Data Collection - Notes to Newt Patrol Team Members
@merav, @newtpatrol, @sea-kangaroo, @anudibranchmom, @joescience1, @karangattu , @tyap
I've noticed that the patrols are taking much longer this season, probably because we've asked you to collect more data (e.g., measure juveniles). I'm re-assessing the need for data that is being collected to determine if we can pare it down some. Please chime in with your comments.
Traffic: I'm monitoring & analyzing the traffic data we have. As far as I'm concerned, we only need to collect 2 categories: motor vehicles and bicycles. I know many of you have been collecting truck, motorcycle, heavy equipment, and pedestrian counts as well. As I see it, the traffic data is useful to understand how the newts are being killed. To me, it doesn't matter whether the cars are moving or parked - they still count. While 18-wheelers may kill more newts than 4-wheel vehicles, the data don't show significantly larger roadkill numbers near the quarry and (I'm guessing) those trucks don't move at night, so I don't see the need to count them separately. Bicycles probably kill fewer newts than cars & trucks, but they affect the roadkill numbers (especially large groups of bicyclists). Pedestrian counts are "nice to know" but not necessary for our study.
Juveniles:
This season I've asked you to start measuring the juveniles you find because juvenile deaths disproportionately affect population viability and the team has noticed a larger number of dead juveniles this season. I don't think it's necessary to measure all the newts you find. In fact, it's dangerous being out on the road longer in order to place a ruler next to the newts before photographing them. @merav, @tyap, what do you think? Do we need to measure the adults? My vote is no.
Rainfall:
You don't have to record rainfall amounts, unless you want to for your own purposes. I can get the rainfall data from the website.
Survey Date & Time:
These are helpful. I use the survey begin and end times to calculate traffic throughput (vehicles/hr) and total hours volunteered by our team. However, if you don't want to record this info or if you forget, I can get the info from the date/time stamps on your photos.
HTH/POST/Midpen Population Study:
Right now there's no easy way to tell if a dead newt was found within the boundaries of the population study. Therefore, please write a note to that effect in the Notes section of your observation. @anudibranchmom came up with a clever way to bring attention to these newts: she places a color-coded post-it note next to the newt before photographing it.
Calendar View of Newts for Your Survey
It would be helpful for me to have the calendar view of your photos for each survey like this example (replace "truthseqr" with your iNat name and enter the appropriate date in yyyy/mm/dd format):
https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/truthseqr/2019/3/27
That way I don't have to navigate to a different search screen and type in search criteria if I want to see the details of your survey. This view has a limit of 200 observations.
Observation Notes:
It's very helpful and interesting to get comments, such as: the road is being repaved, heavy road maintenance trucks were scraping mud from the road, people were asking about the project, unusual animal sightings, etc.
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Some thoughts/ comments:
Traffic: I find it easy to record different categories, since I started using a counter app. I don't mind doint that, but if it takes oo much time, we can remove that.
Juveniles: I think it's not too bad to take all newt photos with a ruler/ something for scale. We can always measure that later. I agree we shouldn't spend too much time on the road - a couple of photos, and remove the newt. If it's in a bad spot - just leave it as is. Don't take a photo if you don't feel comfortable.
calendar view: I find it more useful (and faster) to go from the project page -> observations -> filter by date & user - like this one - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?captive=any&on=2019-04-10&place_id=any&subview=grid&user_id=merav&verifiable=any
@merav, thanks for your comments.
Regarding the calendar view... when I'm reading journal notes, I'm looking for a way to see the big picture by clicking once, then returning to the journal notes by clicking once. I don't want to have to navigate several clicks away from the journal notes and then have to navigate several clicks back. If you can include the link you suggested in the journal notes, that would do the trick. I agree it's faster and would include more than 200 observations, if necessary.
@truthseqr , thanks so much for your comments and notes. I agree with @merav that having the ruler or something for scale on all individuals would be great. I think, even if we're not measuring each animal now, there may be some interesting patterns to look for later if people want to. For example, if over time the adults start to get smaller, what kind of effect could that be showing us? Are the bigger healthier breeders becoming less and less common because more of them are being killed on the road? If we start to see more and more juveniles, does that mean the reproductive portion of the population is decreasing? I think having a scale for each photo would be useful if one wanted to look at that.
Also! I recently learned about free software from NIH that helps quickly measure things in pictures. It's called ImageJ - here's a wiki summary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ImageJ
I haven't looked into it too much, but I thought you might be interested in it. Based on what I've been told this would help to measure things in a picture as long as there's a reference scale for it in the photo (so the ruler or post it note would be key). It would make it easier to measure the curved spines of the newts to get SVL or total length. And even if we aren't the ones to measure, others who might be interested in studying this issue/population would be able to use these photos at a later time.
Regarding juvenile size, I spoke with a few other herpetologists and it's pretty tough to draw a line at juv/adult with size, as it can depend on environmental conditions and the population. But they said the 50mm SVL can still give a good idea of the size distribution and the proportion of small vs big newts being killed.
Everything else sounds good to me. Thanks again!
@tyap, that's really exciting that you know of that app that can measure things in pictures. I'll definitely check it out. That will increase my confidence because I haven't been very confident of my measurement readings, and that will save @biohexx1 the tedium of double-checking my numbers.
You make several good points about measuring all newts. You've persuaded me that it's the right thing to do.
I definitely have noticed there aren't any really big newts any more, but I can't quantify it.
:)
I know imageJ! I used it for my PhD, a long time ago, to count thousands of dead and live 2 mm ants. I always loved tedious work :) I don't remember anything about it, though :)
I agree that have the option to use it now or later is great. we should do it.
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