Is there an iNat site that lists taxons of observations wanted/needed by researchers that I might be able to contribute to?
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Perhaps other user may be able to help out with this question better, but through my profile I plan on doing monthly journal posts to include species, etc. to help out with researchers. Some projects especially this new tracks & signs project give updates regarding animals to look out for. Depending on where you are check local projects to find out more info about the animals near you.
A tip: Following the projects or users who make posts like this helps in a variety of ways. 1. You won’t miss them as you’ll get a notification and 2. It helps encourage the users or projects to stay active and keep going if they have followers looking forward to them.
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I’m not sure if there’s an active list- but as someone who works with iNat data regularly, we’re always interested in photos of bees that aren’t honey bees, especially if there’s a nest included or if it’s visiting a floral host that you can recognize.
Digging through project pages may be a good idea as well.
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This is a great question! I don’t know of any one place that gathers together all the research requests, but it’d be great to have, so maybe someone will create it :)
The one group I know can always use observations is plant galls - there are thousands if not millions of undescribed species all around us, and they’re fairly simple for even novices to find and photograph.
Here’s a few links to start off with:
https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/83741-north-american-herb-gall-wasps-what-we-know-so-far-and-what-is-still-needed
https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/89999-gall-wasps-are-out-and-about-so-should-you
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Oh wow! Thats good to know!
there are thousands if not millions of undescribed species all around us, and they’re fairly simple for even novices to find and photograph.
Thats just about the same as Tracks & Signs.
I think that’s going to be something that you more or less stumble across. Just about everything you’re uploading could potentially be of interest to researchers, it’s just a matter of finding something interesting that is being looked at right now.
Where I’d start is go searching through the projects and pick ones to join. Next, if you’re uploading good observations, it’s possible that a researcher might approach you. I’ve been messaged several times based on the observations I’ve put up. I had a firefly researcher who was looking into a particular species, recently someone from the state DNR reached out about a snake that they are considering the endangered list, a few have reached out on bees.
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Yeah, that is very true. Although, sometimes it is fun to go out and look for important stuff yourself.