Quality-checked species records from the German citizen science platform ArtenFinder

By

Engel, Thore
Brenz, Yannick
Geyer, Hendrik
Holetschek, Jörg
Bonn, Aletta
Balthasar, Cathrina
Bengsch, Susanne
Clément, Romain
Dietzen, Christian
Dlouhy, Chris
Esser, Jens
Griesbaum , Frederic
Haag, Matthias
Hauth, Karin-Simone
Jarling, René
Kahlert, Stefan
Kenntner, Norbert
Krebühl, Jochen
Kruse, Julia
Lischke, Steven
Lücking, Robert
Mayer, Lars
Müller, Susanne
Nogatz, Thomas
Ochse, Michael
Ogan, Sophie
Von Oheimb, Katharina
Von Oheimb, Parm Viktor
Öhm, Gerrit
Pacher, Korbinian
Pfeifer, Manfred Alban
Reutter, Charlotte
Röller, Oliver
Rothe, Frederik
Scheydt, Norbert
Schmitz, Oliver
Schmitz, Dominik
Wagner, Norman
Willerding, Ulrike
Willigalla, Christoph
Zimmermann, Svea-Sophie
Friedrichs-Manthey, Martin

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-7-28

Original Publication

Biodiversity data journal

Volume

13

Pages

1--17

Subjects

ArtenFinder , Berlin , biodiversity monitoring , Citizen science , NFDI4Biodiversity , Rhineland-Palatinate , volunteers

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers [2013]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e150687

 

Abstract

Volunteers and citizen science initiatives play a crucial role for the documentation of species occurrences and distributions. When quality-checked and openly available, such data can provide information for biodiversity research and nature conservation. While some large international platforms reach a high number of opportunistic users around the world, there are also many smaller and regional citizen science initiatives, which often collaborate very closely with local authorities, conservation organisations and local experts and volunteers. Despite their high quality, data from such regional initiatives are often missing from global open data platforms, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).<br> Here, we present a quality-checked citizen science dataset published on GBIF with more than 1 million georeferenced species records with a geographic focus on the German federal states of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) and Berlin. The dataset originates from the collaborative observation platform ArtenFinder, which is run by the two federal states. While each state branch administers its own web platform, they share a common database. Users can upload, edit, manage and share their observations of animals, plants and fungi. Experts validate the species records, based on photographs and other media as well as on plausibility, which allows the data to be used by state authorities and for conservation management and research purposes. The data mobilisation and publication were enabled by the German National Research Data Infrastructure for Biodiversity (NFDI4Biodiversity) and the dataset is now also available through the Living Atlas of Nature Germany platform, a GBIF hosted portal.