How everyday Australians are helping in the fight against invasive species

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-06-25 00:01

Australia; ACT

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An alert system is using Aussie citizen science data to keep authorities informed when invasive species are spotted in areas of concern. Australian researchers discuss the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), an email alert system that takes data from various citizen science platforms such as iNaturalist, where members of the public can share nature observations with each other. ALA then takes this data and notifies management authorities when it involves a sighting of a species of concern, which the researchers say helps them respond more quickly to new biosecurity threats. The researchers say as biosecurity challenges increase in coming years, this system shows how important the wider community can be for surveillance.