Personal Bioblitz 2022 Results

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Personal Bioblitz Spring 2022 Results
(Report by Lena Struwe, 6/8/2022)

Thanks for Natalie Lemanski for summarizing the data for this year’s Personal Bioblitz, the ninth ever. Here are the results! (Note that the species count on the iNaturalist PROJECT HOME PAGE will change, because more species will be identified as we go along. These numbers are the official numbers for this year).

A few things of note— people managed to see over 1000 species in 2.5 months! Women are overrepresented, and we have some mega-iNaturalist-users in this project. Over 3100 worldwide members on iNaturalist helped to identify species in this project – with user @sadawolk being by far the most prolific with her knowledge – thanks Sandy Wolkenberg!

Cumulative Results for the 2022 Project

Total observations: 70,461 (A new record, beating last year’s record of 68,914!)

Total species: 9,197 (Another new record!)

Observers: 113

Some Fun Facts

1. Plants win again as the most observed taxonomic group, accounting for 62% of all observations.
2. 26% of observations were from New Jersey, the home location of the Personal Bioblitz (down from last year).
3. Observations came from 23 different countries. We have some worldly naturalists!
4. 3,066 different people helped identify the project observations.
5. An IUCN near-threatened species (Eastern Hemlock) made the top 5 list this year.

Most Observations

1. Sara Rall (srall) from New Jersey, USA, 10,140 observations (last year’s top observer is on top again! Sarah is also the 4th top observer in the world.)
2. Nick Kleinschmidt (nick2524) from New Hampshire, USA, 6,016 observations
3. Barbara L Wilson (sedgequeen) from Oregon, USA, 5,729 observations
4. Susan Hewitt (susanhewitt) from New York, USA, 4,989 observations (invertebrate specialist, and the 8th top observer in the world.)
5. Misha Zitser (zitserm) from New York, USA, 4,469 observations (an iNaturalist member since 2020, congrats on making the top 5 list!)

Most Species Observed

1. Annika Lindqvist (annikaml) living in Texas, USA, 1,170 species (retaking the top spot again and breaking her record from last year!)
2. Barbara L Wilson (sedgequeen) from Oregon, USA, 1,023 species
3. Alan Weakley (whiteoak) from North Carolina, USA, 1,017 species (another expert botanist joins the top 5 list! No wonder plants rule the Bioblitz)
4. Sara Rall (srall) from New Jersey, USA, 1,001 species
5. Sarah Kelsey (botanylicious) from Georgia, USA, 979 species

Most Species That Were Not Observed by Anyone Else

1. Annika Lindqvist (annikaml) living in Texas, USA, 426 unique species
2. Nick Lambert (nicklambert) from Australia, 386 unique species
3. Barbara L Wilson (sedgequeen) from Oregon, USA, 242 unique species
4. Alan Weakley (whiteoak) from North Carolina, USA, 237 unique species
5. Jason Grant (jasonrgrant) from Switzerland, 226 unique species

Most Frequently Observed Species

1. American Beech, 814 observations
2. Hairy Bittercress, 519 observations
3. American Robin, 435 observations
4. Red Maple, 433 observations
5. Eastern Hemlock, 374 observations

And, the number of observations on iNaturalist for New Jersey, just passed 1 million! When the Personal Bioblitz started on iNaturalist, there were 1000 observations in New Jersey. See a list of the most observed New Jersey species ever.

Thank for your participation in the 2022 Personal Bioblitz!

Lena Struwe

Lena.Struwe@rutgers.edu