Project Summary

The Range Extension Database and Mapping project (Redmap) is a citizen science effort to engage fishermen, divers, and other marine enthusiasts and professionals in monitoring for species range shifts through an online “spot, log, and map” tool. It is also being used as a climate change awareness and education tool with those same constituencies. Originally launched in 2009 for Tasmania, the goal was to harness the observation ability of the estimated 120,000 citizens who went fishing each year. In 2012, with support from the 2012 Inspiring Australia strategy, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and the Australian National Data Service, expanded Redmap to cover the entire Australian coast. Using citizen science increases the area and frequency of potential sampling. The photographic data collected are verified and analyzed to identify species and locations that may be experiencing distribution changes. In turn this allows for more focused research of specific species and areas that are being affected by a changing climate to explore the implications of such changes.

Key strategies and actions:

• Monitor to detect species presence and absence correlated to changing environmental conditions

Citation

Hansen, L.J. 2016. Using Citizen Science to Monitor Species Range Shifts in a Changing Climate: Range Extension Database and Mapping project (Redmap). Summary of a project from Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. Last updated August 2016.