Diario del proyecto Great Southern Bioblitz 2021 southern Africa umbrella

11 de noviembre de 2021

How to find out what is new

There has been a request to contact the organizers with new species seen during the bioblitz.

Firstly, remember that we have been atlassing for over 10 years in southern Africa. So dont expect lots of new records.
If you want new records in your bioblitzes then you need to go and hunt them down. So unless you had such programmes/bioblitzes/surveys/searches in your area, it is not likely that you will have many.
Also, you should request your identifiers to note any special, unusual or mindboggling observations, and fave them, and call (use the @username option) the organizers

OK: here is one way to do it.
No way is perfect, and this is a quick hack. There are more involved ways of getting a more precise list - if you know one, tell us below.

Using Overstrand as an example (they asked first)

Go to your bioblitz place (use the search box, find the place and click about)
https://www.inaturalist.org/places/overstrand-wc-za
Go to your place checklist (bottom left of screen)
https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/1834500-Overstrand-Check-List
Download one of the two versions of the checklist.

Open the checklist in Excel
Convert the page to a table (Ctrl-a to select all data, and insert > table (with headings).)
Order "created at" from Z-A (higher date at top)

OK: the created at date is the date that the species was added to the checklist. So you can go down and select species added (in the "taxon" field) since the start of the Great Southern Bioblitz.

  • Note - not all the observations will be from the bioblitz - some may be older observations identified for the first time during the blitz. You will need to check the '"first observation" and open it to check the date.
  • Note - IDs were made from 22 Oct-8 Nov, so this is the period of creation that you are interested in. - but you must check each.
  • Note - check any new IDs - make sure that they are not wrong IDs of species that do not occur in your area: especially people using the AI (what iNat suggests if you put the cursor in the ID box) to assist.

A faster way if you do are a smaller region with few observations would be to:

Search for your bioblitz place: select observations
filter by date: until 21 October 2021 (to exclude the bioblitz data)
download - this will be all the observations for the region.

select observations from the blioblitz project
download - this will be the observations for the bioblitz

Open the downloads in excel and save them on one spreadsheet. Note that these are observations (not species).

Use the insert pivottable option to get a species summary for each list.

Select the two columns with species in (one for the place and one for the bioblitz)
choose conditional formatting, with the "format only unique or duplicate values"

The highlighted species will now show species seen only during the bioblitz or only not in the bioblitz depending on the column

This is limited to sites with less than 200,000 observations.
It may take quite a while to download

Publicado el noviembre 11, 2021 02:32 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

08 de noviembre de 2021

Some summaries: progress

Just collating any summaries or details found elsewhere.

Please join the projects below if you are interested and can help.
(Joining the projects also adds the projects to any observations of that group that you make)

Publicado el noviembre 8, 2021 06:09 MAÑANA por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario

07 de noviembre de 2021

IDs PLEASE!

24 hours to go. Please finish the Identifications.

Instructions and progress over here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella/journal/59459-we-need-a-better-strategy
&
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella/journal/59378-time-for-identifications

Remember, you need identifications for species numbers. Get your IDs done to get your tally up!

Publicado el noviembre 7, 2021 12:40 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

02 de noviembre de 2021

We need a better strategy??

Nothing is changing significantly. Identifications are not making any headways.
Our numbers are static.
See here
We should be lowering our outstanding IDs by 25% per day if we hope to get the backlog cleared before Friday. But the outstanding IDs are not moving

So what should we do?

Step 1. Clear the backlog of no IDs. - quickly go through
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&iconic_taxa=unknown&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella
Dont waste time: if you dont recognize something leave it to someone who does. These are now the difficult to do's and the garden plants.
[There are 300 of these]

Step 2. Clear the "plant" IDs. Yes there are people who think they are helping with a "plant" ID. We need to rescue these: These will also include a few species that have been seriously misidentified and need some action: Try this:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=order
Select your group (eg. Insects, Plants, Vertebrates).
Dont waste time: if you dont recognize something leave it to someone who does. These are now the difficult to do's and the garden plants. You can help here by

If you are good with trees, then wont dont you try and help us identify the trees?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=28880&d1=2021-10-22&d2=2021-10-25&place_id=any
[There are 102 of these]

We are looking for specialists to help us with: [is the number of IDs needed that are still above species level]
Please help if you can - or find someone who might be able to help.

Daisies [1,737] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=47604

The Fynbos big three [708] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_ids=54693,133387,64517

Peas [631] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=47122

Insects [602] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&iconic_taxa=Insecta&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex

Fungi [493] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&iconic_taxa=Fungi&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex

Spiders [441] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&iconic_taxa=Arachnida&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex

Irids [390] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=47781

Grasses [387] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=47434

Vygies [382] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=49320

Vertebrates [272] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=28880&d1=2021-10-22&d2=2021-10-25&place_id=any

Sedges [236] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=47161

Molluscs [232] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&iconic_taxa=Mollusca&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex

Ferns [206] https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella&lrank=complex&taxon_id=121943

Publicado el noviembre 2, 2021 09:22 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 3 comentarios | Deja un comentario

31 de octubre de 2021

Time for Identifications

It is time to forget about the observations and focus seriously on the identifications. Please within your speciality, go through and make identifications. Please help.

The best way to make IDs is with the ID curation tool. Please. It is really efficient and a great aid. This is how it works (a 2 min tutorial): https://vimeo.com/246153496

Summaries for groups and areas will follow below. Please use the links and help!

DEADLINE FOR ALL IDS TO BE COMPLETED: 5 November.

Publicado el octubre 31, 2021 11:41 MAÑANA por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

28 de octubre de 2021

Well done Cape Town!!!

Yes, I know, we have another 10 days before the Fat Lady sings. And things may well change drastically before then: BUT

Well done Cape Town!!!
We are finally there: we have exceeded our 2010 figures. They are:
observations: 16,245 (and climbing - lots of users still busy, vs: 16,097)
species: 2,320 vs 2,120 &
observers: 288 vs 266

So Cape Town dominates the leaderboard - only one other city has half as many observations, and only 5 other cities have more than half as many species (and three are from South Africa!)

Let us not forget:
Overstrand, Ethekwini and Garden Route - in the top five for observations
Garden Route, Overstrand and Ethekwini - in the top six for species
Overstrand in the top 5 for observers
Do we have some really serious competition for Cape Town? Looks like Overstrand are set to give us some seriously stiff opposition for next year!
But things are still fluid: observations are still being posted, and most IDs are still outstanding.

Over 250 cities/regions/countries took part in the Bioblitz, so this is no mean achievement. Well done to all participants and organizers and everyone who had great fun!!

Also deserving mention on the subcontinent are: Tshwane, Zimbabwe, Zululand and Nelson Mandela Bay, not to forget Zambia and Limpopo, all who posted over 500 observations.

Publicado el octubre 28, 2021 12:24 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

25 de octubre de 2021

We are done observing

We are done observing - the 2021 Great Southern Bioblitz is finished.

Now we have just over a week to upload our observations and identify them.

So any summaries are provisional, but I think we can agree that overall we have done very well, and several areas have done outstandingly.

  • We have four regions in the top 10 observations
  • We have four regions in the top 10 species
  • We have two regions in the top 10 observers.
    Well done everyone, and a special thanks to the organizers and coordinators:.

Some of us will take a day or two to finish uploading, but with any luck all your uploading is done.

If you wish to start with identifications.

Round 1: clear observations without any identification:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Ccasual%2Cresearch&iconic_taxa=unknown&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella
Round 1 consists of 2,600 observations at present.

Round 2: clear those that need to get to research grade:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Ccasual&project_id=great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella
At this stage 68% of our observations are Needs ID - so quite a task ahead of us

(if you need a refresher on how the identification curator works, please see https://vimeo.com/246153496

Current statistics:
Total observations at midnight: 31,848
Observations casual: 1,202 (4%)
Observations Need ID: 21,539 (68%) of which 2,609 (8%) have no ID at all!
Observatoins Research Grade: 9,117 (29%)

Publicado el octubre 25, 2021 10:13 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 1 comentario | Deja un comentario

23 de octubre de 2021

Friday summary

Well day 1 is over almost worldwide.

Cape Town, eThekwini and Overstrand feature in the top 10 for observations and species.
Looking forward to the weekend and more great observations.

At this stage southern Africa contributes

6,606 of the 28,991 observations
2,109 of the 7,075 species
and
320 of the 2,097 observers

Today's worldwide feature is the Moth Challenge tonite! Go get your moths!

Why not share some of your highlights below?

Publicado el octubre 23, 2021 05:56 MAÑANA por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 4 comentarios | Deja un comentario

22 de octubre de 2021

21 de octubre de 2021

FAQ

Got some questions? Ask them below.

Publicado el octubre 21, 2021 05:03 TARDE por tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 2 comentarios | Deja un comentario