Empirical trials of plant field guides

Designing online species identification tools for biological recording: the impact on data quality and citizen science learning

In recent years, the number and scale of environmental citizen science programmes that involve lay people in scientific research have increased rapidly. Many of these initiatives are concerned with the recording and identification of species, processes which are increasingly mediated through digital interfaces. Here, we address the growing need to understand the particular role of digital identification tools, both in generating scientific data and in supporting learning by lay people engaged in citizen science activities pertaining to biological recording communities. Starting from two well-known identification tools, namely identification keys and field guides, this study focuses on the decision-making and quality of learning processes underlying species identification tasks, by comparing three digital interfaces designed to identify bumblebee species. The three interfaces varied with respect to whether species were directly compared or filtered by matching on visual features; and whether the order of filters was directed by the interface or a user-driven open choice. A concurrent mixed-methods approach was adopted to compare how these different interfaces affected the ability of participants to make correct and quick species identifications, and to better understand how participants learned through using these interfaces. We found that the accuracy of identification and quality of learning were dependent upon the interface type, the difficulty of the specimen on the image being identified and the interaction between interface type and ‘image difficulty’. Specifically, interfaces based on filtering outperformed those based on direct visual comparison across all metrics, and an open choice of filters led to higher accuracy than the interface that directed the filtering. Our results have direct implications for the design of online identification technologies for biological recording, irrespective of whether the goal is to collect higher quality citizen science data, or to support user learning and engagement in these communities of practice.

Plant Species in a tract of insular Atlantic Forest in Ilhabela (SP): Floristics, photographic documentation, and identification keys of arboreal dicotyledons based on vegetative characteristics

Abstract: The Ilhabela State Park (PEIb, for Parque Estadual Ilhabela in Portuguese)-located between 23º 46' 28" south latitude and 45º 21' 20" west latitude-is responsible for the conservation of one of the most important, and most devastated, fragments of insular Atlantic Forest. To catalog the arboreal species along the trails of the Conservation Unit, and to provide a practical instrument to facilitate the recognition of these species, we aimed with this work to conduct a floristic and photographic survey of distinct life forms and create an identification key for arboreal dicotyledonous species based on vegetative characters. We cataloged 123 species belonging to 99 genera and 46 botanical families. The best-represented families were Rubiaceae (15 spp.), Fabaceae (10), Piperaceae (10), Myrtaceae (8), Melatomataceae (7) and Lauraceae (7). We found three species threatened with extinction, two new occurrences for the state of São Paulo, and one plant species new to science, demonstrating the floristic importance of the region. We developed three vegetative dichotomous identification keys: to species with compound leaves; simple and opposite leaves; and alternate simple leaves. The dichotomous keys presents 97 arboreal species, distributed among 37 families, and was based on vegetative characters such as phyllotaxis, composition and shape of the limbus, presence or absence of stipules, exudate, lenticels, indument, glands and dots. We also elaborated a photographic board with 118 species as a supplementary material to support the use of the identification key.