Citizen Science for biological data in the Tyrol – South Tyrol – Trentino Euroregion: comparing options and a call for participation

Abstract

Citizen Science is increasingly used to collect biological data globally due to easy-to- use smartphone applications and internet platforms that allow to collect and identify species records directly in the field. Here, we summarize and compare the applicability and data quality of two common portals (namely Ornitho and iNaturalist), by means of numbers of observations, users, and species. We focus geographically on the Alpine Central European region that comprises the provinces of Tyrol, South Tyrol and Trentino. The advantages and disadvantages of the portals and the potential benefit for science, stakeholders and common citizen are further discussed.