Kansas City community to participate in international nature challenge
Kansas City, Mo. – Biodiversity science and conservation are growing areas of interest and if you have ever wanted to contribute now is your chance.
The City Nature Challenge, returning for its 10th year, encourages community scientists of all levels to explore their local environment and participate in observational research.
Spire proposing to increase rates in Missouri; public hearing set in KCMO
The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), Heartland Conservation Alliance, the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium, and the city of Kansas City have partnered to support the Nature Challenge.
The City Nature Challenge begins Friday, April 25 at 12:10 a.m. and runs through 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 28.
The challenge is open to everyone, all ages and abilities. During the four-day window, the public is invited to take photos of wildlife they encounter in their city and upload them to iNaturalist, a virtual database. Online naturalists will confirm species identification after all submissions have been entered.
'We're thrilled to celebrate 10 years of City Nature Challenge, one of the most impactful community science events in the world,' said Dr. Rebecca Johnson, director of community science at the California Academy of Sciences and City Nature Challenge co-founder. 'Over the past decade, its reach has expanded across hundreds of cities on all seven continents.'
So, get out there and explore your backyard, city parks, neighborhoods or anywhere else, and they can be any wild plant, animal, fungi, slime, mold, or other evidence of life (scat, fur, tracks, shells, etc.) Whether participating in an organized habitat survey or making observations in their own neighborhood participants can upload photos or sound recordings of their findings to iNaturalist where they can learn more about the plants and animals they find as their observations are identified.
FOX4 Newsletters: Sign up for daily forecasts and Joe's Weather Blog in your inbox
You can join the project by following the link to iNaturalist.
MDC's City Nature Challenge Kickoff will be held Friday, April 25 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Burr Oak Woods Conservation Center in Blue Springs.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
9 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Portuguese man o' wars — known for their sting — are actually 4 species. See them
Despite their vibrant blue color and delicate bodies, seeing a Portuguese man o' war along the coast sends beachgoers in the opposite direction. These jellyfish-like animals are known instead for their sting, prompting warnings from wildlife officials when they make their way onto beaches around the world. Now, researchers studying these unique creatures have found that Portuguese man o' wars — also known as bluebottles — may actually belong to at least four distinct species. A research team led by Yale University, in Connecticut, and the University of New South Wales and Griffith University, in Australia, analyzed the genetics of more than 150 bluebottles from around the world to better understand how the widespread species was related to one another, according to a study published June 19 in the peer-reviewed journal Current Biology. The team sequenced the genome of each bluebottle, then grouped them together in clusters based on their geographic range in the oceans, according to the study. What they found was distinct genetic differences between groups of man o' wars from different areas, despite some overlap between the populations, according to the study. 'We were shocked, because we assumed they were all the same species,' study author Kylie Pitt said in a June 20 news release from Griffith University. 'But the genetic data clearly show they're not only different, they're not even interbreeding despite overlapping ranges. The bluebottle is uniquely suited to long-distance travel, using its gas-filled float and muscular crest to catch the wind and sail the sea surface.' The study describes four species: Physalia physalis, Physalia utriculus, Physalia megalista and Physalia minuta. Researchers confirmed the species deviations by comparing their collected man o' wars to more than 4,000 images posted on the citizen-science website iNaturalist, according to the study. They compared differences in tentacle length, color and other physical characteristics to previous records of man o' wars found around the world, including in centuries-old publications that previously argued the species should be broken up, according to the study. Physalia minuta is described for the very first time as a new species, according to the study. The species is 'distinguished from other Physalia by its small size at maturity and colony arrangement with multiple principle tentacles,' researchers said, earning the species its name 'minuta,' meaning small. The well-known Portuguese man o' war — Physalia physalis — may look like a jellyfish, but it's actually a siphonophore, or a colony of animals that live together to create the complete structure, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The specialized animals are called zooids and are genetically identical but each serve a different function for survival, such as floating, catching prey or reproduction, NOAA says. Man o' wars use a balloon-like float to move up and down in the water column, according to NOAA, and their tentacles can grow an average of 30 feet long, with some man o' wars reaching as long as 100 feet. 'There's this idea the open oceans all connected, and it's just one species of bluebottle and they're all globally connected because they drift with the wind and the current. But that's absolutely not the case,' Pitt said in the release. 'And what's really interesting in Eastern Australia is that we have multiple species that have evolved despite potentially co-existing.' Researchers said further studies will be needed to understand why, despite overlapping and being in the same environment, the man o' wars deviated, according to the release. The research team includes Pitt, Samuel H. Church, River B. Abedon, Namrata Ahuja, Colin J. Anthony, Dalila Destanović, Diego A. Ramirez, Lourdes M. Rojas, Maria E. Albinsson, Itziar Álvarez Trasobares, Reza E. Bergemann, Ozren Bogdanovic, David R. Burdick, Tauana J. Cunha, Alejandro Damian-Serrano, Guillermo D'Elía, Kirstin B. Dion, Thomas K. Doyle, João M. Gonçalves, Alvaro Gonzalez Rajal, Steven H.D. Haddock, Rebecca R. Helm, Diane Le Gouvello, Zachary R. Lewis, Bruno I.M.M. Magalhães, Maciej K. Mańko, C. Gabriela Mayorga-Adame, Alex de Mendoza, Carlos J. Moura, Catriona Munro, Ronel Nel, Kohei Oguchi, Jessica N. Perelman, Laura Prieto, Moninya Roughan, Amandine Schaeffer, Andrea L. Schmidt, Javier Sellanes, Nerida G. Wilson, Gaku Yamamoto, Eric A. Lazo-Wasem, Chris Simon, Mary Beth Decker, Jenn M. Coughlan and Casey W. Dunn.
Scientific American
3 days ago
- Scientific American
Why iNaturalist Users Freaked Out over a Google AI Grant
Can artificial intelligence help people learn about nature? And if so, is using this technology worth the environmental toll and other consequences? On June 10 the nonprofit organization iNaturalist, which runs a popular online platform for nature observers, announced in a blog post that it had received a $1.5-million grant from Accelerator: Generative AI —an initiative of Google's philanthropic arm—to 'help build tools to improve the identification experience for the iNaturalist community.' More than 3.7 million people around the world—from weekend naturalists to professional taxonomists—use the platform to record observations of wild organisms and get help with identifying the species. To date, the iNaturalist community has logged upward of 250 million observations of more than half a million species, with some 430,000 members working to identify species from photographs, audio and text uploaded to the database. The announcement did not go over well with iNaturalist users, who took to the comments section of the blog post and a related forum, as well as Bluesky, in droves to voice their concerns. How iNaturalist Works Users submit 'observations' of an individual organism they have encountered in the wild to the iNaturalist app on their phone or to the organization's website. Observations typically include one or more photographs of the organism and may include notes and audio. An AI-powered feature called 'computer vision' then suggests possible species identifications based on photographs. Users can choose one of these IDs to assign to their observation or use a broader category such as 'Plants' or 'Fungi' if they prefer. The app automatically records the date, time and location of the observation. Once the user saves the observation, it is shared to the community, and members can weigh in on the identification of the organism, building consensus as the discussion grows. Once the community has identified an organism to the species level, the observation is considered 'research grade,' meaning it can be shared with scientists who are carrying out a study of that species, for example. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. What the Google Grant Money Will Be Used For In its blog post announcing the grant, iNaturalist noted, 'By using generative AI (GenAI), we hope to synthesize information about how to distinguish different species and accurately convey that to iNaturalist users. Instead of just offering AI species suggestions of what you saw, we want to offer a why as well.' In the post, the organization said that it intends to develop a prototype of a tool to extend its computer vision identification capability to provide explanations of why this function suggests particular species and how to tell similar-looking species apart. Although iNaturalist did not provide details about how the GenAI tool would work, the post implied that it would synthesize existing information about identification from text comments that were provided by members of the community to generate identification tips. In the post, iNaturalist said it was aiming to produce a working demonstration of this new tool by the end of 2025. Why the iNaturalist Community Is Upset The grant announcement met with backlash from community members. Many critics objected to the use of GenAI on environmental grounds— the technology uses vast amounts of energy and water, creates e-waste and drives demand for rare-earth metals, the mining of which contributes to habitat degradation. Detractors also worried that such a tool based on GenAI, which is notorious for 'hallucinating,' would produce misinformation about species identifications. Others expressed concern about the possibility that their iNaturalist data could be used to devalue the work of professional taxonomists if the AI identification were presented as authoritative. Some said they would delete their accounts. In response to the outcry from its users, iNaturalist has since made some clarifications: it has apologized for poor communication about the development and has offered assurances that it does not intend to replace the human-curated system of species identifications and that it will not give Google special access to user-contributed data. In a June 11 update to the blog post that announced the grant award, the organization wrote, 'If the demo we create is not helpful, compromises data quality, has outsized environmental impacts, or is overall too flawed, we will not keep it.' And in a forum post, iNaturalist's executive director Scott Loarie wrote, 'There's no way we're going to unleash AI generated slop onto the site. iNaturalist is about human connection and expertise and using technology to help elevate and support that.' But the follow-ups didn't satisfy some community members, who noted that iNaturalist's messaging did not make clear whether it was still intending to use GenAI or, if so, how it would do so.
Miami Herald
13-06-2025
- Miami Herald
New species with light blue spots, black ‘mask' discovered in Fiji fish market
In Fiji, a ray with light blue spots and a mask-like pattern on its face began appearing in the country's fish markets. It closely resembled other species, but displayed several key differences that caught the attention of researchers. Some experts identified it as Neotrygon kuhlii, or the blue-spotted stingray, while others said it was a different species called Neotrygon trigonoides, also known as the Caledonian maskray. However, researchers said 'no attempts' had ever been made to verify the identity of the unique-looking creature, according to a study published June 9 in the Journal of Fish Biology. DNA testing revealed it was likely a new cryptic maskray species, or one that closely resembles a known species but is genetically distinct, according to the study. Additional analysis of nine specimens acquired from local fishermen and Fiji fish markets confirmed they belonged to a new species, which researchers named Neotrygon romeoi, or the Fiji maskray, according to the study. The species has also appeared in iNaturalist records, according to a June 10 Fish in the News Facebook post. The new species is described as being large and having a 'broadly angled snout' and 'thornlets' down its back, according to the study. It is brownish with a 'dark mask-like marking covering across and between the eyes,' researchers said. It also has 'numerous black pepper-like spots mainly concentrated in masked area' and small, dark-edged pale blue to whitish spots, according to the study. The Fiji maskray can be found nearshore or at depths of at least 75 feet in seagrass beds, sandy bottom areas and around coral reefs, researchers said. The species is 'mostly solitary,' but can occasionally be found in pairs or groups of up to five, the study said. Researchers said the new species is known only from the Fiji Islands and may 'warrant inclusion in Fiji's Endangered and Protected Species Act.' It 'appears to be widespread' across the archipelago, researchers said. The specimens were collected from Fiji's Viti Levu Island. The research team included Kerstin Glaus, William T. White, Helen L. O'Neill, Sarah Thurnheer and Sharon A. Appleyard.
