Date
Spring 2019
Document Type
Poster Session
Department
Environmental Science
Advisor
Joseph Staples PhD
Keywords
environmental survey, species survey, technology, Androscoggin River, Maine
Abstract
After several weeks of planning, the Androscoggin Citizen Biological Survey, or “BioBlitz,” took place on August 11th, 2018 in New Auburn, near the confluence of the Little Androscoggin and Androscoggin Rivers. The BioBlitz was a joint project of Maine Conservation Voters and the Androscoggin Land Trust and was conceived of an organized by a USM Environmental Science student interning with Maine Conservation Voters. In this BioBlitz, participants used the citizen science app iNaturalist to photograph wildlife of the river shoreline and add their observations to the app’s database. The Androscoggin BioBlitz project established on the iNaturalist website collected all of the observations made on August 11th in the Lewiston-Auburn river shoreline area into a single report, making it easier to survey the final observation tallies. In the space of approximately 2.5 hours, we observed and cataloged 102 individuals from 74 different species. 66.22 percent of species observed were plants, followed by insects (8.11%), ray-finned fish (6.76%), birds (5.41%), and others. Over 60% of all observations are currently Research Grade, indicating that they are of sufficiently high quality to be used as data points in scientific research. In sum, this BioBlitz was a scientifically and educationally valuable citizen science project led by a USM student.
Start Date
4-19-2019 1:15 PM
Recommended Citation
Matey, Sam H., "The Androscoggin BioBlitz: a Citizen Science Biological Survey in New Auburn, Maine" (2019). Thinking Matters Symposium Archive. 207.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/thinking_matters/207
Included in
Animal Sciences Commons, Biodiversity Commons, Biology Commons
