Comparing citizen science biodiversity sampling efforts at Acadia National Park

Halasz, Liz

From the abstract: "As rapidly changing conditions threaten ecosystems on global and local scales, more holistic management strategies are needed to support the longevity of iconic places like those found in Acadia National Park. In 2013, park staff and partners began developing a set of interdisciplinary approaches, the Wild Acadia Initiatives, to identify ecosystem stressors and implement strategic resource management on a watershed basis. Schoodic Institute has assisted in monitoring efforts in the Cromwell Brook watershed through coordinated all-taxa biodiversity surveys, known as 'BioBlitzes', with citizen scientists. Since 2020, Schoodic Institute has facilitated 30+ BioBlitz events using iNaturalist, an online platform for amateur and experienced naturalists to record biodiversity data. With technology like iNaturalist creating opportunities for anyone to contribute to our understanding of local biodiversity, this poster seeks to compare the efforts of coordinated BioBlitz users to independent users from the public, explore what biodiversity data citizen scientists are contributing, and assess how these two participatory sampling efforts differ. This comparison reveals the average BioBlitz user contributes a higher number of verifiable observations and unique species than the average independent user, underlining the importance of BioBlitzes as a tool for both citizen science engagement and monitoring biodiversity in Acadia National Park."

Comparing citizen science biodiversity sampling efforts at Acadia National Park

Collections