Falling through the Cracks: iNaturalist Invertebrate Records in the UK

iNaturalist is a rapidly growing source of biological records in the UK: In 2024, over 44,000 users generated more than 1.6 million records using the platform. With the number of records generated set to increase into the future, integrating iNaturalist into UK recording systems is essential. As of 2020, iNaturalist records meeting certain criteria have been exported into iRecord, where it is hoped they will be reviewed by verifiers.

For some groups of invertebrates, however, it would appear a large proportion of iNaturalist records are not being reviewed. One explanation for this is that concerns with the data quality of records are leading verifiers to deprioritise iNaturalist as a source. All iRecord verifiers are volunteers with large workloads and limited time, so this may be justified if the data quality of iNaturalist records is indeed lower. However, this has never been quantified.

This research sought to address this, quantifying for the first time the extent of data quality concerns across taxonomic groups of UK non-marine invertebrates. Results suggest that there are indeed systemic data quality issues with iNaturalist records, though the greatest issues in reality are not always the same issues people perceive to be greatest. Many such issues will be fixable through education and outreach to iNaturalist users.

Speaker: Joss Carr

Joss Carr is an entomologist, naturalist and biological recorder who, having just finished his MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation at Queen Mary University of London and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, is now working for the Biological Recording Company as a Junior Naturalist. Joss is also a prolific user of the citizen science biodiversity platform iNaturalist. His MSc Research Project, the subject of this talk, focused on quantifying data quality concerns with biological records of invertebrates derived from iNaturalist.

The 1-hour event will consist of a presentation followed by a Q&A with the speaker using questions provided by the live audience. The presentation will be recorded and made available through the entoLIVE blog alongside a write-up of the Q&A and any links to further info.

entoLIVE is delivered by the Biological Recording Company, British Entomological & Natural History Society, Royal Entomological Society and Amateur Entomologists' Society, with support from Buglife, Field Studies Council and NBN Trust.

This event is a one-off and will not be repeated. If you can't attend the live event, you don't need to miss out. Book a space and once we've processed the event content after the live event you will be sent a link to the content online.