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A global snapshot of biodiversity for National Geographic’s Great Nature Project


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Posted to ecolog, may be of interest to OE readers.

 

...participate in the upcoming global

snapshot of biodiversity

http://greatnatureproject.org/events/global-snapshot-2015/?utm_source=GNP&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=gnp_20150419&utm_campaign=ECOLOG>

for National Geographic’s Great Nature Project

http://greatnatureproject.org/?utm_source=GNP&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=gnp_gnp_20150419&utm_campaign=ECOLOG>

in collaboration with iNaturalist.org https://www.inaturalist.org/>.

 

The Great Nature Project is ongoing, but from May 15 to 25, our goal is to

motivate people to explore biodiversity wherever they are and document as

many species as possible. Everything observed between May 15 and 25 and

uploaded to greatnatureproject.org or iNaturalist.org will automatically be

counted for the global snapshot.

 

How to participate:

 

-

 

Go outside, explore, and take photos of biodiversity wherever you are.

-

 

Upload your photos on greatnatureproject.org, iNaturalist.org, or using

the iNaturalist mobile app.

-

 

Include information about where and when you saw it.

-

 

Identify what you saw. Just find the taxonomic group that corresponds to

the extent of your knowledge. Sometimes observations start at the level of

“flowering plant” or “fungus”-- that’s ok. Others can suggest

identifications if your photos and description are clear enough. If you

know exactly what it was-- great!

-

 

Help other members of the community identify what they saw! You can

suggest identifications for observations made by other people and make

comments. I imagine most of you have at least one group of organisms that

you know well, and you can help others get to know them, too.

 

 

What happens to observations submitted to the Great Nature Project? The

Great Nature Project was not created to answer a specific question. Rather,

your photo-documented observations contribute to a database of records that

scientists, decision makers, and even you can use to answer questions about

where and when different species occur. Observations with identification

agreement are shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility

(GBIF) http://www.gbif.org/>. To download data submitted to the Great

Nature Project, please use the download tools from iNaturalist

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/export?projects%5B%5D=national-geographic-great-nature-project>.

To see examples of the kind of research that often uses observations from

iNaturalist, check out GBIF http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/uses>.

 

Help spread the word!

 

We created a toolkit of materials

https://drive.google.com/a/ngs.org/folderview?id=0BzV0qT0Q6H4leWQxTkc4bzkyT0k&usp=drive_web>including

flyers, banners, and postcards, which you can share with any individuals or

organizations who you think might be interested in participating. Please

contact us at greatnatureproject@ngs.org if you have trouble accessing the

materials on Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/a/ngs.org/folderview?id=0BzV0qT0Q6H4leWQxTkc4bzkyT0k&usp=drive_web>

.

 

Ways to engage others:

 

-

 

Spread the word in your email newsletter.

-

 

Print a flyer from the toolkit and post it in an office, information

booth, or trailhead. The flyer was created especially with parks and nature

centers in mind!

-

 

Host an event. You could organize a photo walk, use the assets in the

toolkit to help promote it, and show people how to participate in the Great

Nature Project. You could do a bioblitz to inventory species in a yard or

park (find out more about bioblitzes at natgeoed.org/bioblitz).

iNaturalist has many useful tools to keep track of observations within

certain boundaries such as parks (learn more at inaturalist.org/projects

http://www.inaturalist.org/projects>).

 

 

Join us at 8 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day) for a Google

Hangout https://plus.google.com/events/ct0jfp0q9huv7c1gh6r17l86hh0?ar_a=1>to

learn more.

 

If you want to receive updates in the future about the Great Nature

Project, please create an account

http://greatnatureproject.org/register/?utm_source=GNP&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=gnp_20150419&utm_campaign=ECOLOG>

.

 

We look forward to seeing observations come in from all over the world!

Please ask your friends and family to help put biodiversity on the map.

 

Sincerely,

 

Carrie Seltzer and the rest of National Geographic’s Great Nature Project

team

 

National Geographic Society

 

1145 17th Street, NW

 

Washington, DC 20036-4688

 

USA

202-862-8239

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