iNaturalist helped find a new populations of Carex lutea, a federally listed endangered sedge. Article: Weakley at el. 2024. Studies in the vascular Flora of the Southeastern United States. X. Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas 18(1): 17-77.
Quotes: “We document the discovery of Carex lutea, previously believed to be endemic to two counties in eastern North Carolina, in two counties in the panhandle of Florida and a county in eastern South Carolina – discoveries aided by iNaturalist and Facebook.” – p. 18
“In a remarkable coincidence, a second unknown Carex lutea population was found by BD in April 2021 . . . . He photo-documented a population of a Carex unknown to him, adding it as an iNaturalist observation identified only to genus. On May 12, 2021, EAU was scanning iNaturalist observations of Carex not identified to species, and encountered BD’s observation, immediately recognizing it, as well, as a likely new state record for Carex lutea” – p. 23
“Many Carex and other genera in the Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and other families that are difficult or impossible to identify to species from unspecialized photography (because of technical, fine-scale and/or non-exposed characters), complicated the use of these platforms for such species. Nevertheless, iNaturalist and regional, botany-related pages and groups on Facebook catalyzed the identification and discovery of these novel populations of a very rare sedge!” – p. 25
Wait, how did this thread turn into a discussion about obscuring and concerns that unscrupulous people will use information posted online to hunt down endangered or vulnerable species?
That’s absolutely not the message I took away from this story here.
Rather, I see it as a wonderful demonstration of how iNat can help to further scientific knowledge. Because without the data collected incidentally by ordinary people curious about the organisms they encountered, chances are that no sedge expert would have happened to survey those particular sites. And without a platform that makes the data available from anywhere in the world, it might not have been seen by someone who was able to interpret its significance. And all of this in spite of the chronic lack of skilled IDers, in spite of the difficulty of identifying many species from the average user photos.
Documenting the existence of a rare species at a location where nobody expected it to exist may make it vulnerable to exploitation, but it also makes it possible to take measures to protect it. We don’t protect what we don’t know is there.
One of the earliest forum posts I read was - we found this rare spider in New Zealand - now that place is protected, for the spider, which was found with iNat’s help.
The stories we see on iNat are the success stories. We will not see the Poacher’s Success Stories here.
Since 2019 I have been actively involved with handling plant material and writing reports for the South African Police, in regards to poached plants. from Pieter Mier’s profile
Agreed, also it’s a Carex species… the poaching risk is not high.
I do love seeing stories like this where iNaturalist is useful, it’s a nice rebuttal to the people who insist it’s only for clout (an attitude I run across in certain circles).
Was it a Carex species? Because otherwise I don’t see the connection between “iNat helps scientists further their knowledge about rare species” and “posting the locations of rare species puts them at risk of collection” – apart from the word “rare”, of course.
Just because some rare species may threatened by people knowing their location doesn’t mean that all of them are. Many species are more at risk from habitat loss than collectors, and obscuring in such cases is likely to do more harm than good.
Hi in agreement with the above subject,it is only possible for identification if someone post their photos.
Be it rare or ordinary is the only way to keep up with new. Observations of so many species in the world.so they can be protected.
Thur Inaturalist and other observatory means.
I personally find it amazing how much I have learned about the world of
Entomology Thur the Inaturalist platform…