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Wednesday, May 25 2011

iPhone helps users learn about biodiversity

By Cindy Steinle
Wed, May 25 2011 at 15:32

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.

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So, I find a declineing species and just load it into my iPhone. Then other with iPhones can find that species too? I remember marking maps (paper ones, we used overhead projector pens..

with den sites on them not that long ago. One map went missing and the next year there were no snakes at that den site. I think the idea of this is great but it could also serve as a poacher's tool and be counter productive. It would suck to have every entry update with "this is where they used to be found, we haven't seen them in years.."

#1 blue francis on 2011-05-26 02:15 (Reply)

iphon

#2 khalid on 2011-06-01 14:23 (Reply)

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