User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My research project was a wild ride. Originally, I had planned to sample bryophytes on Mount Tolmie, which is a park that has an altitudinal gradient. In March when the pandemic hit, I left Victoria – where I was living and attending school – and I did not want to start my entire project from scratch. Earlier in my university career at UVic, I had learned about a website called iNaturalist and I wondered if I could use this website to help me collect data from my original space without having to be there. I ended up using citizen scientist data from iNaturalist in conjunction with some data that I had collected back in February of 2020. Because of this change, I had to make a lot of adjustments in my design and expectations for this project. Using iNaturalist was surprisingly easy, and I was able to get approximately 50 data points for use in my study. Since engaging in the practice of ecology I definitely have a greater appreciation for this field of biology, I have focused on cells and biochemistry for much of my education and never thought much about ecology, but this project opened a big door in my mind!
I can relate to your “wild ride”. I have never designed my own research project and I find this lesson incredibly valuable. I am curious about your experience with iNaturalist-I have just started using it for my day job as a wildlife technician-were you able to download the data to a file then graph it by species? Or did you use it more anecdotally?
Many thanks!
Hi! yes, I was able to download the data into an excel file directly from iNat, which was super helpful. You can choose what data you want , such as coordinates, date, which species data etc. which was really nice. I did have to clean it up a little bit to make graphs but it was not too difficult to do at all. Good luck!
Many thanks!