In the summer of 2017, five undergraduate students from across the country participated in a NSF-funded research collaboration network for undergraduate biological education (RCN-UBE) focused on citizen science-based pollinator studies in the United States National Parks (NPs). Long-term, this project hopes to address multiple questions regarding the validity of citizen science projects, such as: can students and citizen scientists detect pollinator decline within NPs?; are citizen science applications effective in creating accurate pollinator observations?; and, using humans, technology, and citizen science applications, which is most useful in tracking species diversity and functional groups within the NPs? Students spent eight weeks hiking, photographing, and analyzing a diverse group of species using iNaturalist, a citizen science mobile application, to assist in long-term data collection and identification for the NP database. Studies were completed on eleven transects throughout Yellowstone and Grand Teton NP in order to measure a diverse range of species based on the park's elevational gradients.
Results/Conclusions
As a result of tireless sweep netting efforts and careful macro photography skills, students may have discovered a new species of Snaketail dragonflies (Ophiogomphus sp.) within Yellowstone NP through their citizen science project. While dragonflies are not directly considered pollinators, these students’ efforts showcase the direct benefits of citizen science to biodiversity discoveries within public lands, regardless of the project’s original focus. In addition, these students were considered untrained entomologists, showcasing the ease of finding new species when least expected. Utilizing citizen science applications and the crowdsourcing capabilities of online curators has allowed for a more significant output than the park and principal investigator (PI) anticipated, which has produced additional funding opportunities for the project. Because of this discovery, students plan on re-sampling the eleven transects this summer with hopes of collecting the new specimen for further analysis and verification by dragonfly experts. This presentation will highlight how students were able to successfully implement citizen science projects so that it allowed for such discovery, as well as present the many unknowns that will occur, for both the project, identifiers, and Yellowstone NP, moving forward.