iPhone helps users learn about biodiversity
By Cindy Steinle · May 25, 2011 3:32 pm
Love the myriad of species with which we share the world? There's an iPhone app for that.
From National Geographic:
Holding up a coastal horned lizard, (Phrynosoma coronatum) Scott asks: “If I wanted to know where this lizard survives and where it doesn’t, I’d go to a museum and look at all the specimens collected over the last 100 years or so. It used to live in most of the chaparral around here, in the Bay Area of San Francisco.” “But this is one of those species that is rapidly disappearing. And we’re not exactly sure why. It may be climate change. It may be changes to the ants that make up its diet. It might be the urban sprawl that is isolating its habitat. “ “We need to know exactly where this species persists. And, we need more data.” Scott’s solution is not an army of well-funded professionals with sophisticated equipment. That isn’t going to happen. He wants you — the citizen scientist and a piece of equipment you likely already own — your iPhone. And, of course the app.The app is called iNaturalist and can be downloaded here.
