The wildlife Trust recently received this email...you may wish to follow this up!!
Best wishes
Graham
Dear Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and
Northamptonshire,
We would like to introduce
Orchid Observers, a new citizen science project from the Natural History
Museum. Orchid Observers brings together photography, biological recording and the
online analysis of museum specimens to better understand the effects that
climate change is having on the flowering times of UK orchid populations.
The project invites nature enthusiasts and photographers
alike to take pictures of orchids from across the UK and contribute their
images to the project website www.orchidobservers.org.
Here, participants can also help to identify orchid photos that have been
uploaded by others and help to extract data from more than 10,000 historical
orchid specimens, spanning three centuries.
By bringing these data together, we hope to develop a deeper
understanding of the effects that climate change is having on this charismatic
and much-loved group, some of which are declining – even in protected sites,
which in turn may help inform how we can plan and protect key populations and
areas.
If you think that this project will be of interest to your
membership and volunteers, have any questions or would like further information,
then please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I am also attaching an e-flyer.
Kind regards,
Kath Castillo
Orchid Observers Project Officer, Angela
Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road,
London, SW7 5BD, UK. Tel. +44 (0)207 942 6307; e-mail k.castillo@nhm.ac.uk
Join the Orchid Observers
project: We are inviting nature
enthusiasts and photographers across the UK to participate in the Museum’s
latest citizen science project, Orchid Observers. The project brings together
photography, biological recording and the online analysis of Museum specimens
to better understand the effects that climate change is having on orchids in
the UK. To find out more visit www.orchidobservers.org
