ACSA QLD Presents: Nature Exploration using iNaturalist with Thomas Mesaglio (thebeachcomber)
Channel: Australian Citizen Science Association
Date: 2022-06-24

Join ACSA Qld with guest speaker Thomas Mesaglio (aka thebeachcomber) and learn how you can contribute to iNaturalist data while on your next nature wander


About this event

Join ACSA Qld with guest speaker Thomas Mesaglio. Thomas will speak about iNaturalist - the world’s biggest online biodiversity citizen science platform, with 100 million observations of species from around the world. Australia is one of the top contributors to the platform, and your observations filter into the Atlas of Living Australia and are used in real-world scientific research.

During this talk, Thomas Mesaglio will explain the power of iNaturalist as a citizen science and research tool, provide a basic outline of how the platform operates, and discuss what citizen scientists have contributed and how their data have been used from an Australian perspective.

About Thomas Mesaglio:

Thomas Mesaglio is a Ph.D. student at the University of New South Wales researching species discovery in, and knowledge of, Australian plants. Much of his research has focused on using iNaturalist data to answer questions relating to ecosystem recovery, identifiability across different taxa, and improving citizen science data quality, but he has also worked on bushfire recovery, marine forensic science, and invertebrate taxonomy and ecology. Thomas is a curator on the iNaturalist platform and a moderator on iNaturalist's discussion forum and has made over 32,000 observations on the site, in addition to more than 200,000 identifications made for other users. He is also a regular BioBlitz organiser and participant, having organised the City Nature Challenge and Great Southern Bioblitz for Sydney, and the three recent Big Bushfire BioBlitzes across NSW. Follow Thomas on iNaturalist where he is known as "thebeachcomber".

About Australian Citizen Science Association - Qld Chapter:

ACSA-QLD helps to implement the strategic goals, priorities, and actions of the Australian Citizen Science Association at the regional level. We help to build awareness of ACSA and citizen science in our local community and areas of interest, and we have the opportunity to provide a local voice, representation, and communication channel at the national level.