This blog was originally based on a course ran by Professor Nick Gray of the Trinity Centre for the Environment at Trinity College Dublin who also wrote a textbook for the module Facing up to global warming: What is going on and what you can do about it. Now working as an independent consultant, Nick continues to work in the area of environmental sustainability and looking at ways of making a difference without recriminations or guilt. Saving the planet is all about living sustainably.


Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Citizen Science Project: Count Flowers for Bees


Dr Eileen Power, a researcher based in Botany at Trinity College Dublin is creating a flower map of Ireland to help conserve pollinators. This will involve sampling as many locations in Ireland at different times of the year to gauge the species and density of flower plants that are to be found.  This is a massive undertaking and while Eileen is carrying out surveys of her own she has created an online resource to encourage people from around Ireland to help her get as a complete map as possible.

The Citizen Science Project is asking everyone who has either a camera or smartphone to take some photos of flowers while out walking and upload them to her Flickr Group Page Count Flowers for Bees:   https://www.flickr.com/groups/countflowersforbees/

In order to identify which  habitats provide the best food for pollinators she needs you to follow the following rules:
  1. Take a photo of roughly a 1 metre squared patch of ground or hedgerow
  2. Take 1 photo every 10 metres until you have 10 photos. One metre is equivalent to one long stride.
  3. Upload photos to Flickr 
  4. Tag the photos FLOWERMAP 
  5. Say where you took photos. You can click 'add to map' in your personal photostream.
  6. Add the photos to this group
Remember only to take images from Ireland.  So please take part in this important research project.

Posted: Nick Gray

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