Exploring malacological observations on iNaturalist: Citizen science as a tool for monitoring freshwater mussels
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Abstract
The aim of the present work was to determine the presence of freshwater mussels on the citizen science platform, iNaturalist, and present novel information on both threatened species and non-threatened species within the US. I assessed whether observations among these groups increased annually and states in which observations were high. Using this approach, I noted an increase for the amount of observations, and overall there were more observations for least concern species, with primarily Midwestern states having more observations, with the exception of Alabama and Texas, and South Dakota which had a large number of observations. Subsequently, this citizen science platform and online database may provide an avenue for future malacological monitoring across Unionidae mussels and serve as a companion to more traditional field surveys in aquatic ecosystems.
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