Obcy

Invasive species are a serious problem worldwide. Invasions of alien species are one of the most important causes of the loss of biodiversity in the world. The "Obcy" application helps to collect data on the spread of invasive species in Poland as part of our citizen science project. Each record of an invasive species will help to better plan the protection of native ecosystems. The collected data will be analyzed by scientists. If you want to learn more about the dangers associated with invasive species, you can read the descriptions in the gallery of the application, you will find there information about the environmental damages a given organism can cause.

Potentially, each reported observation of invasive species may be signifcant. So don't hesitate - we'll be happy to receive data each time you encounter invasive species. If you want to read more about our goals or learn about the potential of open science, visit the website www.openforestdata.pl.

Additionally, we provide our users with the website www.obcy.edu.pl, where you can edit your own observations or view all the collected data in the form of a map or a list. Be sure to log in to add observations, edit them and fully use the application.

Please attach to your observations photos of the species itself, but also of the landscape in which it was observed, this will additionally affect the possibility of reusing the data by scientists.

Thank you for your help!

Advantages of the “Obcy” application:
• Thanks to the option of adding photos, it will be possible to later verify the species by specialists of the field. Verification of the observations will increase confidence in the collected data.
• \When filling in the data, check if you do not know the species.
• The application also works offline - in rural areas there is often no Internet connection. You can save an observation and the data will sync once the device is in range.
• In the application you will find a gallery helping you to verify the compliance of the observed species with our knowledge base. (Note: not all species have photo illustrations in the gallery, the gallery is being developed). In the gallery you will also find short information on how to take photos in a way that allows for later verification of the reported observation.

Thank you for your help!

The application has three language versions: Polish, English and Russian.
The "Alien" application was created as part of the project "e-Forest. Podlasie repository of natural scientific data" by the Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Białystok University of Technology financed by the Digital Poland Operational Program and the state budget.