Want to join a project that is educational, fun, and contributes to celebrating nature? It is as easy as using the free iNaturalist app to record what you see at some of your favorite nature trails, or better yet, new trails that you can enjoy. You will be helping grow knowledge of biodiversity along the Pascagoula River Basin as part of the Discover Nature on the Singing River Project.
For those of us that want to know what a plant or animal is, using iNaturalist is a game changer. Using it is as easy as taking a few photos or recording sounds and uploading them to the app on your smart phone or computer. Using these along with your location, the app provides suggestions for what you may be seeing. Or, you can simply say “plant” or “animal” and it will share your observation with the world – that includes researchers and amateur scientists that have interest in all groups of organisms out there.
Armed with your phone or camera, you can help local groups of nature enthusiasts with inventories of natural areas. These projects provide valuable means of learning about biodiversity in these locations. The Discovering Nature on the Singing River Project is a great example. Developed by the Pascagoula River Basin Alliance, this project includes seventeen defined sites across the river basin, all publicly accessible. Any iNaturalist record taken within these sites adds to the inventory.
And beyond adding to an overall list of species (biodiversity), seasonal observations of organisms can aid researchers in understanding the life cycles of organisms, something that is often poorly understood. For some of the sites in this overall project, these seasonal observations may also be used to supplement phenology surveys that are part of the Gulf Coast Phenology Trail, that targets select species that help scientists understand shifts in climate.
Sites included in the overall project span a range of wetland and upland habitats within the river basin, including freshwater riverine and bottomland wetlands, bayhead swamps, estuarine marsh, upland pine and mixed forests, and wet pine savannas. Sites where intense inventory events, called bioquests, were conducted have recorded thousands of species, and yet many more remain to be documented.
So, if you visit, any and all observations have great value, even for species that have already been recorded. Best of all are the rare finds that may well extend knowledge of less known taxa across the region.
Of course, your journey as an iNaturalist user is unlimited and valued by scientist across the world. These researchers are benefiting from a vast record of observations about their target group of organisms. And then there is nature in your own backyard that is waiting to be recorded, adding even more to this exciting new era in documenting species in our great outdoors.
Hope to see you in our great outdoors.
iNaturalist app
using iNaturalist
https://ourmshome.com/the-inaturalist-app-helping-with-quest-que-cest/
Discovering Nature on the Singing River
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/discovering-nature-on-the-singing-river
Pascagoula River Basin Alliance
https://www.facebook.com/p/Pascagoula-River-Basin-Alliance-100025627818609/
Biodiversity
https://www.ourmshome.com/biodiversity-a-term-worth-understanding/
Gulf Coast Phenology Trail
