Accessing Transcription Results

As I mentioned in a previous post, data collected from these transcriptions are incorporated in the SERNEC database. There, anyone who is interested can access the results through a number of tools. I already mentioned the map tool, which lets the viewer search for all species found in a specific area. Here are a few others I’ve found interesting:

Location Search

First, you can see all the locations where researchers observed a distinct species. I searched for Cornus florida, the flowering dogwood. As you can see in the image below, this species is widespread across the southeastern United States. Obviously, there are more dogwood trees than those listed below. Nonetheless, this tool provides a broad overview of the species’ range.

Image Search

SERNEC also provides pictures of some of the species in their database. With only about 60 entries, this list is significantly shorter than their total list of species. They must choose not to upload images of everything. It’s a neat tool for testing your knowledge of scientific names, but I don’t see much utility outside of that. Here’s an example of one of their entries, which shows a picture of Trianthema triquetra.

(Side note—according to JSTOR, Trianthema triquetra is indigenous to Africa and parts of Asia. I wonder how it even ended up in this database? Perhaps they’re investigating it as an invasive?)

State Search

Finally, SERNEC allows you to see a list of all species recorded within a southeastern state. Within Virginia, their database includes 189 families, 1067 genera, and 3523 species. Clicking on any particular species takes you to a new page with additional images, information, and a distribution map. Below, you can see the page for the loose-flower water willow, Justicia ovata.

Here are the first few species listed in Virginia.

These pages provide additional information and images for each state’s species.

Clever Design Feature: Double Checking

One of my fears starting the project was that I would make a mistake. What if I misread the collector’s handwriting and incorrectly identify a specimen? What if I confuse the person doing the field research with the person who submitted the specimen? What if I simply submit a typo? Would I be a thorn in a researchers’ side years down the road?

Fortunately, Notes from Nature explains that it has more than one person review each submission. In my experience so far, I’ve received one image twice. I am hopeful that this collective thinking will make the final submissions more accurate.

And on that note, I also wondered why computers aren’t able to do this themselves. According to Zooverse, the parent organization of Notes from Nature, much of the data is simply too complicated for computers. Humans are better at this form of pattern recognition, making our answers more reliable. However, the site says that in some cases, computers are learning from the human submissions. If we can get those systems advanced enough, perhaps our human input will be unnecessary.

While there’s value in having humans participate in this process, I think if we can automate the effort it will have more scientific utility. Computers can simply process more, faster (and don’t get distracted by things like work, food or sleep). For that reason, I’m hopeful this form of citizen science will be obsolete in a decade or so. I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that one!

Project Origins & Purpose

Andrea Weeks, Associate Professor and Director of the Ted R. Bradley Herbarium at George Mason University, introduced the project to the Virginia Master Naturalists in Fall 2016. Ms. Weeks coordinates this effort as part of a National Science Foundation grant. The project is designed to make Virginia’s extensive herbarium specimen collection more accessible to researchers and the public.

In the project description, Virginia Master Naturalists state that the transcriptions will enhance “understanding of Virginia’s flora through space and time.” By the time I jumped on board, Master Naturalists had already completed several thousand entries on specimens from the first collection, which featured Wetland Plants of Virginia. After finishing that series, Master Naturalists began working on the Virginia Pollinator Plants series. This rapid progress indicated that folks are eager to contribute to this cause. According to Weeks, volunteers have successfully transcribed more than 17,000 distinct specimens since the project’s adoption in 2016.

Both the Wetland and Pollinator Plant efforts use Notes from Nature (https://www.notesfromnature.org) as their online platform. This site is where volunteers complete the actual work by quickly recording written field notes into the online database. Beyond the Master Naturalist projects, Notes from Nature also supports a variety of other transcription projects including “Plants of Arkansas,” “Tennessee Invaders,” “Oaks, Hickories, and Relatives of Florida” and others.

The data from this site is then shared with the Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections (SERNEC). According to their website , SERNEC’s goal is to host transcriptions of four million specimens, specifically from the Southeast United States. With this database and metadata, SERNEC will support “better research, better management planning and a more well-informed public.”  SERNEC is funded by the National Science Foundation.

On the SERNEC site, I found an interesting interactive map function. You can plug in a location and see what has been reported in that area. Similarly, you can search for findings of a particular species. Below is a map of species recorded around Arlington. While there a number of findings, it’s certainly not a comprehensive list of flora in the county. I wonder how useful this feature would really be to a scientist. Perhaps as research continues and more information enters the database, this site will be more helpful.

Analysis of Online Format

There are not many citizen science projects that you can feasibly contribute to during your lunch break or while waiting for class to start. Yet as a part time student and full-time employee, these are some of the few periods of time when I’m able to volunteer.

Therefore, I am really pleased with the program’s online format. This allows me to log in whenever I have a couple minutes to spare and finish a few transcriptions. If I had selected a program that required in-person participation, I would have been much more stressed to fit that into my schedule.

Of course, the online format has its drawbacks. It’s solitary, so I did not get a chance to meet other volunteers working on this project. I think it would be more fun to work on a project with a team of like-minded people. This program is also not as immersive. As with any online activity, it’s easy to get distracted. If I had gone to a different location to work on my project, I would have been more likely to spend a few long periods of time on the work. After all, in Arlington you have to spend enough time at a program to justify the hassle of traffic.

Nonetheless, I think the online format was a great fit for my needs. I think this model would encourage other busy people to get involved in citizen science. It’s great if you have time to spend out in the field. Many of our local Master Naturalists are retired, so getting outside on a weekday afternoon is simple and enjoyable. However, citizen scientists should not just be retirees. If that were the case, the field of conservation would miss a lot of potential talent. So while I don’t think online formats are the best model, they are the most practical for many (myself included).

 

Service Description

After creating an account with Notes from Nature, I quickly jumped into the transcriptions. Volunteers follow the same simple pattern for each specimen. Once I became familiar with the process, each transcription only took about 30-45 seconds. Images with more information and/or blurry writing took a little longer.

There are two general categories of transcriptions: plants and butterflies. Today, I focused my efforts on the butterfly archive. The site says that the organisms presented come from a “Mixed Bag from the McGuire Center,”  and that the archive is 76% complete.

To give you a better idea of the process, I created a slideshow illustrating the steps. Please note that the site has volunteers follow every step for a single organism before moving on to the next specimen. I’m presenting photos of different moths and butterflies to give you a sense of the species diversity I encountered.

 

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Project Overview

When I discovered that I needed to participate in a citizen science project, I immediately contacted my local Master Naturalist chapter for more information. As a member and chapter partner, it is important to me that I support ARMN’s work. (More on the Arlington Regional Master Naturalists here: ARMN)

Perhaps unsurprisingly, February and March are not popular seasons for citizen science in Virginia. The Service Coordinator explained that while a number of projects would resume once the weather improved, there was just one currently active project. Given the time constraints of the semester, I eagerly jumped on board.

Now, I am participating in an online citizen science program called “Digitizing Virginia’s Herbaria for Research and Education.” Through this project, volunteers to transcribe ecological field notes to compile a giant digital database for public and scientific use. More info to come, but for now here is the project website: https://www.notesfromnature.org.

Let’s see how it goes!