iBiocontrol

Nearly every region in the United States struggles to control invasive species, and monitoring their abundance and range is no small task. iBiocontrol is a reference and reporting app created in 2018 by namesake company iBiocontrol to enable citizen scientists to help county, state, and federal agencies track the abundance of invasive/noxious weeds and their respective biocontrol agents, which are species native to the same area of the invasive species who can hypothetically keep the invasive species in check. Citizen scientists download the mobile app and snap pictures that are added to the larger iBiocontrol database and reference map, which is hosted on the popular EDDMaps website. The app also allows users to learn more about invasive species in this area, which is helpful since it is highly likely that the average user knows what plants are invasive and what their biocontrol agents, which are generally insects, look like.

Categories

Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Data, Ecological Monitoring, Monitoring, Regulation