With the arrival of September, we are only a few short weeks away from our annual dawn-to-dusk biological survey (species inventory) of Odiorne Point State Park. This event empowers community members to become citizen scientists who work alongside experts in varied scientific fields to discover and learn more about local biodiversity. You can read more in our recent post and learn about the changes we’ve seen through the years within the different habitats of Odiorne during BioBlitz.
You may be wondering, how will you record what you find during BioBlitz? There is a useful app you’ll want to download as you get ready to Blitz. iNaturalist is like a peer review social network for sharing biodiversity information. It can help you identify plants and animals, record and upload your findings, and connect with scientists in the field. Naturalists and scientists can then make comments, give feedback, and make corrections where needed.
iNaturalist also gives institutions, like Seacoast Science Center, a tool to arm its participants with on days such as BioBlitz, so we can all work hand-in-hand to capture information on the plants, animals, fungi, and insects that we collectively find. Within iNaturalist, there are ‘Project’ pages where information can be added and grouped for a particular outcome. In this case, a snapshot of the changing biodiversity of the Park.
The app can be downloaded from the App Store and Google Play. The iNaturalist website has a library of video tutorials, like how to add an observation, that will help you familiarize yourself with iNaturalist before this year’s event on Saturday, September 23rd.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, you can find Seacoast Science Center’s annual BioBlitz page by selecting ‘projects’ and then searching for ‘SSC BioBlitz!’ on the iNaturalist search bar. Click on the event and then ‘join.’ Once you are in the SSC BioBlitz section, you can find a brief summary of what the project is about and the date on which it occurs. Parameters are put in place so uploads cannot be made until BioBlitz has started. Once it starts, users will be able to post their own observations and see other’s observations. Use the screenshots of the iNaturalist app below as a guide.
More information about SSC’s BioBlitz and using iNaturalist can be found on our website.
