how and why to use inaturalist for a bioblitz

Using for data collection at a BioBlitz

Presentation to the U.S. Forest ServiceBy Carrie E. Seltzer, Ph.D.

Program Manager National Geographic Society

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

iNaturalist makes it easy for people to share what they see

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Elements of an observationWhat? Who? When?

Where?

Details?

Community ID

Evidence (photo or sound)

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

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, National Geographic. CC BY

Start with what you know

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Crowd source species IDs

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Why it’s great for BioBlitzes

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Define a location for your project

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Automatically protect sensitive species

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Create Species Guides

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Communicate with participants

C.E. Seltzer, National Geographic. CC BY

Export Data

• Filter data and select relevant fields to export data as .csv or .kml (for Google Earth)

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.