‘Fundamentally shaping the way that scientists think’

Tech advances have helped remove the idea that scientific work is restricted to folks in lab coats. The New York Times reported that ordinary citizens are spearheading ecological research right from their smartphones.

Since its 2008 founding, the citizen science platform iNaturalist has become popular with professional and amateur ecologists. Citizens can upload photos or audio of the species they observe with precise metadata such as date, time, and location. Once the submission passes a quality review, it becomes available to scientists in the global database.

“iNaturalist is really pervasive throughout the biodiversity research,” Corey Callaghan, a University of Florida ecologist, told the Times. So far, over 5,000 peer-reviewed papers have used data from the site as a reference.

The site has bloomed in the last few years — 2022 had 10 times as many articles published with references from iNaturalist as five years prior. The Times reported that more than 3.3 million users submitted 200 million observations by 2024. Thanks to all this info, scientists using the platform have been able to identify new species, track invasives, and make vital predictions about the changing climate.

“It is fundamentally shaping the way that scientists think about research,” Callaghan continued.

Some may be surprised that scientists use data collected by nonprofessionals. However, even the late Charles Darwin relied on a vast network of friends, family, staff, and others to gather, critique, and edit research, according to Cambridge University Press.

The iNaturalist platform shows that people from all walks of life can help with conservation. For example, locals’ tracking invasive species makes it easier for native plants to survive and support pollinators essential to the food chain.

And iNaturalist isn’t the only platform of its kind. The International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space project involves tagging thousands of animals to track them from space using small satellites. A former Google employee and a sustainability professional track beaver dams and ponds that can help reduce wildfires and their impacts.

Citizen science platforms allow communities to take local action on climate issues. Discuss these problems with friends and family to see how everyone can help. Documenting species revival in your area, reporting resource contamination, finding eco-friendly initiatives by mainstream brands to support, and more can help make the planet cooler and cleaner in the years to come.

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