Hi everyone,

After a little delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we now have the final Personal Bioblitz results for Spring 2020. New records were set, and the numbers and species are a lot different this spring, but more observations than ever were reported. Congratulations to the whole bioblitz community around the world, and to the 5 top observers and species counters. Thank you all for your participation!

I also want to highlight this recent statement from iNaturalist about Black Lives Matter (https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/37211-black-lives-matter). Please take a moment and reflect on this topic and what we actions we all can take to reduce and remediate racism, exclusion, and historical injustices in our societies, and people’s access to nature and biodiscovery in particular. Today is June 19th (Juneteenth), the anniversary of the end of slavery in the United States, and an important date for us here in the US. But this is a global issue, and our personal bioblitz is a global project, to engage anyone, anywhere, in discovering the species around you.

Stay safe everybody, and enjoy the enormous biodiversity, beauty, and tranquility nature has to offer wherever you are.

Thank you!

Lena

Spring 2020 Personal Bioblitz results:

Cumulative Community Totals:
25584 observations (New record!!!)
4793 species (better than 2019, but we did not break the 2017 record)
57 participants (83 signed up, not everyone reported – more than last year)

Some fun facts:
• 8524 of observations (33.3%) were from New Jersey, USA, home state for the Personal Bioblitz
• Plants rule! 13,568 observations (53%) were of plants. (There are a lot of good botanists among the top observers.)
• 1713 different people around the world helped identify the species that were reported to the project.

Most observations:

1. Aidan Campos (atozbotanicals) 3474 observations (Note, Aidan is 17 years old and started to use iNaturalist in 2019!)
2. Erika Mitchell (erikamitchell) 2977 observations
3. Annika Lindqvist (annikaml) 2895 observations
4. Sandy Wolkenberg (sadawolk) 2009 observations
5. John Beetham (dendroica) 1694 observations

Most species:

1. Annika Lindqvist (annikaml) 1092 species (she broke her record from last year! Congratulations!)
2. Alan Weakley (whiteoak) 697 species
3. Erika Mitchell (erikamitchell) 665 species
4. Aidan Campos (atozbotanicals) 554 species
5. Jason Grant (jasonrgrant) 524 species

Most observed species (none of these were on the list last year!)

1. American Robin (Turdus migratorius) 156 observations (seen by 23 observers]
2. Pinkladies (Oenothera speciosa) 141 observations [only 3 observers]
3. Green Antelopehorns (Asclepias viridis) 104 observations [only 2 observers]
4. Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) 100 observations [17 observers]
5. Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) 97 observations [17 observers]

Feel free to copy and paste this in e-mails to your friends and fami

Join the PERSONAL BIOBLITZ 2020, a Rutgers citizen science project that has gone global.

WANTED: All the wild species you can discover in your everyday life.

Geese, squirrels, magnolias, spring flowers, stinkhorn, slime molds, eels, apple snails, and other crawlies and bugs – anything counts and you don’t need to know what they are. Just photograph, upload, and learn from others. Or share all exciting things you see and already know.

For the 7th year the Chrysler Herbarium at Rutgers (SEBS) is arranging this global citizen science project to help everybody and anybody to explore the everyday biodiversity around us. Lets see how many species we can report together. You can learn something new about things you might not have seen before. Beginners, experts, young and old, all are welcome to join!

When? 76 days, 1 March to 15 May 2020, 24/7, anywhere.

How? Discover, see, listen, photograph, learn, identify (and get help to identify, beginners welcome!) by uploading your observations to our iNaturalist project.

Why? Learn more about what lives right around you - birds, plants, microbes, algae, fungi, insects, mollusks, mammals… and, many of the observations will help scientists understand our world’s biodiversity.

Who? Anybody associated with Rutgers University (including friends and family of any Rutgers’ people, alumni, students, previous bioblitzers, etc.).

What? Any wild species anywhere in the world that you personally experience (some special rules apply, see website). You can report a little or a lot of observations, all up to you.

Find out more and join for free here:
2020 Project Website: https://tinyurl.com/PB-info2020
About the Personal Bioblitz: http://tinyurl.com/RUPBabout
Mailing list: http://tinyurl.com/RutgersBioblitzMail
iNaturalist, Personal Bioblitz 2020: https://tinyurl.com/PersonalBioblitz2020
iNaturalist, Flora and Fauna of Rutgers University: http://tinyurl.com/iNatFFRU
Facebook page: http://tinyurl.com/RutgersBioblitzFB

Questions? Send an e-mail to Lena Struwe, lena.struwe@rutgers.edu.

See you on the iNaturalist project website! Good luck!

Lena Struwe