Science by the millions: How everyday people are revolutionizing global biodiversity research with tech | EurekAlert!

News Release 28-Jul-2025

A frog croaks from a walking trail. A hiker snaps a photo and uploads it to iNaturalist. That single act — one person, one amphibian and one click — feeds into a growing global dataset that scientists now use to map shifting species ranges, detect invasive threats and even discover new species.

An international study led by researchers at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) shows how iNaturalist, the global technology platform through which everyday people share wildlife photos via a website and an app, is doing far more than connecting users with nature. It’s rapidly becoming a cornerstone of scientific research.

“The scientific use of iNaturalist has grown tenfold in five years, closely tracking the platform’s data growth,” said Brittany Mason, lead author and data management analyst at the UF/IFAS Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center (FLREC). “This suggests that increasing observations, especially in less-documented geographic areas and lesser-studied species groups, can further expand its research applications.”

“Until now, the scientific value of iNaturalist has been recognized in isolated case studies, like how a user rediscovered a century-lost Vietnamese snail, how the data are used to provide high-resolution maps of plants or how iNaturalist is becoming critical for early detection of invasive species,” said Corey Callaghan, senior author of the study, and an assistant professor of global ecology at FLREC.

Those examples remained somewhat isolated until now.

“This study is the first to systematically assess the full scope of how iNaturalist data are being used in research,” said Mason.

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