By Parker 
November 2024

After I posted it, another user suggested the species ID Tartarian honeysuckle and offered some identification advice; however, other users disagreed. Eventually, taking into account the features that the third user pointed out and using the input of a fourth user, we decided that it was probably an Amur honeysuckle. 

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Here at the biodiversity literacy VIP, we know that learning about the natural world around us makes people care about protecting it more, so one of our main goals is to help non-scientists become engaged with learning about biodiversity. From my own experience, I know that using iNaturalist is one way to do this. I came away from this iNaturalist experience with new skills at identifying honeysuckles and a better ability to look closely at the nature around me. This in turn led me to learn that honeysuckles were invasive to my area. Once I was able to identify them well, I started noticing them all around my neighborhood, and this made me realize that invasive plants in my area were a much bigger problem than I realized. During the rest of my summer, I volunteered with an organization that worked to remove invasive weeds on public trails. 

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The more you learn about biodiversity, the more connected you feel with nature, and the more informed you become about the crisis it is facing. This is why becoming interested in biodiversity in beginner friendly ways is helpful to our cause all on its own, but becoming an iNaturalist user has the potential to help scientists in other ways too. When you upload an observation, you input the coordinates and the date that you saw it. This is incredibly important data for anyone interested in where certain species are found and how these distributions change over time. In fact, this is the main way that we at the biodiversity literacy VIP record and measure biodiversity. We do so using a program known as Qgis, but for this program, we need to be able to identify the exact species, and that species must be on the list we have uploaded to the Qgis database. If we want to record an observation, but we can’t identify it at the moment, or the species isn’t in the database yet, some VIP students have started using iNaturalist to temporarily record the species. Then, when we have more time and resources than we do in the field, we can properly identify it using field guides or we can add the missing species to the database.

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Since iNaturalist has already recorded the exact date and location of the observation, it is easy to backdate and add to Qgis. 

If the date and location are properly recorded, and the species identification has been verified by multiple users, I see no reason why iNaturalist observations from everyday people can’t be added to our class data. This would help us get much more data, which would help us get a more accurate look at how biodiversity is changing over time in St Andrews. Also, since your observations are public, they have the potential to help any scientist who might need it, not just us.

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Now that you know how using iNaturalist can help you feel more connected to nature, and how it can help scientists with research and monitoring, I would like to give you a few tips to help you get started. It is pretty intuitive to use, but there are some things you can remember to do that will make it easier for you and others to identify your observations. 

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Firstly, what type of pictures will be helpful for identification will depend on what kind of species you are looking at. The iNaturalist ID software is good at identifying animals, but it will never identify anything to the species level, because it knows it isn’t as accurate as a human observer. You can attach multiple photos to each observation, but the software will always make its guess from the photo you set as the first one, so make sure to put your clearest photo first. Still, one photo is often all you need to properly identify a big animal like a bird or a mammal, but if you can get more than one photo from different angles, that’s even more helpful to fellow users. Additionally, iNaturalist also lets you submit audio recordings along with photos. This is especially helpful for recording bird calls. Sometimes, a bird call is enough to identify a bird even if you don’t have any pictures. 

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On the other hand, the iNaturalist software has more trouble with plants and fungi, so I would rely less on the software and more on the expertise of other users. Other users are able to look at all your photos, not just your first one, and these other photos can provide important context. Here are some ways you can make your additional photos as helpful as possible.

For trees, one picture is rarely enough. I recommend that you take a closeup picture of both the leaves and the bark, since many trees have distinctive bark color/texture as well as distinctive leaf shape. Depending on the time of year, you might also get flowers or fruits on your tree (fruits include nuts and cones), and getting pictures of these is very helpful. One thing that is useful to identify trees that not everyone thinks of is the tree's form, i.e whether it is tall and thin or sprawling, whether it is symmetrical or irregular, etc. To include a picture of this, you will need to step back so that all or most of the tree is in the frame of the photo. 

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For fungi, it is extra important to take pictures from multiple angles. Whether or not a mushroom has gills or pores on the underside is essential to knowing what species it is. It is also important to take a picture of what the mushroom is growing on. Some mushrooms only grow on leaf litter, some only grow on the sides of dead trees, some only on living trees, etc. Seeing this will also be very helpful for knowing the species. A good way to get all this information in one picture is, if you have more than one mushroom, pick one and put it upside down, and take a picture of it next to the other mushrooms still in the ground. Try to include as many features of the mushroom as possible, including the cap, stalk, and base. If you have time, you can also get a picture of what happens to the mushroom when you damage it. Some mushrooms “bleed” when cut, and the color that this liquid is can be helpful for identifying. The more detailed your pictures are, the more other users will be able to help you.

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After reading this, I hope you feel motivated and more prepared to start your journey of observing nature. Remember that doing even a little bit is helpful to us scientists; the more data the better. That said, once you start observing, you won’t want to stop. The natural world is out there waiting to be discovered, and the more you learn about it, the more you appreciate it. You will get better at identifying as you go, and might even end up helping other users with their identifications one day.

Happy observing!