Bioblitz Guide

Modified on Tue, 19 Nov at 2:43 PM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is a bioblitz?
Why should I use iNaturalist for my bioblitz?
How to organize a bioblitz
Additional Resources

What is a bioblitz?

A bioblitz is a communal effort to record as many species within a designated location and time period as possible.

Bioblitzes are great ways to engage the public to connect to their environment while generating useful data for science and conservation. They are also an excuse for naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public to meet in person in the great outdoors, and they're a lot of fun!

Why should I use iNaturalist for my bioblitz?

Encourage Public Participation

Public participation is what separates bioblitzes from traditional biological inventories. iNaturalist makes it easy for anyone to genuinely participate in your bioblitz by recording observations.

Create high-quality data

Who says bioblitzes are just about outreach? Because iNaturalist observations are independently identified and verified as Research Grade data, your bioblitz, no matter how small, will contribute directly to science.

Make counting your species easy

iNaturalist will automatically count the species observed in your bioblitz and provide tools for visualizing and communicating bioblitz results to participants and onlookers.

How to organize a bioblitz

Once you've picked a location and date you'll need to get to work organizing your bioblitz. Your responsibilities as the organizer are to:

Create an iNat project
Recruit observers
Rehearse an upload plan
Recruit identifiers
Plan how to report back results from the bioblitz

Configure an iNat project

Create a Collection Project and set the filters for the place and date of your bioblitz. This will ensure you get the stats you want about the place, time, and species you care about. More on Projects here.

You'll want to get your project set up in advance so you'll have a URL ready to send out, making it easy for participants and onlookers to find your bioblitz on iNaturalist. Check out this help page for advice on how to set up a collection project for a bioblitz.

Recruit observers

If you can find a wild animal or plant and take a picture of it, you can participate as a bioblitz observer! So the general public is a great place to recruit observers.

But make sure the public understands their role as observers is participatory and that their objective is to drive the bioblitz count by recording and uploading observations that will be identifiable.

Emphasize using the mobile apps to people who are new to iNat, because the apps are the easiest way to use iNat. However, it also helps to recruit a few experienced iNat observers with macro and telephoto lenses so that birds and tiny critters are well-represented. Observing isn't hard, but it's difficult to get people familiar with iNaturalist during the chaos of a bioblitz. Help get observers familiar posting observations before the bioblitz starts. The best first step is to get familiar posting observations yourself!

Organizers' familiarity with iNaturalist is a major factor in having a successful bioblitz.

Rehearse an upload plan

Observations need to be uploaded to iNat to be counted. This requires cell service or wifi.

If your bioblitz site offers no internet connection, organize a post-bioblitz gathering at a venue that does, like a nearby cafe or a visitor center. Otherwise, be sure to remind observers to upload when they get home. Uploading from the app is straightforward, but photos from cameras need to be first uploaded to a computer and then added to iNaturalist as observations. Observers will likely want to do this from home, but we recommend having a laptop connected to the internet on-hand to demo the process if needed.

The best way to make sure uploading will go smoothly during your bioblitz is to create a test project and conduct an on-site rehearsal beforehand.

Recruit identifiers

Observations need to be identified before being counted. We highly recommend that you encourage observers to focus on recording independently verifiable observations (i.e. observations with good photos) rather than worry too much about making field identifications. They'll have plenty of time to contribute to the identification process when they're done making observations.

However, recruiting skilled identifiers to review observations as they are uploaded is a great way to engage naturalists and scientists who can't make it to the bioblitz in person, and to speed up the rate at which bioblitz observations are identified. A mix of skilled naturalists with local knowledge and specialists from museums, universities, or other institutions makes for an ideal identifying team. Here's a quick way to get identifiers familiar making identifications on iNaturalist.

Plan how to report back results from the bioblitz

Reporting back to bioblitz participants by communicating the results is a great way to thank participants and bring the event to conclusion. Some groups have picnics or pizza parties as wrap-up events. You could also use your iNaturalist project's journal feature, or use other channels you have to contact participants, like email lists or social media.

Additional Resources

Check out the iNaturalist Basics help documents. Make sure you and your colleagues are familiar with iNaturalist before considering a bioblitz.

You should also check out materials developed by our friends at Nerds for Nature, who pioneered the concept of a grassroots bioblitz using iNaturalist, particularly their 10 Steps to Bioblitz post, and their Bioblitz Recipe Book.