Bioblitz

Citizen Science is the involvement of citizens in scientific study.  The MBA has a very long history of involving citizens in the collection of scientific data and continues with this tradition through annual Bioblitz events.  These 24-hour events record biodiversity in the marine environment, and a range of other coastal habitats within a set boundary to provide a snapshot of what is in that environment at that time.  We invite participants with all levels of expertise and all ages to join us and are always on the lookout for new venue suggestions.

The 2009 Wembury Bioblitz, run in partnership with the Natural History Museum, was one of the first in the country and to the best of our knowledge, was the first mass participation marine Bioblitz in the UK.  Since then, the MBA has run more than 10 Bioblitzes and collaborated with many other organisations to help run several additional Bioblitzes, collecting thousands of biodiversity records.  To find the data originating from bioblitz events you can visit the DASSH website and search for the survey name “Bioblitz”. 

If you are interested in running a Bioblitz and would like support with the data recording and submission process, please contact DASSH (The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data) via email (dassh.enquiries@mba.ac.uk).  DASSH can provide advice on data management, standards, collection, submission, publication and re-use to ensure your data is findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.  Further information about data submission can be found here.