<
https://theconversation.com/citizen-scientists-are-spotting-more-and-more-rare-frogs-on-private-land-271850>
"Almost two-thirds of Australia is privately owned. But most of our scientific
understanding of how threatened species are faring comes from research done on
public lands. Traditional biodiversity surveys by professional scientists are
time and resource intensive and navigating access to private lands can be
tricky.
This means there’s a huge gap in our knowledge amid worsening biodiversity
loss. That’s where citizen science comes in. Every year, millions of Australian
species records are logged by members of the public using smartphone apps. This
flood of data is revolutionising conservation, producing large flows of species
data and connecting people to nature.
But does this data better capture species on private land? To find out, our
recent research examines almost half a million frog records logged on the
Australian Museum’s national FrogID project by citizen scientists in New South
Wales. Remarkably, 86% of these records come from private land.
Importantly, these records capture evidence of where threatened species are
holding on in privately-held land. The beautiful green and golden bell frog
(
Litoria aurea) is considered vulnerable at a national level as it’s no
longer found on about 90% of its former range. But almost three-quarters of all
FrogID recordings of this frog in NSW are on private land."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
