Campus Nature Challenge

About

The goal of the 2023 Spring Campus Nature Challenge at UNC Greensboro is to engage our campus community in a citizen science project to increase biodiversity awareness by photographing, recording audio, and cataloging the plants, animals (including insects), and fungi during a week-long “bioblitz” on campus. The event will take place from April 17 – April 23rd, culminating at the Earth Day Fair & Spring Send Off at Piney Lake..

UNCG students and employees are asked to use the iNaturalist app to identify as many species across campus as they can. Supported by a grant from the UNCG Green Fund, student participants will be awarded prizes including a bicycle, tent, hammock, and gift cards for the most observations identified, the greatest number of species identified, and best photos.

This project builds off of the work of the UNCG Biology Department, which runs and monitors two wetlands on campus on iNaturalist. During the last two nature challenges over 100 participants combined to make 2,300 observationns and identified 600 species. The species with the most observations was Common Ivy, which is an invasive that continues to be fought both on campus and in the region.

This year we are also partnering with the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Appalachian State University and the Office of Sustainability at UNC Wilmington in a friendly competition see who can get the most observations. Follow App State’s challenge here and UNCW’s here.

The Science

According to the World Bank, over 55% of the world now lives in urban areas (82% in the U.S.). As urban population grows, so too, does urban area. While many studies on biodiversity focus on wilder, rural areas, the expansion of urban areas makes conservation and preservation of species and habitat within urban landscapes increasingly important. Understanding and preserving biodiversity in urban areas is essential because cities have often been built in critical habitats, such as riparian zones, and the urban landscape also contains corridors that provide habitat connections between populations of animals. And city biodiversity can look very different than native biodiversity, making it important to understand the differences. (Dearborn & Kark, 2010).

Involving people, especially students, in this environmental work is an important way to expand the desire to protect the environment. Several studies have shown that environmental education and experiences connecting with nature increase perceived pro-environmental attitudes long-term, and even extend to other family members (Farmer et al., 2007); (Vaughan et al., 2003). Since ecological knowledge acquisition increases awareness of conservation issues, there has been an increase in the encouragement to obtain conservation volunteers in order to receive a double dividend of help and support (Asah & Blahna, 2012).

The App

The iNaturalist app is a popular citizen science tool for cataloging biodiversity. It is available for free on both Android and Apple and has a compatible website that allows participation by those who cannot download the app. iNaturalist allows users to take photos or record audio of diverse plant and wildlife, which are uploaded into the app with the location geotagged. The application makes suggestions for identification based on the photos. Once the person submitting the picture attempts to ID the photo, the photos are shared to the iNaturalist community.

All users are asked to help make confirmations or alternative suggestions. The owner of the picture may then accept or reject the suggestions. However, after several confirmations, the photo/species is cataloged as “Research-grade.” In this way, it keeps a check on the data, but it also provides an additional way for the person who takes the photo to learn about the species they are seeing.

Official Competition Guidelines

• Download the iNaturalist app.
• Create an account. Join using Google to sync to your @uncg.edu email account to help us confirm you’re a student. Please use your UNCG email.
• Search for and join the “Project” 2023 Spring UNCG Nature Challenge.
• ONLY observations made on the UNCG campus will count towards prizes.
  • Pictures are automatically geotagged using your phone’s GPS when uploading to the app.
• Winners must be current students at UNCG.
• Observations can include photos and sound recordings (frogs, birds, insects, etc.). Audio recording is currently only available on Android phones.
• Only Research-grade observations will be counted: This means taking clear photos of of wildlife and not “planted landscaping” and making identification to the genus/species.
  • Don’t worry, the app makes suggestions to help you and community members confirm the identification.
  • Just do your best. It’s all about the learning experience!
• Representatives from the Office of Sustainability; Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability; and the Department of Biology will be identifying and judging great photos and unusual or prized species.
• Photo awards will receive an REI gift card. Species awards will receive one of the following: tent, bicycle, hammock. Prize winners will be notified through iNaturalist and/or via @uncg.edu email. Prizes should be picked at the Sustainability office on campus.