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The value of iNaturalist in Citizen Mycology

Citizen Science is rapidly becoming a very popular pastime for many and researchers are beginning to recognise the significant value and benefits of utilising citizen scientist generated data. Likewise, BioBlitz events such as the Cooloola BioBlitz (2019, 2021) and the Springbrook BioBlitz (2020), among many other citizen science initiatives implement iNaturalist as a useful biodiversity database and research tool. This article is based on a recent (2021) CSIRO review in Wildlife Research, titled An overview of the history, current contributions and future outlook of iNaturalist in Australia, and personal communication with fungal ecologist Dr. Sapphire McMullen-Fisher, illustrating the value of iNaturalist in mycology, specifically fungal ecology.

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How iNaturalist works

Hosted by the California Academy of Sciences and National Geographic Society, iNaturalist is a multi-taxa citizen science platform, allowing participants to contribute observations including photos and sound recordings of any living organism or its traces, providing associated spatiotemporal coordinates (1). In May 2019, the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) formed a collaboration with iNaturalist forming iNaturalist Australia, allowing the ALA to access a large network of iNaturalist identifiers, while prompting more Australian experts to join iNaturalist (1). Users contribute identification of observations to the lowest possible taxonomic resolution. “Research Grade” records (with two or more suggested identifications and more than two-thirds of these identifications in agreement) are automatically exported to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (1). Australian “Research Grade” and “Needs ID” observations are also automatically exported to the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) when supplied under a Creative Commons license (1).

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Screen Shot 2021-09-16 at 3.00.09 pm.png

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Fungi on Australian iNaturalist

Since its launch in 2008, iNaturalist has seen immense uptake on a global scale, with over 54 million observations of ~306 000 identified species, contributed by more than 1.4 million observers from 252 countries and territories (1). Its datasets have made significant impacts in ecological and biodiversity research, detecting range extensions of alien species, quantifying urban tolerance of organisms, mapping character traits such as phenotypes and colour morphs, recording the rediscovery of lost species, and being used in vegetation mapping (1).

The most observed kingdom in Australia on iNaturalist are animals (68%), followed by plants (25%) and fungi (6.5%), with remaining kingdoms comprising just 0.5% of all Australian observations. Species diversity follows a similar pattern, with animals constituting 58.9%, plants 35.6%, fungi 4.7%, and the remaining kingdoms 0.8% of recorded Australian species (1). Seventy four percent of Australian fungi observations and 69.5% of the species are basidiomycetes, with 95.2% (75747) of the basidiomycete observations and 90% of species (1148) being agaricomycetes. Ascomycetes make up 15.2% of observations and 29.9% of species (1).

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Fungi observations submitted to iNaturalist following a fungi foray at the Cooloola BioBlitz

The value of fungi observations to fungal ecology

As explained in another article, photos alone are not enough in fungi identification to species level, requiring microscopic examination of spores and other features and with only a few Australian taxonomists, it is mostly impossible to identify uncommon or unknown species using photos. Therefore, iNaturalist is not currently a useful taxonomic tool in mycology, unless the observed specimen is known and easily recognised. However, iNaturalist is proving to be an excellent tool in biodiversity and ecology research, and taxonomy is only a small area of the vast science of mycology. Fungi serve as important bioindicators of ecosystem health and their distribution can easily be studied using iNaturalist.

A good photographic record of fungal diversity can reveal important ecological information about species distribution and the functional groups in a given ecosystem. For example, we can use iNaturalist observations to determine how many mycorrhizal species, decomposers including white rotters and brown rotters, or pathogens there are in a given area. Knowing the genera present in a given area, can tell us about the balance and therefore health of a given ecosystem. Identification of fungi to genus level provides ecologically significant information and is much more achievable than getting down to the species level, allowing citizen scientists who simply love to photograph fungi to contribute vital fungal diversity data through iNaturalist.

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Screen Shot 2021-09-16 at 3.30.19 pm.png

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The genus Cortinarius is a mycorrhizal (root symbiotic) species which feeds and protects trees, knowing its and other mycorrhizal fungi distribution is an important indicator of ecosystem health (screenshot from

Fungimap webcaps search⁠

)

Such records are also useful in tracking effects of disturbances such as droughts, fires and land management practices, which significantly impact fungal diversity and distribution and therefore ecosystem health. Submitting observations to iNaturalist provides a snapshot in time of species occurrence, which is one of the major goals of BioBlitz events and fungal forays. Such data can then be used to compare species distribution and diversity over time, before and after disturbance events, and to monitor the effects of climate change which impacts fungal diversity and distribution and therefore ecosystem health. Photo records for different locations are invaluable to learn about fungal distribution, species diversity, their morphological variations, rarity or prevalence.

The significance of the iNaturalist Fungimap Project

Fungal taxonomy and conservation are largely neglected fields, especially in Australia. Our lack of knowledge of fungal diversity is largely due to scarcity of mycologists, as well as the cryptic nature and ephemerality of many species (1). As is the case for other taxa, opportunistic submissions of fungi images to iNaturalist often produce sampling bias towards charismatic or showy species, while conservation of fungi requires an understanding of how many species exist and the resolution of taxonomic opacity (1). It is therefore of great value to join a project such as Fungimap to overcome biases, make contribution of fungi observations more meaningful to biodiversity research, while allowing for collaboration between professional mycologists and citizen scientists. The

Fungimap⁠

project on iNaturalist features over 50 000 observations of more than 1300 species of fungi, continually improving the quality of the fungal dataset and helping to drive conservation efforts1. Since submission of images to the

Fungimap project⁠

requires substrate and habitat information, the project provides tracking and extrapolation of ecological data and distribution of key fungal genera.

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Screen Shot 2021-09-16 at 2.22.46 pm.png

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The

Fungimap project⁠

on iNaturalist has over 50 000 fungi observations from over 500 observers and over 900 identifiers contributing fungi IDs

Tom May, a Senior Mycologist at the National Herbarium of Victoria, founded Fungimap in 1995 to help people identify commonly found fungi and to map Australia’s fungal diversity (2).

Fungimap⁠

is one of the largest citizen science projects with 100,000 fungi records submitted by more than a 1,000 people and organisations from around Australia (2). It is the biggest contributor of fungi records to the Atlas of Living Australia. Before the Fungimap project, there was severe lack of data on the occurrence and distribution of fungi. Over twenty years, Fungimap volunteers confirmed IDs of a 100,000 out of 200,000 supplied records. Initially, without digital technology it was difficult to encourage people to send in their precious printed images, which had to be posted to Fungimap and then posted back to their owners. Since then, Fungimap has published

Fungi Down Under⁠

– the Fungimap Guide to Australian Fungi, produced entirely by volunteers with plans to publish another volume (3). Through projects like Fungimap, iNaturalist’s identifying power for Australian fungi will continually be updated and improved.

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The

Fungimap project⁠

on iNaturalist is a great resource in learning how to ID common fungi species

Other benefits of contributing observations to iNaturalist

iNaturalist is also an excellent database for collection permit groups as it allows for descriptions, species collection numbering systems, coordinates, and other info to be shared within the group, with possibility of data extraction in a spreadsheet format. These features save much processing time. Establishing robust databases is essential in ecological research, making iNaturalist a major source of ecological data crucial to understanding of Australian ecology and conservation (1). Although the value of these data in broad ecological research and biodiversity monitoring is now being recognised, there is still great potential for improvement. This includes data sampling optimisation, recruitment of more taxonomic experts and increased exploration of secondary data integration (1). These in turn will drive better science-policy communication.

iNaturalist is an untapped resource for secondary data beyond spatiotemporal coordinates (1). These include extrapolation of phenotypic data concerning observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment, and phenological data pertaining to periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate. Since fungi of the same species often display morphological variations, gathering photographic data of a species from across various climatic zones, will help us to learn about their variability. For example Russula clelandii, a mycorrhizal (root-symbiotic) species, appears to form a species complex with a very high level of genetic variation, but with no sub-specific grouping which would permit separation of taxa (4). This is congruent with a high degree of morphological variation in R. clelandii (4). Therefore, good images from across Australia would provide valuable data on the variably of this species, and whether there are noticeable differences between its morphology and genetics, based on the habitat in which it grows and its host trees.

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Screen Shot 2021-09-16 at 2.35.44 pm.png

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Colour and shape variation in Russula clelandii (screenshot from

iNaturalist R. clelandii search⁠

)

iNaturalist observations can also capture interspecies interactions for example the utilisation of fruiting bodies or mycelium by invertebrates. There are currently large research gaps in the role of fungi-invertebrate interactions and the ecosystem services provided by fungi and their interactions with invertebrates, which largely limits our understanding of fungal ecology and its role in biodiversity conservation.

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Giant springtail Acanthanura, found during the Cooloola BioBlitz fungi foray. Springtails are mycophagous (fungal feeders) and play an essential role in nutrient cycling and spore dispersal, yet very little is know about them despite being one of the oldest invertebrates on Earth (Image contribution Sandra Tuszynska)

To help facilitate improvement of iNaturalist data, a continued recruitment of Australian taxonomic experts is crucial as highlighted earlier, particularly for obscure taxa for which iNaturalist currently has few trained identifiers (1). Greater expert involvement will facilitate learning by citizen scientists to make more and improved observations through learning to photograph specific fungi features, or through addition of spore images to promote easier identification (1).

Citizen science data are typically collected and verified at little or no cost, so their integration with professional data collection greatly reduces the costs of ecological monitoring, accelerating scientific discoveries and incentivising the formation of meaningful policies (1). iNaturalist data can be of benefit in policy and legislation development, especially when taxonomic experts can review data and provide identifications in real time, increasing data legitimacy, while significantly speeding up the consistently slow transfer of research findings into policy (1).

In conclusion

iNaturalist is the perfect platform merging citizen science, professional mycology and technology to collaborate in evolving mycology to the status of other taxonomic groups. I’d like to encourage members of the

QMS⁠

, to submit images of all fungi they come across to the

Fungimap project on iNaturalist⁠

. Fungi deserve to be recognised and studied as a fundamental part of ecosystems, without which humanity, plants and wildlife cannot survive. This is our opportunity to contribute to their conservation. It is time for fungi to become visible on the map and citizen mycology is a powerful tool to shine the spotlight on and help brighten up the future of fungi.

References

1 Mesaglio T. and Callaghan C.T. (2021), An overview of the history, current contributions and future outlook of iNaturalist in Australia. Wildlife Research CSIRO PUBLISHING 48, 289–303, https://doi.org/10.1071/WR20154

https://www.ala.org.au/blogs-news/fungimap-putting-australian-fungi-on-the-map/⁠

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https://fungimap.org.au/fungi-down-under-100-target-species/⁠

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Morag⁠

G., 2001, Genetic variation in ectomycorrhizal fungi and its exploitation in ecological investigations of eucalypt forests. PhD thesis, Murdoch University. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/51845/

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