Your contributions have helped discover 70+ new Smokies species
Observations submitted by iNaturalist users over the past few years have helped document a slew of new species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
It started with a search
Our team at DLiA recently worked with Smokies park staff to search through the 71,000+ observations that iNaturalist users like yourself have made in the Smokies. We wanted to see if there were any verifiable records of animals, plants, and other species that we hadn't recorded before in the Smokies. To date, we know of 21,302 species that call Smokies their home, after nearly 24 years of studying biodiversity in the park. So far, our search has turned up 77 species that are new records for the park, and we're just getting started!
Who are these species?
Among these are 33 different kinds of wasps, 15 types of flies, 10 beetles, and many others. They also include a non-arthropod species: the green beetle hanger (complex Herperomyces virescens) is an external parasite of the exotic Asian ladybird beetle (Harmonia axyridis).
Who made these discoveries?
These discoveries were made by 40 iNaturalist observers (see full list below). These include DLiA affiliates (@akfishmom @crassquatch @elfinjulie @chuck522 @reallifeecology and myself @willkuhn), park staff (@calliaelise), researchers working in the park (@derhennen @graham_montgomery and @mcaterino), and many, many fantastic community scientists (@acornparker @anaturalist68 @andrewcore @b_kelly @brirosa @chasa @cholmesphoto @denisewill @eattaway92 @edlickey @eraskin @gab-e @jason374 @kemper @ladyjanaye @leicesterlibrary @lizpatel @mmcmasters @moosegoose47 @mountainmaddix @mylesofscience @naturalista1 @noorabu @scottranger @sg17 @spyingnaturalist @station50images @tiggrx @walkingstick2 and @worldturngreen). Kudos to you all and thanks to everyone who has made an iNaturalist observation in the park!
Who identified these observations?
Some 75 iNaturalist users helped identify these species. We'd like to give a special shoutout to the following people who made several key IDs: @calconey @megachile @ceiseman @lotteryd @matthias22 and @jeongyoo. Thanks to you and all of the other community scientists who made these findings possible!
You can help make more discoveries like these!
You can help by 'iNatting' the life you encounter every time you visit the park. Encourage your family and friends to do the same. Find out more at our Smokies Most Wanted page.
Up for a challenge? Check out our Smokies Most Wanted Guide on iNaturalist--a list of species for which we're especially seeking more observations. The list includes common native species, some exotic species we're keeping an eye on, things the park wants to know more about (like cutleaf coneflower (sochan)), and lots more. We periodically rotate out well-documented species on this list and with under-studied species, so check back occasionally to see what's new.
How do your observations make a difference?
This iNaturalist project (Smokies ATBI) captures any observation made within the bounds of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We use these datapoints in our mission to learn all we can about the biodiversity of the Smokies as part of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory that we coordinate in the park.
Every time you make an observation there, you expand our knowledge of what organisms live in the park, where and when they occur, their rarity, and their interconnections with other Smokies life. Specifically, here are some of the myriad ways we use these data:
- to find new places where rare, endemic and common species live in the park
- to find new records for species that researchers are specifically targeting
- to track phenology of animals and plants
- to record new species in the park
- to track and monitor exotic plants, insects, and other species
- to map life across the Smokies via Atlas of the Smokies
- and more!
More to come...
We are slowly working through thousands of additional iNaturalist observations looking for new discoveries. We expect to confirm many new park records in the near future. We also plan to repeat this exercise regularly as folks like you add new datapoints to iNaturalist.
// Will Kuhn, director of science and research, Discover Life in America (dlia.org)
This journal post was adapted from a December 2021 article in the Asheville Citizen Times. Read the full article here.
Comments
After seeing so many beautiful observations from the park, I hope to visit there someday to see things in person. Thanks for this project news, very interesting!
Excellent! Thanks for putting all this together Will; can't wait to see what new discoveries await us in the new year.
It was truly fun finding something new for the Park. I hope to get back to the beautiful Smoky Mountains in the future. So much to see! Thank you for all your hard work. Well written and informative.
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