Journal archives for December 2022

December 19, 2022

Artificial Intelligence to our assistance.

@jeanphilippeb, - who has to have earned our undying gratitude: many thanks!!!!! has been playing at finding lost tree observations that have never been identified - https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/jeanphilippeb/73398-draft-for-creating-projects-for-unknown-observations

This is no mean task! It uses the Ai, and our national tree list, and several tricks to generate lists of observations that are probably trees.
(Unfortunately, i have not been able to convince him to add the AI ID as an identification or as a field, but in time we might get there. )

These observations can be found here:
Identifications by the AI that are from the national tree list:
• 1. (No ID yet + Not in project + c.v. suggestions >20 matching + trees s Afr).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/unknown-trees-of-southern-africa-1
• 2. (No ID yet + Not in project + No not-tree IDs > 20 + >8 seen nearby of which <2 are not-tree).
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/unknown-trees-of-southern-africa-2

I have no automated procedure for removing identified observations (but it is feasible), in order to spare ressources (1 API request / observation to remove) and also because we could wish to do future statistics (such as who has used the project for identifying).
Moreover, if we add also Plantae/.../Dicots identified observations to the project(s), removing identified observations could be conflicting.

I suggest to help people by providing a link with identified=false (or equivalent), as you did already.

As some of these are being identified, it makes sense to to use the ID tool as such:
Please read the notes: the AI will identify observations as trees if trees are in the picture, but the observation may be for something more obscure. Please dont ID grasses or insects as trees just because the AI says that there are trees in the pictures.
• For trees by AI: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=152985&captive=false&place_id=any
this is for wild only, switch off this option to get planted trees as well
(or for captive only: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual&verifiable=any&project_id=152985&captive=true&place_id=any )

• For possible trees by AI: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=casual%2Cneeds_id&verifiable=any&project_id=152974&captive=false

Posted on December 19, 2022 09:04 AM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 1 comment | Leave a comment

December 20, 2022

Tree Project Revised.

We have revised the "National" Tree project.

Please join

it at https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-list

.
.
If you had bookmarked this original ID project for your easy use, please note its change in title to
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id
(previously it lacked the 'id" suffix)

The two projects are complimentary.

The ID project is for observations of trees

  • that need an ID - please put any observation of a tree that needs an ID here.
  • that specialists can help ID - please help us ID these.
  • a temporary parking for trees identified above species level.
    Note: observations are retained for statistics, please use the tools to access those needing ID - see the links in the project description.

The LIST project is to collect trees

  • that have been identified to species
  • for investigating distributions and localities
  • for providing summaries and statistics on our trees

Please enjoy.
Any requests or suggestions welcome in comments below.

Posted on December 20, 2022 09:40 AM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 2 comments | Leave a comment

December 22, 2022

Roadside Tree Survey Summary.

For fun, I tried to see what would happen to photograph trees while driving along the roadside. Since I dont know trees, I added them to the https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/trees-of-southern-africa-id project
At present the status of these are:

June 2021 Kruger: mainly gravel speed 60km/h - 636 observations.

Status after 18 months

  • 204 No ID (32%)
  • 182 Plants (29%)
  • 18 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
  • 5 Family-Tribe
  • 46 Genus (7%)
  • 181 Species (28%) - 169 RG (27%)

Kruger has relatively many active tree identifiers working in the lowveld.
@wynand_uys gave some useful ideas for improving the photographs (camera speeds, use oncoming trees, etc.).

August 2022 Caprivi tarred road 100km/h - 2,307 observations (lots of driving!)

Diverse: lots of tree species. Status after 4 months - not many tree specialists active on iNaturalist in this area.

  • 2,035 No ID (88%)
  • 65 Plants (3%)
  • 10 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
  • 5 Family-Tribe
  • 65 Genus (3%)
  • 110 Species (5%) - 84 RG (4%)

August 2022 Kalahari (Botswana & Namibia) varied roads 100km/h - 1,822 observations (lots of driving!)

Thornveld: not so diverse. Status after 4 months - not many tree specialists active on iNaturalist in this area.

  • 1,489 No ID (82%)
  • 5 Plants (3%)
  • 8 Dicots [almost all these "plants" are dicots]
  • 17 Family-Tribe
  • 31 Genus (2%)
  • 272 Species (15%) - 163 RG (9%)

So all in all: not very fruitful, although in none of the above where people specifically approached to help identify the species. This has been entirely passive.

The question is - Is it worth it?
Want to help with IDs - i.e to Family, Genus or Species? Please click:

Posted on December 22, 2022 12:20 PM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo | 10 comments | Leave a comment