Throughout April, which is also Earth Month and Citizen Science Month, the ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes invites the ASU community and the entire state of Arizona to participate in a citizen science project to help us document flowering plants and pollinators on ASU’s Phoenix-area campuses.
Pollinators are vital to healthy ecosystems. Birds, bats, butterflies, bees and many other species are necessary for the health of flowering plants, food crops and the global economy.
We simply could not live without them.
As part of this initiative, citizen scientists will use their smartphones to snap and load photos of flowering plants and pollinators via the iNaturalist app.
A SciStarter account is required.
In addition to the video tutorial below, two webinar sessions will be offered in the upcoming weeks to show participants how to load their photos to the iNaturalist app and answer any questions. The dates and times for the two webinars will be announced in the upcoming days.
This project is co-sponsored by SciStarter and the ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the Conservation Innovation Lab.
SciStarter is facilitating the flowering plants and pollinators project, as well as a stall catchers project where citizen scientists will analyze videos of blood flow in the brains of mice affected by Alzheimer’s to identify clogged blood vessels (stalls). This project is not geographically restricted.
Learn more and register, or contact us with questions.
Additional resources:
Plants and pollinators guide for American semidesert and desert regions (Pollinator Partnership and North American Pollinator Protection Campaign).
Hasbrouck Insect Collection (ASU Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center)