Personal Bioblitz 2023 Results

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Personal Bioblitz Spring 2023 Results—10^th Anniversary Edition
(Report by Lena Struwe, 5/27/2023)

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. The numbers below are the official numbers for this year).

Another record breaking year for the Personal Bioblitz project—together we saw over 10,000 species in 2.5 months and we had more participants than ever before.

Cumulative Results for the 2023 Project

Total observations: 64,448 (We didn’t beat last year’s record of 70,461, but we were close)

Total species: 10,434 (We broke the all-time record with over 1,000 species!)

Observers: 142 (New record, more and more people are joining in)

Most Observations

1. Sara Rall (srall) from New Jersey, USA, 8,324 observations (she did it AGAIN, third time as top observer! Sara is also the 2nd top iNaturalist observer in the world.)
2. Susan Hewitt (susanhewitt) from New York, USA, 4,787 observations (invertebrate specialist, was in 4th place last year, and the 6th top observer in the world.)
3. Barbara L Wilson (sedgequeen) from Oregon, USA, 4,286 observations (just a single observation below Susan Hewitt; Barbara came in third place last year too)
4. Jeff Mollenhauer (jmole) from New Jersey, USA, 3,287 observations (a newcomer in our bioblitz, participating for the first time)
5. Nick Kleinschmidt (nick2524) from New Hampshire, USA, 3,182 observations

Most Species Observed

1. Jeff Mollenhauer (jmole) from New Jersey, USA, 1,448 species (new participant, congratulations!)
2. Sarah Kelsey (botanylicious) from Georgia, USA, 1,357 species (was in 5th place last year, new personal record!)
3. Annika Lindqvist (annikaml) from Texas, USA, 1,272 species (despite seeing more species than last year when she won the top spot, that was not enough this year)
4. Nick Lambert from Australia, 1,037 species (winner of our bioblitz 2021)
5. Bonnie Semmling (mertensia) from New Jersey, USA, 1,017 species (new personal bioblitz record)

Which Groups Were Reported the Most?

1. Plants: 57% of observations; 47% of species, (yes, they are large and sit still!)
2. Insects: 17% of observations; 4% of species
3. Birds: 8% of observations; 6% of species
4. Fungi: 7% of observations; 7% of species
5. Molluscs: 2% of observations; 4% of species
6. Spiders: 2% of observations; 2% of species
7. Everything else had 1% or less of observations and species seen (mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, protozoa, and ‘life’, which includes bacteria and viruses)

Most Frequently Observed Species (Plants Win!)

1. Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus), 439 observations
2. American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), 323 observations (was in 1^st place last year)
3. Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia), 519 observations
4. Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), 269 observations
5. Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), 236 observations

Some Fun Facts

1. Plants win again as the most observed taxonomic group, accounting for 57% of all observations (down from 62% last year) and 47% of all species. Plants are generally large, don’t fly, crawl, or run, so easier to see and photograph than other groups.
2. Only 29% of observations were from New Jersey, the home location of the Personal Bioblitz (up from last year’s 26%). 2,906 species were reported from New Jersey.
3. 3,328 different people helped identify the species in this project. Thank you all! (Special call out to @sadawolk who identified thousands of observations.)
4. Of all observations 15% were introduced to the area where they were seen. This was also 10% of the species that were reported.
5. Over 52% of observations and 65% of species reported reached Research Grade quality on iNaturalist. These observations get added to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database automatically and are used for research globally.

Thank for your participation in the 2023 Personal Bioblitz!

Lena Struwe and the Personal Bioblitz Committee.

Contact e-mail: Lena.Struwe@rutgers.edu