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1 | Presenting Author's Name | Presentation Title | Co-Author(s) Name | Abstract | ||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Indhu Ayyannar | Citizen Science and Nature conservation- Bees and Butterflies | Since last decade, the population of bees around the world nosedived, prompting concerted efforts to conserve them. It was the result of habitat loss and fragmentation, lack of forage due to mono-cropping and widespread use of pesticides. According to the FAO, bees are responsible for about 80% of pollination worldwide, making them vital to agriculture. If their numbers are falling, so will the economy. As a part of the project (POLLIN-Protection of Pollinators and Agro ecological Transition in the Pondicherry region) a small grant was obtained from Earthwatch Institute and was successfully ongoing. Efforts to conserve the native bee fauna include better knowledge of bee richness and diversity (surveys, identification of species) their population dynamics, raising of public and policy makers awareness, commercial applications and services such as pollination and preservation of natural habitat. The need for research on the ecological requirements of native bees investigating the Practices that diversify and improve the resources for wild insects. This involves Identifying native bees, Studying their nesting behaviour and documenting them, formulating bee floral calendar to understand the bee preferred plants, emphasizing bees for pollination, empowering farmers - their role as beekeepers, promoting urban bee conservation initiatives etc. This inturn develops a skilled community of bee walkers who will make significant contribution to the understanding of bees as pollinators by providing the data which is essential for their future conservation, towards achieving the SDG’s presenting evidence to highlight the interconnectedness between bees, people and the planet from an integrated system perspective. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
3 | Sayee Girdhari | Celebrating the seasons with trees - Learnings from SeasonWatch Tree Festivals | A ‘BioBlitz’ is an exciting event of intense biodiversity surveys carried out by groups of scientists, naturalists, and the public at large. At SeasonWatch, tree-centric BioBlitzes - called Tree Festivals - are organized every 4 months in a year, wherein citizen scientists observe the status of leaves, flowers, and fruits on the trees around them. The goal of the Tree Festivals is to get data from all over India within a short duration to capture the effects of changing seasons on tree phenology. Typically spread over 10-15 days, these festivals are also competitions with interesting challenges, making it an exciting event for motivated citizen scientists. In 2021-22, We implemented diverse strategies to reach out to participants across the country, with challenges customized according to the time of the year, keeping in mind our audience. Each event has been a unique experience with a new set of outcomes, observations, and lessons. The past three Tree Festivals have seen participation from a total of 231 Individuals, 272 schools and colleges and a cumulative total of 15,950 observations on a maximum of 130 tree species. Feedback from the participants has been pivotal in evolving the format of these festivals. In this presentation, we will share insights on organizing, publicizing, and conducting a successful citizen science event. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
4 | Adithi S Rao | Impacts of a COVID-19 Lockdown on Citizen Science – A Case Study in Karnataka, India | Lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are known to have had numerous effects on people, animals, and ecosystems. I sought to examine the effects of the lockdown in 2020 on bird sightings in Karnataka, India. I hypothesized that the reduction in human activity (including noise, traffic, pollution) associated with lockdowns would lead to an increase in bird sightings around the state. I used open-access eBird data of three common bird species in this region (Red-Whiskered Bulbul – Pycnonotus jocosus, Ashy Prinia – Prinia socialis, Spotted Dove – Spilopelia chinensis) to test this hypothesis. As opposed to my expectations, there was a dip in counts for all three species during the peak of the lockdown (March 2020), despite an increase in observer effort (measured as overall number of checklists being created). On further examination, this discrepancy appeared due to the lockdown causing a drastic increase in the percentage of stationary checklists being submitted on eBird – therefore, despite a substantial increase in effort, the bird counts were lower than before. This illustrates how human and biological factors may intersect to impact count data. Ornithological research is a great example of an area containing large citizen science-produced datasets and despite the challenges in quantifying errors/biases, it is a useful tool for hypothesis-driven research. This descriptive statistics project was initially simply an examination of bird counts; however, it also points to the value of citizen science initiatives in general, human behaviour changes, and people finding value in and turning to nature and birdwatching during difficult times. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
5 | Nishand Venugopal Venugopal | Connecting Words and Well-being with Citizen Science | "My aim is to share thoughts and insights on how being involved with Citizen Science is good for people and nature. We must realize that we will care only about what we understand. I am trying to bring words and the images of various species together to show how much there is out there to learn and understand. Lack of awareness is the cause of biodiversity collapse in various parts of the world. Through Citizen Science we can help people learn more about the nature around them. That will rekindle the connection with nature that people are losing. Focusing on our natural surroundings can help reduce stress and build a community that cares. It increases the wonder and curiosity index in people. It is my involvement with Citizen Science that inspired me to write more about nature. Citizen Science initiatives are key to garnering support for environmental education. I will share some examples of how I collaborate Citizen Science efforts with writing. It's a mentally invigorating habit and also an important part of social emotional learning. To develop this habit you need to create stories that inspire. My work focuses on using storytelling and social media as tools for people to get involved in Citizen Science efforts. My vision is to make people realize that to get connected with nature you don't have to travel to distant places; it is right here in front of you. " | |||||||||||||||||||||||
6 | Maitreyi Hegde | Hornbill Watch: A citizen science initiative to conserve hornbills in India | "Hornbills are charismatic birds. Nine out of 32 Asian species occur in India. While most are forest-dwelling, some occur in human-modified habits. With rapid habitat destruction, hunting and climate change, there is a need to bridge the knowledge gap in their current status and distribution for conservation. Hornbill Watch (HW) is an online citizen science platform created to record public sightings of hornbills from India. It encourages citizen participation, targeting birders, nature enthusiasts, and photographers to contribute information on hornbill sightings and behaviour. The website provides information on the ecology and conservation status of the nine species and general information on Asian hornbills. From 2014 till 2022, HW has received 1359 records from 628 contributors across India. Species have been reported from both inside and outside protected areas. The highest number of records are for the widespread Indian grey hornbill, followed by the Great hornbill. The least reported are the more restricted White throated brown hornbill and Narcondam hornbill. Observations on diet, nesting and roosting are also received. The highest records are received from Karnataka and Maharashtra. Factors such as limited connectivity, lack of awareness about HW, limit observations received from some areas. The data has the potential for enhancing understanding of hornbill distribution, threats and identifying important conservation sites. However, citizens also submit their observations on online platforms like eBird and may find it an additional effort to submit only their hornbill sightings on HW. Other challenges include funding and manpower to sustain citizen participation for a single species group. " | |||||||||||||||||||||||
7 | Gaurav Barhadiya | Snakes in the city: a Spatial and temporal assessment of snakes encounters using citizen science | Dr. Chirashree Ghosh | Wild animals are known to be attracted to urban setups due to ecosystem services associated with synanthropization, which often results in human-wildlife conflict. The capital city Delhi, surrounded by farms, ridges, and other green areas experiences regular snake occurrences in and around houses, gardens, and industrial areas. From January 2016 to December 2020, using the citizen science approach we studied the snake encounters in Delhi, to determine the species composition, encounter frequency, seasonal activity patterns, and probable encounters sites in urban setup. We documented 327 individuals belonging to 23 species from 09 families within Delhi. During the study period a total of 8 snake species belonging to 3 families were added to the existing herpeto-fauna checklist of Delhi, as a result after this study, now Delhi has 23 species of snakes. Family Colubridae represents the maximum number of species (12 species) followed by the other three families Elapidae, Boidae, and Viperidae with 2 species each. Snakes were found inside forests, public parks, homes, drain networks, streets, office buildings, and even in school-college buildings. The most recorded species being Ptyas mucosa, Naja Naja and Lycodon aulicus all from family Colubridae. The highest numbers of incidents were reported in July and August during peak monsoon months. when combining monthly data over the five years.The incidence of snake encounters were found to be highly seasonal and appeared to be associated mainly with monthly rainfall and temperature | ||||||||||||||||||||||
8 | Shyam Phartyal | Impact of the citizen science course of Nalanda University on mapping the Biodiversity of Nalanda | The Nalanda district is known for its history as the seat of learning from the 5-12th century due to Nalanda Mahavihara (University). Still, our knowledge of its current biodiversity is minimal. In 2018, a Citizen Science course was introduced at Nalanda University. Students and members of civic societies were encouraged to notice biodiversity in their surroundings and contribute their observations using the iNaturalist platform. Additionally, students' active participation was associated with coursework assignments. Since no comprehensive publication had been available that provided glimpses of the biodiversity of the Nalanda district. Therefore, to fill this knowledge gap, a formal iNaturalist project named "Biodiversity of Nalanda, India," was launched in November 2020. Before the project's formal launch, there were only 381 observations, which is now increased to six times and reached 2355 observations of 795 species with an active contribution of 59 citizen scientists. Of the 2355 observations, 916 (39%) were already identified (RG marked), 1083 (46%) needed further identity verification, and the remaining 355 (15%) were of a casual nature. Of the 795 species, 48, 34, 8, and 2% belong to plants, insects, birds, and mammals. It is worth linking students' Citizen Science activities with credit rewards that motivate them and help them become enthusiastic citizen scientists beyond their university days. Furthermore, it highlights that the traditional taxonomical approach for biodiversity mapping can be linked with the citizen science approach to complement each other for quick results. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
9 | Suhirtha Muhil Maheswaran | Climate change education through Citizen Science - a survey | Geetha Ramaswami, Swati Sidhu | " Biodiversity citizen science aids in gathering important scientific data on the living world around us, while creating awareness about the environment among the public at large. Such projects create an opportunity for citizen scientists to observe, engage, and connect with nature around them. In schools, citizen science has the possibility to aid teaching and learning by integrating such projects in curricula, especially to teach about climate change in a hands-on fashion. The importance of climate change education is well recognised, yet school curricula give a general overview of climate change, with little or no association to the immediate environment of a child. We conducted a survey for teachers and educators, to understand how they use nature learning resources and citizen science programmes like SeasonWatch in teaching within their classrooms and understand their perceptions about climate change. The survey was also aimed at understanding what motivates educators to use, or the challenges they face in using citizen science in their pedagogy. Preliminary analyses shows difference in climate change related knowledge among different school backgrounds (eg. Government/private). Teachers who engaged students in citizen science reported that their students have a better understanding of climate change, and can relate it to the environment around them. Teachers also stressed upon the importance of resources such as teaching aids in integrating citizen science with school curricula. Learnings from this survey will be used to create a community of practitioners who would co-create age appropriate, context-specific, experiential learning resources for integrating citizen science in school curricula. " | ||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | Sagarmoy Phukan | A scoping review of the current scenario of ecological and environmental citizen science in India | Over the last decade and a half, citizen science (CS) has grown from a data collection process to bringing changes in ecological and environmental issues in India. Various academic publications on CS have been published covering topics from project outcomes to investigations of sociological aspects of CS. This scoping review was conducted to identify and understand various challenges and barriers as well as achievements and impacts of CS projects in India. The purpose of the study is to develop a baseline study on the current functioning of CS to identify potential gaps to develop the theory and practices within India. 4251 articles from the Web of Science and Scopus were collected using specific search terms to identify potential publications. 41 articles were identified from the pool for the study based upon selection criteria drawn from the research questions. These articles were further supplemented by 11 reports and articles from Google web searches. The collected pieces of work were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively using NVivo and MS Excel respectively. The study found that there is an increasing interest in CS from various institutional actors, especially from the academic and research community with healthy support from the government agencies and departments of India. Different types of barriers were identified such as barriers to participation, funding, data ownership, etc. However, CS has been able to achieve and create significant impacts on environmental and ecological issues. Currently, India requires multiple assessments of the currently identified challenges to develop a roadmap for the country. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
11 | Madhura Prasanna | Detecting anomalous checklists using machine learning | Ebird being a citizen science database, monitoring data quality is one the major challenges being faced. Currently many solutions which has been employed with the combination of filter-based flagging anomalous checklists, manual reviews to name a few. These approaches will start falling short as the scale of the data increases, more so many aspects of observations which are not logged correctly might go unnoticed. This poster discusses a solution based on machine learning for this problem. Solution involves Anomaly Detection Model, built on EBD data, considering various aspects such as location, season, time and so on, which can flag anomalous checklists with good accuracy. This solution has been built over a year of research and proof of concepts, with output validations by reviewers of ebird data. Further details on the same will be discussed in the presentation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
12 | Amruth K | House Sparrow Habitat Suitability In Northern And Western Region Of India | Ashutosh Singh, Riddhika Kalle | The MAXENT presence-only ecological niche model was applied to predict and map the environmental suitability of House sparrow in 4 states of India. A total of 1322 unique occurrence records of House sparrow for 2015 and 2016 (Gujarat – 502, Haryana – 195, Rajasthan – 415, Uttar Pradesh – 210) were sourced from eBird, India. The WorldClim Bioclimatic variables were obtained as raster layers at 30arc seconds. The MaxEnt niche model was implemented in program R package (dismo) to predict the high (0.6-1), medium (0.3-0.6) and low suitability (0-0.3) of environmental conditions by associating 19 bioclimatic variables with House sparrow occurrence records. The bioclimatic variable that contributed the most to the ecological niche model (>12%) was minimum temperature of the coldest month. The area under curve (AUC) of 0.8 achieved by our MAXENT model, indicated a good model performance. The environmental suitability map predicted that Gujarat had the largest area within the high suitability zones (58.37% of the total high suitability area) followed by Rajasthan (24.26%). Rajasthan had the largest area within the low suitability zone (50.27% of the total low suitability area). We predicted the environmental suitability of House sparrow according to land cover types, by overlaying 1-3 km buffers around human habitations (built-up areas and human settlements). The built-up land cover in all states showed 28.55% of high suitability area and 39.06% of medium suitability area. The built-up area showed higher environmental suitability. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
13 | Nikhil P V | Public attitude on human-wildlife interactions and conservation in Peechi Vazhani WLS of W.Ghats | Sandra P R, Muhammed Iqbal A | Human-wildlife conflict is a major concern in and around protected areas. Local communities experience economic losses as a result of the conflict which leads to retaliation against wildlife. A permanent, ideal solution for resolving human-wildlife interactions is not possible as the conditions vary locally. Therefore the perceptions and concerns of local communities, the primary stakeholders in these conflicts are very crucial in designing the mitigation policies but are neglected most of the time. This study aims at making a clear idea of the perceptions of local people on human-wildlife interactions in the Peechi-Vazhani wildlife sanctuary in the Thrissur district of Kerala. A questionnaire survey was carried out among the local people and tribal communities in and around the wildlife sanctuary for understanding the attitude towards human-wildlife interactions. The most significant type of conflict, its pattern, financial aspects, the effectiveness of mitigation measures and public attitude toward forest and conservation efforts were sought in the questionnaire. A total of 60 respondents were interviewed and the responses were recorded. Crop raiding was the most important result of the conflict followed by cattle depredation. Increased availability of food in the forest fringes was identified as the major driver of the conflicts in the study area and the most conflicting animal was the wild boar, followed by the giant squirrel. Proper awareness programs, interactions among stakeholders, and participatory maintenance of mitigation methods are essential for the coexistence on the fringes of this protected area. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
14 | Shrey Gupta | Citizen Science through Fungi | The project aimed to demystify local mushroom varieties for teachers and students of Solan through guided mushroom walks. In the monsoon months of June to September, 2022, a total of 11 guided mushroom walks were hosted around different biodiverse locations surrounding various schools in Solan. 21 schools from Solan, both government & private have participated in these walks. More than 130 students and 25 teachers joined these guided mushroom walks. A total of 50 unique mushroom varieties were documented based on morphological characteristics. These varieties are stored safely in 8 fungariums established in different schools of Solan. Going further, we plan to build a harvest calendar of these documented mushrooms, which, with time would help understand the impact of climate change on mushroom fruiting seasons. And, at the same time help students know their local wild edible and other utility mushrooms. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
15 | Reshnu Raj R S | MIAP - A pilot citizen science atlas of invasive plants | Shiny Rehel, Shiva Subramanya, Chintan Seth, Milind Bunyan, Anita Varghese, Ankila Hiremath | Invasive species are a growing conservation concern globally. In India we lack systematic documentation of invasive species distributions that could enable prioritizing species (or habitats) to manage. MIAP is a pilot collaborative effort, by ATREE and Keystone Foundation, to map invasive alien plants in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR). As part of this pilot effort we developed a simple App using Google’s Open Data Kit. We created customized forms to record invasive species information (location, species name, abundance, spatial distribution, and photographs for verification). We also conducted a series of workshops to introduce potential participants to the MIAP project. Participants included community members, college students, and forest guards and watchers. The workshops served to inform participants about invasive species, train them to recognize the 26 priority invasive plants of the Nilgiris, and introduce them to the use of the ODK Collect App. These workshops also provided us feedback to refine the App and to simplify the invasive-species recording protocols, making them more user-friendly. We have created a website that serves as a project dashboard (miap.atree.org), which people can visit to learn more about invasive species; view data they have contributed on a map (e.g., the spatial distribution of individual invasive plants across the landscape); and to download the data they have contributed (which are under a CC license). To date, participants have contributed about 3300 species observations. We are now working on scaling up our pilot efforts to map invasive species across larger conservation landscapes such as the Western Ghats. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
16 | Sreeja Rachaveelpula | Citizen Science - A Source to Develop State Level Action Plan for Bird Conservation in Telangana | Bibhu Prasad Panda, Ramesh Tharmalingam | Inclusive action plan for wildlife conservation requires wider consultations with relevant stakeholders in identification and prioritization of specific conservation issues at local scale. We identified knowledge gaps and prioritized conservation issues for avian community and their habitat to develop multidisciplinary strategic framework for bird conservation initiatives in Telangana. We gathered the information through collating published sources and stakeholder consultations at various levels. eBird data of Telangana for a decade was used to identify the bird diversity, resident, migrants and vagrant species. The platform also helped in identifying the birding hotspots, active birders, photographers, birding groups, NGOs and other stakeholders who could provide information regarding threats pertaining to bird rich habitats outside the protected area. UNEP Global Environmental Facility and Community Conserved Areas portal of Kalpavriksh acted as a platform to direct towards the strategic approach to mitigate the threats to the bird. The identified conservation issues/species were prioritized based on a conservation scoring system ascribed to them depending on the seriousness and urgency of the threats posed to the species and their habitats. A list of 65 conservation issues were identified, of which 15 high priority issues 26 medium and 24 least priority issues are recognised in Telangana. The high priority are large scale developmental projects such as Mission Kaleshwaram and Polavaram Irrigation lift projects, uranium, coal and limestone mining activities; anthropogenic pressure due to unplanned urbanization, unscientific restoration of wetlands, improper waste-disposal management. Citizen science platforms can act as powerful tools in obtaining region specific data which can be used in science after scrutiny of data. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
17 | Naveen Prasad Alex | Determining the pattern of migration of Danainae butterflies in India using citizen science | Shivani Jadeja | The monsoon-driven migration of butterflies in the subfamily Danainae butterflies (Family: Nymphalidae) between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats in southern India is one of the most remarkable butterfly migrations. Their migration has been largely understudied, with only a few studies based on geographically-limited data and opportunistic observations. We aimed to gain insights into the migration of Dainainae butterflies using species occurrence contributions by citizen scientists. We used Research Grade citizen science contributions from iNaturalist for three species in the subfamily Danainae — Tirumala limniace, T. septentrionis and Euploea core. We only used observations with images, which were manually checked to select occurrence records of adults. The occurrence was mapped to determine seasonal shifts in occurrence to infer potential migratory patterns. Preliminary findings suggest that in line with our current understanding of the pattern of migration, during the pre-monsoon season in the Western Ghats, the butterflies migrate from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats and Plains. Following this, they largely remain in the Eastern Ghats and Plains during the monsoon season in the Western Ghats. After that, during the post-monsoon months, the butterflies migrate from the Eastern Ghats and Plains to the Western Ghats, following which they remain in the Western Ghats during the winter season. Our study provides empirical support for the migratory pattern of Danainae butterflies in southern India, and also highlights the role citizen science can play in better understanding butterfly migation in India. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
18 | Divyanshu Pawar | A community web of Varun Mitra practicing citizen science through rain gauging | Mr. Abhijit Gandhi , Mr.Peeyush Sekhsaria | It’s been 3 years of sincere efforts by people in Pune city to measure and record the rainfall every season. Without fail, enthusiastically each morning citizens undertake an activity of quantifying rain as part of their schedule. The aim of this project was to involve citizens of all age groups and connect them to the phenomenon of rain and its association with multiple factors, which will additionally benefit the scientific community in the long run. Citizen science data has always faced authentication and data issues over the years. But this is one of the projects where the scientific community has appraised the data and its authenticity. Almost 55 locations in different cities have standard manual rain gauges as per IS design, which helps in the data collection. The data being generated is authentic for use in any scientific research, which helps make this a crucial data set. The implementation of the data has been more relevant till now with the groundwater correlation in Pune city. Along with a variation in rainfall from the west to the east part of the city, where significant differences have been observed, it makes more sense to place more stations at multiple locations in every city. These projects need to be implemented in more cities with large groups participating to make the model work sustainably, with more participants added each year as we move forward. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
19 | Niharika M | A study to identify conservation areas for the terrestrial birds of the Central Indian Landscape | Citizen science data from websites like eBird and other open-access observational data provide data resources and information to bridge the gap between knowledge and action to address conservation challenges. The present study maps the terrestrial bird species assemblage distribution based on economic, environmental, and social parameters in the Central Indian Landscape (315347 sq.km.) using Maxent modelling technique. In addition to all the species individually, the model was run for the taxonomic and IUCN groupings. The results show that Passeriformes are high in both species count and distribution area. The four Psittaciformes species spread across 70% of the landscape. The sparely distributed (each<15%) were the Pterocliformes, Strigiformes and Falconiformes. The IUCN red-listed species spread over 4% of the landscape. The Red-vented bulbul, spotted dove, yellow-throated sparrow, and plum-headed parakeet are widespread (each>40%). Fire, an established governing factor, has a low contribution to the model output. It can be due to the few fire occurrence points. The scale of the study affects the influence of the contributing environmental variables in the model. The contribution of urbanisation (land use and built-up area) is high, while night light (a proxy for income) varies with different species. Planning species-specific conservation actions is needed to mitigate the effects of night light. Overall, mitigation of anthropogenic impacts in the identified areas is necessary for the long-term conservation of terrestrial bird species. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
20 | Swapnali Gole | Dugong Monitoring Program: Citizen Science in dugong research from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands | Sumit Prajapati, Nehru Prabakaran, Kuppusamy Sivakumar, J.A. Johnson | The low abundance, the geographical vastness of the seascape, and the limitations of fieldwork render spatial-temporal long-term studies on the insular population of dugongs from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands difficult. Further, boosting coastal development is threatening the extant dugong population from the region. In this study, we initiated a citizen science program spatially spread across the archipelago to understand the status and distribution of Dugongs. We followed a multi-stakeholder approach to pool large-scale opportunistic dugong sightings, understand species distribution, and highlight research and conservation hotspots. The target seafaring stakeholder groups were fishers; patrolling and defence agencies such as the forest department; marine police, Indian Navy and Indian Coastguard; and tourism allied sectors (recreational SCUBA divers, lifeguards, and Glass bottom boat operators). We focused on sensitization and capacity building of the stakeholder groups towards dugong conservation. The active involvement and contribution of informants of the ‘Dugong Monitoring Program’ yielded 470 sighting reports in five years of the monitoring period (2017-2022). Multiple sightings of calves validate the presence and highlight the conservation importance of a breeding population in the Islands. Herd size, concurrent with the historical data of 5 to 15 individuals, highlights changing social structure of dugongs in the Islands. Based on the underwater footage shared by SCUBA divers, we have photo-identified three dugong individuals, showing site fidelity to seagrass meadows in Shaheed Dweep. Our findings highlight the scope and effectiveness of citizen science programs in marine mammal conservation in vast seascapes like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
21 | Shri Ranjni T. S. | Citizen science for firefly conservation | Research question: are firefly populations declining in India? Background: Global research shows firefly populations are threatened by habit loss, light and pesticide pollution. India is a fast-developing country with ever increasing habitat loss, light and pesticide pollution. Although it is common to hear people say that they have seen a lot of fireflies in their childhood and that they don’t see them anymore in such numbers, there is hardly any scientific enquiry into the population status of the Indian fireflies. The Purpose of creating FireflyWatch is to use citizen science to monitor the firefly populations of India. Methodology. I created a Kobotoolbox run bilingual online form that would collect location information of firefly sightings. The form was widely circulated and people from across the country recorded their sightings, along with approximate numbers sighted and habitat type. Results. Out of 201 recordings, around 50% of sightings were of less than 20 firefly individuals,5 % of recordings were of larger gatherings of more than 1000 individuals, 32% of sightings were made in forests/plantations closely followed by urban areas. While what is recorded is influenced a lot by how and where the form got circulated, continuous and enhanced effort can shed light on the habitats where fireflies are sighted, the timing of firefly adult emergence etc. Long term data can shed light on the changes in the populations, although enquires into the ecology of individual species need to be carried out parallelly to arrive at concrete conclusions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
22 | Swati Udayraj | Building a Database using Unconventional Sources: Squirrels of India | Senan D’Souza, Aravind PS, Nandini Rajamani | Squirrels, like most other small mammals, have been poorly documented in the Indian subcontinent, which deters us from understanding species declines and prioritizing research on sensitive taxa. Squirrels respond strongly to pressures around them, including urbanization, habitat modification, and climate change, and can thus act as model study systems. The first step in understanding how species respond to such changes is by monitoring their occurrence in space and time. We created a pan-India database of occurrence records of 30 squirrel species using three different sources - (a) traditional sources including primary (fieldwork) and secondary (museum records, published and gray literature) data, (b) citizen science portals (six sources), and (c) social media platforms (14 sources). We examined the temporal trends and bias for squirrel occurrence data for all three types of sources and assessed the over and under-representation of squirrel species occurrence based on body size, activity period, body-color, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status, range size, and habitat type. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | Paul Pop | "Citizen science", manual surveys or automated data collection - which is better for ecology? | While the usage of ‘citizen science’ data has become widespread, their efficacy when compared to expert-collected data is rarely discerned. Although software now come with a wide variety of tools to filter and control the quality of data derived from ‘citizen science’ projects, such data from areas with sporadic and poor contributions from ‘citizen scientists’ may lead to erroneous results. In the current study, we compare the usage of eBird data from the ill-studied Bilaspur distirct located in the shivaliks of western Himalayas, with structured manual and sensor-based avian surveys, for ecological understanding of temporal and spatial patterns of bird, such as daily activity period. Since camera-traps were deployed in specific ‘cells’ within the district, we used these cells to compare and contrast the information collect from ‘citizen science’ efforts, manual surveys as well as camera-traps (images, video and background audio containing bird calls). We find that a combination of manual surveys and ‘citizen science’ data is better in understanding the presence of a species at a given season or time period, and camera trapping is better for getting high resolution data of activity budget of detected species due to its higher temporal resolution. However, ‘citizen science’ merely added one more significant data point in terms of time period information, which shows that it’s not very useful in areas with low and sporadic crowd-sourced data. Through this research, we gain an understanding of how to better integrate the use of expert and non-expert collected ecological data, in under-studied locations. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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