Everything you wanted to know about WOW
Recently published in the Western Australian Native Orchid Study and Conservation Group Bulletin, this article answers all of the questions people are asking about WOW. Put your feet up, make a cup of tea and we hope you enjoy. Please let us know if you have any questions info@wildorchidwatch.org
How will the WOW project and app work?
Wild Orchid Watch (WOW) is a national orchid data collection project. The WOW team are developing an app and website to enable orchid enthusiasts to collect, record, identify and share information about Australian native orchids. The WOW app will be ready for use in early 2020.
Ecologists at the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with members of the Australasian Native Orchid Society (ANOS), have established agreed methods for data collection via the WOW app and website. This online resource, will act as a central hub for orchid enthusiasts to record and store orchid observations, seek orchid identification and share information with trusted users. The WOW app is being developed in-house at the University of Adelaide to be fit for purpose. The app will guide users to collect data, take a series of photographs and answer questions about variables such as habitat, landform, pollinators observed, and site disturbances. Location data will be recorded using the phone’s GPS. Data sharing with trusted users (ecologists and taxonomists) will enable critical research into orchid distribution, abundance, phenology and as indicators of environmental change.
The Wild Orchid Watch custom-built app will feed data to iNaturalist, a joint initiative of the Californian Academy of Sciences and National Geographic, and a highly successful online citizen science platform. iNaturalist will securely store WOW data along with millions of other observations of living organisms submitted via the iNaturalist app.
Despite having been in operation for over 10 years, iNaturalist has been underutilised in Australia until recently. Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is now collaborating with iNaturalist, creating an Australian node of iNaturalist - iNaturalist Australia. ALA says “iNaturalist is a global social biodiversity platform designed to share and discuss biodiversity. Built on open source software, it supports open data, and has a strong community engagement focus including the interest and encouragement of the taxonomic community.”
We released the Wild Orchid Watch promotional video in August 2019. You can view it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kmAxpv_xB0. In an excerpt from the video, Michelle Waycott Chief Botanist State Herbarium of South Australia explains why Wild Orchid Watch is an important project:
“Wild Orchid Watch represents a unique opportunity to bring together information collected by keen citizen scientists, who spend a lot of time in the field making useful observations, into a centralised system with appropriate and informed data, and be able to share that across the whole country. But also with scientists who need to know that information”
How will orchid locations be protected?
All orchid sightings submitted via the WOW app will have geoprivacy set to ‘obscured’. When a WOW app user logs into iNaturalist and looks at a map of orchid locations in the WOW project, they will see a 0.2 x 0.2 degree latitude rectangular cell (about 20 x 20 km, or 400 km2) encompassing the hidden true coordinates.
An added layer of data protection built into the iNaturalist platform is "taxon geoprivacy"; the locations of all taxa with an IUCN equivalent status of near threatened or higher, are automatically obscured.
Who will have access to sensitive data?
Users will always have full access to their own submitted records.
iNaturalist will securely store all accurate orchid locations. This data will only be directly accessible to state government data mangers and WOW project curators.
When a research scientist, NRM land manager, or environmental consultant would like access to the detailed data, they will be required to apply via existing protocols as managed by relevant state government agencies. It will be up to the state/territory government data managers to assess the application and release the sensitive data for the specified taxa/locality of interest. Please see the Wild Orchid Watch Sensitive Species Guidelines here.
What research is planned to be conducted with the data?
Data gathered through the WOW project, including the detailed locations, will be available to researchers via an application process as described above. Researchers will apply to state government data managers for access to the data, as per current protocols.
Citizen scientists will use the WOW app to survey wild orchid populations and their habitat context across Australia. Over time, this information will allow scientists to gain detailed insights into the drivers of species occurrences, abundance and phenology.
There are endless research opportunities to make use of the WOW data. For example, ecologists at the University of Adelaide are using local orchid species as case studies, and aiming to determine which environmental and habitat condition parameters best predict the presence and status of orchid populations and communities through analysis of spatial and temporal changes in habitat configuration, management regime, vegetation communities and climate. They will also investigate how best to combine new, detailed information with historical records of orchids to assess change. This investigation will provide novel information on how broader ecosystem processes are influencing orchids via effects on disturbance levels, ecosystem composition and reproductive success. The results will reveal factors contributing to population decline or reproductive failure in orchids, which threaten their persistence and adaptive capacity in the context of climate change. This information will better inform how we should manage the habitats of orchids in a whole ecosystem context.
Michelle Waycott, Chief Botanist, State Herbarium of South Australia – ‘Introducing Wild Orchid Watch’ video:
“One of the most important and valuable contributions from my perspective as a taxonomist, is that those observations will help us understand where species that might be rare, or even as yet undiscovered, exist in the wild. And when we can find those populations or those plants that might be surviving, that allows us to enact on that information and improve the protection of them. But also to get a better understanding of the diversity of orchids remaining in our natural environment. So it’s a wonderful repository of information that can be used in a whole range of ways.”
What are the main objectives for the app?
There is a dire need for much greater levels of information on Australian native orchids, their taxonomy, distribution, abundance, and environmental factors affecting their occurrence and ecology. This information is required at a scale that is impractical for a single entity to collect. Wild Orchid Watch will collect this information through the support of a large scale citizen science program that will engage interested amateurs and naturalists. Data will be made available to the scientific community for research, and will be managed by government ecological data managers.