A crowdsourcing approach to collecting photo-based insect and plant observation records

Abstract

BackgroundScientific field observation by members of the public is known as citizen science and has become popular all across the world. Citizen science is advantageous for collecting large amounts of scientific data and can be seen as a crowdsourcing approach to data collection. Information and communications technology is enhancing the availability of citizen science. Mobile devices, such as mobile phones, that have a digital camera with a global positioning system (GPS) are necessities for contemporary life and can be utilised as powerful observation tools in citizen science.New informationA web-based system has been developed as a data collection tool for citizen science. Participants submit an e-mail with a photo taken by their mobile phones. The photos contain location information, which can be easily and automatically embedded if the mobile phone is equipped with GPS. Collaboration has been undertaken with regional event managers, such as museum curators and held citizen science events in each region and for various target taxonomic groups. All photos were stored in the data server and the organisms were taxonomically identified by citizen scientists, regional managers and the authors. In total, 154 species and 843 data records were collected in this project conducted from 2011 to 2016.

Perspectives on biodiversity informatics for ecology

“…Because data papers can promote data sharing and provide several benefits to researchers, I recommend that Japanese ecologists publish original articles and data papers simultaneously (Osawa, ). Accordingly, my colleagues and I have published seven data papers (Fukasawa et al, ; Osawa, ; Osawa, Baba, et al, ; Osawa, Igehara, et al, ; Osawa, Kadoya, & Kohyama, ; Osawa & Wada, ; Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, ; Voraphab, Hanboonsong, Kobori, Ikeda, & Osawa, ) and several of these data papers were published simultaneously with corresponding original articles (Osawa, ; Osawa & Inohara, ; Osawa, Kohyama, et al, ; Osawa et al, ; Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, ). Here, a data paper should include all available data, not just the data used in the original article (Osawa, ).…”

“…Historically, natural history work, such as specimen collection and curation, has been performed by nonacademics (Balke et al, 2013;Hopkins & Freckleton, 2002). ICT has expanded the work of amateurs, particularly the collection of regional biodiversity records (Kobori et al, 2016;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017;Silvertown, 2009). Recently, citizen science approaches (e.g., field observations by members of the public) have generated increasing interest in ecology and biodiversity sciences (Kobori et al, 2016;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017).…”

“…ICT has expanded the work of amateurs, particularly the collection of regional biodiversity records (Kobori et al, 2016;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017;Silvertown, 2009). Recently, citizen science approaches (e.g., field observations by members of the public) have generated increasing interest in ecology and biodiversity sciences (Kobori et al, 2016;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017). One important research benefit provided by citizen science is the crowdsourcing of large datasets (Osawa, 2015;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017;Suzuki-Ohno et al, 2017).…”

“…Recently, citizen science approaches (e.g., field observations by members of the public) have generated increasing interest in ecology and biodiversity sciences (Kobori et al, 2016;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017). One important research benefit provided by citizen science is the crowdsourcing of large datasets (Osawa, 2015;Osawa, Yamanaka, et al, 2017;Suzuki-Ohno et al, 2017). Suzuki-Ohno et al (2017) estimated the potential distribution ranges of six bumblebees based on photographs taken by citizens throughout Japan.…”

Specimen‐based records and geographic locations of carabid beetles (Coleoptera) collected mainly by Dr. Kazuo Tanaka

“…Consequently, majority of the recently collected biodiversity data have been observation‐based, that is, without specimens (Osawa, 2019). Such data can be collected much faster than specimen‐based data, and massive amounts of data can be collected via the Internet such as through crowdsourcing (Osawa et al, 2017). However, the importance of biodiversity data collected based on specimens has been recognized in the field of biodiversity informatics because of their reliability and extensibility to other fields (Osawa, 2019).…”