Diario del proyecto City Nature Challenge 2024: San Diego County

We are happy to announce some highlights from this year's CNC results!

First, on behalf of the SDSU Biodiversity Museum and the San Diego Natural History Museum, we are deeply honored and grateful to be part of our county's spectacular contributions to citizen science and both local and global biodiversity research and conservation efforts!

Each of you has made this year's event an impressive success! We are humbled by your enthusiastic participation, expertise, and generous sharing of your time. Please let us know what we got right, and especially how you think we can serve you and make this a better event experience for all next year.

And now, on to the results:

We'll be issuing a press release and more details to our event hosts, collaborators, supporters, and the media and social media tomorrow, but here's a quick summary for you:

This year’s 2.4 million observations included sightings of more than 3,940 rare, endangered, or threatened species. The Challenge engaged more than 83,000 observers around the world, including 28,633 observations in San Diego County alone.

San Diego County by the Numbers

● Observations: 28,633
● Species: 2,908 (including 145 rare/endangered/threatened species: see them here:https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=829&project_id=city-nature-challenge-2024-eurasia-africa-oceania,city-nature-challenge-2024-north-and-south-america,city-nature-challenge-2024-global-project&subview=table&threatened)
● Observers: 1,248
● Average number of observations per person: 22.94

World by the numbers

● Observations: 2,436,844
● Species: 65,682+ (including more than 3,940+ rare/endangered/threatened species)
● Observers: 83,528
● Most-observed species globally: Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
● Cities: 690
● Countries: 51

World highlights

● Australian giant cuttlefish (Ascarosepion apama), Australia, near threatened: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/209454522
● Serowe lashes (Blepharis petalidioides), Botswana, endemic in Botswana: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211605362
● Verrucosa undecimvariolata, Brazil, second occurrence of this species on iNaturalist in the entire Brazilian state of Santa Catarina and only 66 records worldwide on GBIF: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/211772297
● Northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens), Canada, sound recording of a frog that is of special concern in Canada: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210881034
● Common picture wing (Rhyothemis variegata), India, freeze-frame photo of a dragonfly showing opposition of wings in motion: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210021110
● Lizard goby (Rhinogobius flumineus), Japan, endemic in Japan: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210788976
● Leptinella rotundata, New Zealand, endangered in New Zealand: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/209408812
● Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata), Panama, critically endangered coral, many of these corals died last year as a result of our high water temperatures, its nice to see one of this size: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210627468
● Western leopard toad (Sclerophrys pantherina), South Africa, endemic and endangered in South Africa: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212553781
● Little bustard (Tetrax tetrax) - Spain, critically endangered in Spain: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210727196
● Arrhenia discorosea, Ukraine, second record of vulnerable mushroom species from Ukraine: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/210382974
● Small coastal plain spreading pogonia (Cleistesiopsis oricamporum), USA, Unusual double-flower observation of a vulnerable species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/209899260

Thank you again, and until next year!

Lisa (@lmarun) and Olivia (@olivia_poulos)

At the start of planning for this year's City Nature Challenge six months ago, our driving vision was for this event to be more inclusive at the community level, both geographically and demographically. In other words, we hoped for more people-diversity to complement the biodiversity of our county. Both deserve to be valued and championed, and citizen science is the perfect forum for accomplishing this.

By comparing the maps of last year's CNC observations with this year's, and by taking note of the greater number of collaborations, individual observers, and the widening span of accessible citizen science opportunities you have shared for this event, we are blown away by what we see.

We have not only made great strides in improving our citizen science for all approach, but we have watched all of our numbers rise in the process.

We'll have a more official global results announcement shortly, but for the time being, we stand at #17 for the global observation tally.

We are absolutely in awe, inspired, and in admiration of you for your contributions and our county's great improvement this year!

In fact, we would not necessarily be any happier if we had a higher standing given that our project stands on the more rigorous research side of the spectrum (i.e., we do not include Casual observations, as some of the higher-standing projects do) and we do not require anyone to participate in this project (also, which some projects require of their participants).

Two last notes:

Perhaps of interest is this iNaturalist Forum conversation about the numbers we see coming from La Paz: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/city-nature-challenge-why-la-paz/51026.

Also, it's worth mentioning that our closest competitors, South Florida, included Casual observations in their project, of which they had 806. Our project only includes Research Grade and Needs ID observations. Taking this into account, as of right now, San Diego County has actually made about 500 more observations within these two categories.

Final results will be announced soon!

Well, well!

South Florida is just about to close the gap with us. https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/live

They don't look like they plan on stopping any time soon. We'll know their final counts by 6 AM our time, and we'll then have three more hours to dig out a few more observations.

Hopefully, it won't come down such a last minute nail biter. There are lots of hidden gems in the weeds (literally...think dandelion) that are in the background of some photos. These can be duplicated to make second and third observations if you haven't had too many cervezas to find them. Otherwise, take care of yourself and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Either way, we stand proud as they have FOUR combined counties with a population that together amounts to twice that of San Diego County. We are superstars already!

GREAT job, San Diego!!!

We're in the final day of this year's City Nature Challenge!

Technically, we have until 9 AM tomorrow, Monday (May 6) to upload observations to iNaturalist from April 26-29 for them to count for this year's CNC.

We still have a bit of work to do though! South Florida is keeping us on our toes as they are just 100 observations behind us currently. Yikes!

See our current global standing here: https://www.citynaturechallenge.org/live

Whatever the final results, though, we are deeply appreciative of our strong, inspiring, and FUN CNC team this year, which has really shown us all that that the little things in life are what matter. On the community side, the kindness, generosity of time, and patient sharing of expertise, in addition to the special individual encounters with nature that each of these observations and identifications signify—these have all shone through in the way you have shown up to document and conserve biodiversity in our county. This is special and we are grateful!

So, if you can also help us with this last stretch (and keep us firmly in our #16 global ranking), thank you in advance! Every observation and identification counts! Even the little, beautiful things—like this: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/213320327 (any more Coenagrionidae experts out there to chime in on this?).

Carpe diem!

While we can all easily use iNaturalist and find many other ways to be biodiversity champions every day of the year, in Part 2 of this post, we share some more ways to learn about the insect-plant relationships that are fundamental to much of the land-based biodiversity in our region and beyond.

World Bee Day is coming up on May 20, along with two free bee learning opportunities.

Both Dr. James Hung and PhD candidate Jess Mullins have been working hard behind the scenes, sharing their local bee expertise as identifiers for our observations. (And yes, it really is hard work! Check out this exchange between them and others with bee/pollinator expertise: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212148220.)

Both Jess and James have some fascinating, and very important, bee history and conservation information to share with us.

See James virtually on May 14: https://library.ucsd.edu/news-events/events/world-bee-day-native-bees-in-a-changing-world-and-how-you-can-help/

See Jess at UCSD's Geisel Library on May 20: https://library.ucsd.edu/news-events/events/world-bee-day-lecture-featuring-phd-student-jess-mullins/

As our project numbers continue to climb, a quick look at the stats on our project page reminds us shows that a lot of the biodiversity we're documenting is in the 'plants,' followed by the 'insects' and then the 'birds' groups.

One of the many great things about citizen science is that we don't need to wait until our observations reach researchers to learn from them. The relationship between pollinators, plants, and the resulting amount of biodiversity we have, becomes evident when we look at our county's CNC observations. (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-san-diego-county?tab=stats)

As we continue to contribute to, and learn from, the observations and identifications we're making during this CNC event, we invite you to think about how you will continue to be biodiversity champions every day of the year!

One place to start: World Migratory Bird Day on May 11. This year's theme is 'Insects' and why they are important to migratory birds. Learn more about how you can help preserve insects and protect birds: https://www.migratorybirdday.org.

And head on over to our project pages to see some of the birds we've been observing, and to help out with identifications (or see who our generous bird identifiers are)! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?d1=2024-04-27&d2=2024-04-29&place_id=829

@mikethebirder has just hit 1500 observations for the CNC!

Will he stop here at this nice, round number? Or is he taking a coffee break as he gets ready to load some more?

Kudos to Mike and to all of you who continue to upload your CNC observations, and to the vast team of identifiers who are trying to keep up with your many observations!

Together, we are certainly a team to be proud of. Not only is San Diego recognized for its biodiversity, but our community's collaboration, commitment, and people-diversity are equally impressive!

We are floored by the participation by the San Diego County community in this year's City Nature Challenge!

We have flown past our goals of having at least 25,000 observations (we have an astonishing 5,000 more than last year!) and 2,500 species!

We have no doubt that our busy identifiers are going to help us get to at least 75% Research Grade on our observations, too.

And speaking of our busy identifiers, you may have noticed that some of our superstar observers continue to add to the hundreds of observations that they made (with little time to upload them!) during the CNC observation period. This takes A LOT of time and dedication, and this CNC is something they, and our identifiers, continue to work on with great effort and commitment after the fun events of the weekend are over.

Please join us in thanking all of those who you notice are making an extra effort to contribute to this CNC event, and to citizen science efforts in general.

If you have a moment, please consider sending some of our above-and-beyond CNC contributors a note of appreciation. (They're easy to find in the stats section of our project page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2024-san-diego-county.)

And from us...a huge thank you for showing up in community as enthusiastic and inspiring environmental stewards in a very big way!

Stay tuned, and keep it up!

What about those by-the-wind sailors (Velella velella)?

Being a citizen scientist gives us more opportunities than we would otherwise have to learn about the natural world around us. Did you learn about by-the-wind sailors, and their periodic mass strandings (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/59698-Velella-velella) for the first time this year?

Like the V. velella, we think each and every one of you is special and you're all making a unique contribution to biodiversity research and conservation. We hope you are enjoying your exploration of, and connections with, the natural world!

Thank you to our event hosts, collaborators, volunteers, and every single citizen scientist!

And one last thing: if you want to help out as part of our identification team, anyone can participate!

Just go to https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?place_id=829&d1=2024-04-26&d2=2024-04-29 (filtered for San Diego County between April 26-29, 2024) and all of the identifications you make will help us increase our research grade tally.

What an impressive CNC team of citizen scientists we have this year!

Every single one of you are making this happen!

We have already passed the number of observers that we had last year (we're now at 1115!).

AND, we've just passed the number of different species observed (currently 2475!).

Great job! Keep it up! :)