A study on citizen science advancing biodiversity and ecosystem analysis benefited from insights supplied by a number of MAMBO consortium members. Published in the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS) journal, the article counts Pierre Bonnet, Vanessa Hequet, Vincent Espitalier and Hervé Goëau from The French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), as well as Alexis Joly, César Leblanc and Christophe Botella from the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA) among its authors.

In essence, the paper aims to demonstrate that the citizen-science-driven progress in data utilisation, along with growing access to large-scale datasets, opens up new opportunities to fill knowledge gaps regarding species and ecosystems. This deeper understanding could support more effective management strategies and local governance in natural areas. 

More specifically, the study’s authors zoom in on citizen science platforms as important tools for collecting vast amounts of biodiversity data due to their appeal and accessibility. They offer promising opportunities for training deep learning models in automated species identification via large multimedia datasets. 

Aware of this, MAMBO and fellow European project GUARDEN plan to use one such platform, Pl@ntNet, to develop and use new digital solutions to promote the extensive production of floristic inventories. This is part of an effort to build a basis for the creation of a worldwide service that assists in identifying plants through image-based analysis. To that end, different standards and reference datasets are already implemented - examples include the POWO (Plants of the World Online) world checklist and the WGSRPD (World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions) standard.

As a result, automated global workflows now support the collection, analysis and sharing of illustrated plant occurrences, enabling new IT tools for species description and conservation monitoring. Key developments and findings in this context are set to be presented to promote integration within the broader scientific community.

You can discover more about the paper and the full array of MAMBO research publications in the project’s library.