Citizen science initiatives document biodiversity baselines at an urban lake

PeerJ. 2024 Apr 17:12:e17209. doi: 10.7717/peerj.17209. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Changes to biodiversity from urbanization are occurring worldwide, and baseline data is vital to document the magnitude and direction of these alterations. We set out to document the biodiversity of an urban lake in Eastern Iowa that was devoid of baseline data prior to a renovation project that will convert the site into a major area for human recreation. Throughout the course of one year, we studied the biodiversity at Cedar Lake utilizing the citizen-science application iNaturalist coupled with semi-structured BioBlitz events, which we compared to previous opportunistic observations at the site. From a semi-structured approach to document biodiversity with citizen science, our analyses revealed more diverse community metrics over a shorter period compared to more than a decade of prior observations.

Keywords: Baseline data; Biodiversity; Community composition; Global change; Species richness; Urban biodiversity; Urban lake.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biodiversity*
  • Citizen Science*
  • Humans
  • Iowa
  • Lakes*
  • Urbanization*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by startup funds from Coe College and Iowa Department of Natural Resources WDP Small Project Grant #21CRDWBKKINK-0001 to Daniel F. Hughes. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.