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Thomas Mesaglio

@thebeachcomber.bsky.social
159 followers 129 following 25 posts

iNaturalist addict, curator and iNat AU site administrator (inaturalist.org/people/thebeachcomb…), professional BioBlitzer, PhD student at UNSW School of BEES

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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
We extensively discuss why accuracy was so high, but key is that many experts have already spent years sharing their knowledge on iNat. It's clear: consistent expert engagement with citizen science, and the learning by citizen scientists that results, drives high quality biodiversity datasets.
Figure 6 from Mesaglio and Callaghan 2021. Conceptual figure showing the positive feedback loop as iNaturalist continues to grow in Australia. As more taxonomic experts join iNaturalist, more observations will increase the bioliteracy of the data, providing more data for ecological and conservation research questions in Australia.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
What did we find? Almost 11,000 records were reviewed by at least one expert during the event. Of the 7,000+ records from our dataset that were identified to species or finer, 92% of them were correctly identified. And if only considering the ~3,500 Research Grade records, these were 97% accurate.
Figure 4 from Mesaglio et al. 2025. Assessment of identification accuracy after expert identification (ID) blitz. All illustrations by Thomas Mesaglio, from top to bottom: Caladenia flava R.Br. (Orchidaceae), Burchardia rosea Keighery (Colchicaceae), Lechenaultia biloba Lindl. (Goodeniaceae), Nematolepis phebalioides Turcz. (Rutaceae).
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
We recruited over 50 taxonomists, botanists and other experts with knowledge of the Western Australian flora, and gave them three weeks to assess the ID accuracy of thousands of iNat records from three regions in WA as part of an 'expert ID blitz'.
Figure 1 from Mesaglio et al. 2025. Locations for the 2024 Western Australian iNaturalist plant identification blitz. Note that each area encompasses a larger zone centred on the national park itself. Photographs by Thomas Mesaglio.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Photographed one of my mega bucket list species on a recent trip to Kakadu NP, the amazing Leichhardt's Grasshopper (Petasida ephippigera). Found only across the Top End of the NT, this species is on the decline. I waited almost 5 years to see this grasshopper after failing to find one in March 2020
Leichhardt's Grasshopper (Petasida ephippigera) on host plant Pityrodia jamesii in Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
Second, the most complete picture of the plant biodiversity from each park relied on combining all three data streams: each had unique species that the other two didn't. Excitingly, @inaturalist.bsky.social records contributed 63 new species for Royal, and 20 for Yosemite
Plant species newly recorded for Royal National Park (a-c) and Yosemite National Park (d-f) from Research Grade iNaturalist observations. a) Pleroma urvilleanum (Melastomataceae), introduced, photograph by Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY; b) Thelymitra improcera (Orchidaceae), native, photograph by Robert Humphries, CC BY-NC; c) Nymphaea alba (Nymphaeaceae), introduced, photograph by Russell Barrett, CC BY-NC; d) Hemitomes congestum (Ericaceae), native, photograph by Adam J. Searcy, CC BY; e) Erythranthe rubella (Phrymaceae), native, photograph by Brett Bell, CC BY-NC; f) Lotus corniculatus (Fabaceae), introduced, photograph by yhirama, CC BY-NC.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
And what about Yosemite? It reached 1,632 species, including 1,409 natives, in an area of 300,000 ha.
Photo by Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
How many vascular plant species do you think are in Royal NP? We compiled a total of 1,414 species! This includes 1,146 natives, more than the entire British Isles in an area of just 15,000 ha.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
New paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ec... We compiled master plant species lists for 2 of the 5 oldest national parks: Royal (Australia) and Yosemite (USA) by combining herbarium vouchers + @inaturalist.bsky.social records + official expert park lists, extensively manually curating all records.
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Thomas Mesaglio @thebeachcomber.bsky.social · 16/12/2023
Cracked the 300,000 mark for IDs on iNaturalist
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