Seven Hundred Projects in iNaturalist Spain: Performance and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Citizen science projects seem to have a high potential to provide systematized, high-quality biodiversity observations for science and other purposes. iNaturalist offers users purposeful participation by creating projects that allow observations to be grouped with a taxonomic and geographic focus, as well as on a given time scale. Between 2014 and December 2021, 720 iNaturalist projects have been created for Spain, most of them after the establishment of Natusfera—the Spanish branch of the iNaturalist global Community—in 2020. In this paper, we analyze how iNaturalist projects are created; how they perform in terms of engagement, data contribution, and impact; and assess the degree and possible causes of their success. A database with project descriptors and indicators was created for this purpose. We discovered that a high percentage of the projects (more than 25%) perform far short of expectations, and that bioblitzes are in general very successful in terms of creation, dissemination, and participation. Finally, we present some recommendations aiming to make these projects more effective.

The iNaturalist Application in Biology Education: A Systematic Review

“…In the same article, the authors also explain that they limited the groups of pupils to their own square marked with string, which they then explored. Rokop et al (2022), Gass et al (2021), Gerhart et al (2021, , , ), Harlin et al (2018), and Pollock et al (2015 used and recommended BioBlitz events because they promote experiential learning, provide a sense of place, and help create long-term commitment and advocacy for biodiversity conservation, while also contributing a great amount of observation to the iNaturalist dataset (Martínez-Sagarra et al, 2022). In these BioBlitz events, participants explore a specific geographical area alone or in groups during a specific time period and record their observations in the iNaturalist application.…”

Revealing biases in insect observations: A comparative analysis between academic and citizen science data

“…Natusfera was a citizen science platform that was active from 2017 to 2022. The initial community of this platform is currently migrating and integrating into two new communities, one linked to the MINKA platform [ 18 ] and the other to the Spanish iNaturalist community [ 19 ], which has inherited the name of the old platform. Given the transitory status of the communities reporting in Natusfera, their associated records are not yet included in the GBIF.…”

Strengths and Challenges of Using iNaturalist in Plant Research with Focus on Data Quality

“…Positive experiences in both secondary schools and universities have been reported throughout the world (e.g., [14,24]). The launching of over 700 iNaturalist projects during the period 2014-2021 in a small country like Spain alone [25] can be taken as proof of their usefulness.…”