use and re-use

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Analyze and Visualize Data

GBIF

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

GBIF

US iNat Occurrences in GBIFUS Species US Occurrences in GBIF

Records in GBIF: Species and occurrences

iNaturalist, CC BY

2016

Ann

ual M

eetin

g

This is the power of sharing data!

iNaturalist, CC BY

Global Biotic Interactions (GloBI)

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.