Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2019
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E22
Höfundar / Authors: Simon Leed Krøs (1)
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: The Danish Society for Nature Conservation, Copenhagen University CMEC, Aarhus University DCE
Kynnir / Presenter: Simon Leed Krøs
By May 2020, more than 50,000 registered app users will have contributed with around 1,000.000 unique observations, as part of Denmark’s largest ever citizen science project. Biodiversity Now is the first large scale project internationally that aims to monitor changes in biodiversity (habitats) using data collected by everyday citizens across the country. This is done using the free app NaturTjek which features 30 selected indicative species and 12 biotopes for registration. All registrations are automatically transferred to scientists at Aarhus University DCE and Copenhagen University CMEC. Already, the project has made its first project delivery, the Nature Municipality Index which rated all municipalities in Denmark according to the amount of nature and its quality. This sparked much media attention and political debate. Initially, the methodology of the project received criticism, stating that the amount of requested data was not feasible and the indicative species were not strong enough. After four years of consecutive data and initial analysis proving that the registration failure rate is much in line with more advanced projects, much of this criticism has quieted down. It remains to be seen, however, it the collected data will deliver on its promise to monitor biodiversity even on a local (municipality) level, as envisioned by the leading biodiversity scientists and the Danish Society for Nature Conservation which manages the project. If the project delivers as promised, there is reason to believe that similar citizen science projects in other countries may soon follow suit. See more at www.biodiversitet.nu (in Danish).