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Group

Citizen Science / Feed

Anyone can become a citizen scientist - even experts! If you're excited about exploring new areas of conservation tech, contributing to projects, or developing and launching your own citizen science projects or apps, this is the group for you.

discussion

Software to aid acoustic sound files visualization/labelling + Software to syncronize video/acoustic sonograms

Adrià Lopez

23 September 2022 1:01pm

Hi everybody!I am currently trying to figure out if there is any open-source software that could improve our citizen science project on bat monitoring in Europe (and potentially...

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Colin Cook

8 October 2022 12:44am

I would also recommend Arbimon. It is well set up to handle Audiomoth recordings. Being cloud based, you will need a good internet connection for sound file upload. I'm just starting to investigate its use for Song Scope recordings. Setting up the call recognisers will be a slow process, but they can be made available to all users once done.

Matthew Stanton

8 October 2022 7:33am

You could try using a video editor like DaVinci for looking at your video and audio together. I don't think DaVinci displays sonograms by default (just waveform) but I think it will open your selected audio in an external editor which would allow you to see the sonograms and make measurements with something like Audacity or Kaleidoscope.

Pshemek Zdroik

20 October 2022 11:01am

The open-source program Audacity can show the spectrograms and histograms and has quite a lot of other useful features, e.g. playing ultrasound calls slower, so it can be heard by people. 

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Link

New paper: Benthic animal-borne sensors & citizen science combine to validate ocean modelling

Carly Batist

10 October 2022 4:15pm

"We develop the use of benthic species as animal oceanographers by combining archival (depth, temperature) data from animal-borne tags, passive acoustic telemetry & citizen-science mark-recapture records for the flapper skate in Scotland."

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Read "Benthic animal-borne sensors and citizen science combine to validate ocean modelling | Scientific Reports" on Nature

Benthic animal-borne sensors and citizen science combine to validate ocean modelling | Scientific Reports

Developments in animal electronic tagging and tracking have transformed the field of movement ecology, but interest is also growing in the contributions of tagged animals to oceanography. Animal-borne sensors can address data gaps, improve ocean model skill and support model validation, but previous studies in this area have focused almost exclusively on satellite-telemetered seabirds and seals. Here, for the first time, we develop the use of benthic species as animal oceanographers by combining archival (depth and temperature) data from animal-borne tags, passive acoustic telemetry and citizen-science mark-recapture records from 2016–17 for the Critically Endangered flapper skate (Dipturus intermedius) in Scotland. By comparing temperature observations to predictions from the West Scotland Coastal Ocean Modelling System, we quantify model skill and empirically validate an independent model update. The results from bottom-temperature and temperature-depth profile validation (5,324 observations) fill a key data gap in Scotland. For predictions in 2016, we identified a consistent warm bias (mean = 0.53 °C) but a subsequent model update reduced bias by an estimated 109% and improved model skill. This study uniquely demonstrates the use of benthic animal-borne sensors and citizen-science data for ocean model validation, broadening the range of animal oceanographers in aquatic environments.

Nature
Link

Sydney seals: From Manly to Malabar, marine life sprawls across a city

Stephanie O'Donnell

8 August 2022 12:59pm

This came to me by way of my dad over the weekend, but it's is full of familiar names and has started popping up from other places in the conservation tech network. It's a gorgeous visual story via The Sydney Morning Herald, telling the tail of the return of fur seals in and...

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article

CERES TAG

Kim Lane

22 July 2022 3:36am

Ceres Tag sends just in time alerts and GPS location to have the power to track and trace.

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discussion

Cofounder needed

Joyeeta

9 June 2022 4:23pm

Hey all ! if you have an idea that you want to turn into a company- I would love to help. I have enough hardware/software knowledge (was an engineer) to be the cofounder of a...

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Lonnie McCaskill

17 June 2022 1:14pm

What about developing a drone conservation training course for field conservation staff teaching specific skills for specific research needs. 

Pen-Yuan Hsing

17 June 2022 6:54pm

How exciting @Joyeeta ! I'd love to learn more about the companies and projects you worked on, can you share more info about them?

I once chatted to an entrepreneurial advisor with a couple of my conservation tech ideas, and he said my ideas are good/impactful but don't make for a product worth millions of $$$ of turnover per year that would interest investors. So I am very curious about how you got your conservation tech businesses off the ground!

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article

Research opportunities in the Daintree World Heritage region of Far North Queensland, Australia

MICHAEL PARSONS

11 May 2022 2:31pm

Michael and Maria Parsons recently purchased a substantial 165 acre lot of land in Far North Queensland, Australia. Entirely covered by tropical rainforest, it is contiguous with the Daintree World Heritage Area and...

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Akiba

26 May 2022 4:51am

Hi @MICHAEL_PARSONS . I'm Akiba from FreakLabs and we specialize in wireless sensor networks for environmental monitoring. We're currently...
MICHAEL PARSONS

31 May 2022 1:44pm

Hi Akiba (& Jacinta),Many thanks for your kind message in reply to our suggestion for collaborations centered on our pending Daintree Nature Refuge. BTW, I have various...
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discussion

Citizen Science Conservation Apps for travelers?

John Probert

1 May 2017 4:34pm

Hi all,  What are some citizen science apps for travelers? Like, if there was someone going on vacation to some biodiversity hotspots, what kind of apps would be...

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Jessie Oliver

14 July 2021 11:18pm

Hi John,

iNaturalist is good for all taxa. If you have birders in the crowd, eBird. and if you have some who may not know birds but are keen to learn, check out Merlin ID. If anyone is keen to record audio of birds calling, they can then upload them via Xeno Canto. eBird and iNat apps also now accept audio, but be sure and check out all three in terms of audio exploration for what might grab the interest of groups most. I really enjoy exploring calls from others using Xeno Canto.

Cheers,

Jessie Oliver

 

Carly Batist

16 July 2021 3:43pm

I would check out the upcoming Key Conservation app! https://www.keyconservation.org/

It's in beta testing now with a group of restricted users but will be released fully soon.

charlesfsl

30 July 2021 4:19pm

If you're traveling with kids, consider https://www.ecoexplore.net. They can earn points and badges for their observations of plants, animals, insects, and fungi, and can trade points in for prizes. It's focused on North Carolina, but you can upload observations from anywhere. Good ones get syndicated to iNaturalist.

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event

Webinar: Bioacoustics and Engagement

Wildlife Acoustics

19 July 2021 12:00am

Join Wildlife Acoustics for their webinar, Super Hear-os: Engaging Everyday People Through the Science of Bioacoustics, this Thursday, July 22nd at 10 AM ET / 3 PM BST! At this event, four presenters will discuss how...

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discussion

Invitation to join the FIT community on WildLabs

Zoe Jewell

13 May 2020 4:59pm

Hi Citizen Science Group, My name is Zoe Jewell, I'm the co-founder of WildTrack. Our focus is on the non-invasive monitoring of endangered species, primarily using our...

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Jessie Oliver

14 July 2021 11:26pm

Hi Zoe,

This looks really interesting! Is the initiative on social media at all? I would like to share it with the Australian Citizen Science Association membership. Also, is there involvement in Australia? If on twitter, feel free to connect with me via @JessieLOliver

Cheers,

Jess

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discussion

Compelling Citizen Science Projects

Paul Glover-Kapfer

25 January 2017 3:55pm

Dear All, I am putting together a list of compelling research projects suitable for engaging citizen scientists from the comfort of their homes - think Zooniverse-type projects...

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Jessie Oliver

25 January 2017 9:29pm

Hi Paul,

I recommend you have a look at SciStarter and filter for online projects.

Also here in Australia we have:

DigiVol

Wildlife spotter

Galaxy Explorer

Weather detectives

Explore the sea floor

Trove

and others that are popping up all the time!

 

 

Jessie Oliver

14 July 2021 11:00pm

Hi Paul, 

I would be interested to see how your project turned out if there is a link to it anywhere? Also, in case it's of interest, UNEP and TED Ed developed the Earth School initiative, and one of the 30 interactive quests focused on citizen science (#26)! The citizen science quest, which I led the development of, included projects that could be done from home by design, being developed in response to COVID. https://ed.ted.com/earth-school

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event

Event: StreamingScience's #Tech4Wildlife Thursdays

StreamingScience

3 August 2020 12:00am

Join Conservation Technology Educator Andrew Schulz each Thursday at 7:00pm EST for #Tech4Wildlife Thursdays, a casual chat event with friends from the conservation tech community. Many of these chats will feature...

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article

Get To Know FIT

WILDLABS Team

6 May 2020 12:00am

We're excited to welcome the WildTrack FIT group to our community! Today, we'd like to introduce you to the Footprint Identification Technique (FIT) and share how you can incorporate this tracking method into your field...

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