smartphone apps for field biologists

This list is one of the products put together by students in the 2011 edition of my graduate course in Plant-Animal Interactions.  As part of the class, my students developed a guide to the native tree species of the University of Florida campus, with information on the their dispersers, pollinators, and herbivores (you can download it here for your Android smartphone). The students also wrote a paper in the Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America describing the process and laying out some of the ways smartphones can be used in ecological research, teaching, and extension).

If you are a developer and would like to add your  app to the list, or you have an application you like to use but it isn’t here, please send me an email with a link to the apps home page. H/T to Elena Malykhina for her article highlighting several citizen science apps that were new to us.

Data Entry & Recording Observations

• EpiCollect
• EpiSurveyor
• Ushahidi
• SciSpy
• Project Noah
• Inaturalist
• SciSpy
• Pendragon Forms (Windows Mobile only)
• Open Data Kit: includes built in publish data function to send completed data to an online database and from there, link in with Google’s Fusion Tables and Earth.
• Fulcrum
• iMapInvasives: all-taxa invasive species mapping tool; workes via phone’s web browser
• CyberTracker
• WildObs
• PhenomApp: collect plant phenotypes in the field using Android tablets and smart phones
• Sightings, by Stewart Macdonald
• Neukadye Timestamped Field Notes (quick behavioral observations notes)
• Neukadye Timestamped Field Data (counters, timers, note for species time budget recording)
• Neukadye Field Journal (timestamped & geo-located notes; ean export to the cloud.
• CitSci.org: designed for developing Citizen Science projects/data collection apps but looks to have utility far beyond that.

   

Environmental Data

• SoilWeb: portable version of online interface to USDA-NRCS digital soil survey
• LightTracker: Twilight, Sunrise, Sunset and solar noon information for any date, moon phases and rise for any date
• RiverFlows and WaterTracker: view data from USGS and NOAA gauge sites to get real-time river-level information.
• Marine Weather Plus: marine forecasts, live buoy data, tides, radar, & sea surface temperatures
• DarkSkyMeter: Estimate the brightness of the night sky with Iphone camera

Field Guides

• Plant-o-Matic: The BIEN Plant-O-Matic generates a list of plant species at 100 sq. km resolution for any location in the Americas. Pictures and information help you identify and learn about each species. [Editor’s note 22 august 14: this sounds awesome, can’t wait to try it].
• iBird
• iTrack Wildlife
• Leafsnap
• Audubon field guides
• National Goegraphic Bird guide
• Sibley eGuide to Birds
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology Merlin Bird Guide
• Cornell Lab of Ornithology Birdseye
• Guide to Trees of U Florida Campus
• Guide to Trees of OSU Campus
• NY Flora Association Blog: A list of field guides for iPhone/iPad has been put together by the NY Flora Association and can be found here. It includes guides to everything from plants to mushrooms.
• Guides to Fish of the Caribbean and East Pacific by Ross Robertson
• Kaeferkunde: interactive guide to beetles. In German, but English version is coming soon. More details here.
• Guide to wildlife of UCSC Campus

Mapping, GIS, & GPS

• GPS Essentials
• iGIS
• MotionX GPS
• ArcGIS
• Google maps/Google Earth
• gvSIG mini
• GPS Status
• Nokia Maps: independent of a data signal (maps preload) and provides voice navigation, tilt and night views, 3D cities, and numerous gps-enhanced services as well as syncing with their full program on a PC
• EveryTrail: record trip route, add photos and videos, share route, and download to google earth
• PhenoMap: map plantphenology; upload images to a Flickr group.
• WolfGIS
• GISRoam
• QGIS for Android (Uunder development)
• GPS Kit
• UTM Convert. Convert degrees to UTM and vice versa.
• MeasureMap: lets you draw polygons on a hybrid Google map, save the polygons, and export as KML, CSV, PNG, MMP (proprietary format), and PDF. (h/t EarthKnight who has a nice post describing apps used in his fieldwork)
• OruxMaps: Especially useful for offline maps.

Field Work Utilities

• Random Numbers
• Smart Measure: rangefinder; measure the distance to and height of an object
• Theodolite: overlays real time information about position, altitude, bearing, range, and inclination on the live camera image
• EMD Periodic Table of Elements
• TASA Geotimescale: timeline of eons
• Molecules: 3d models of molecules and enzymes
• Multiconvert: conversion of units. 100s of units (weight, distance, you name it).
• Pocket LAI – smartphone app for estimating Leaf-Area Index: Read about it here (presentation) and here (journal article). It is €35 for public institutes and students/€70 euros for private companies and currently available for Android, with iOS version available in spring 2015. For more information or to purchase contact: cassandra.lab@unimi.it.

Citizen Science

• Project Budburst: national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of data on timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants
• What’s Invasive!: submit geotagged photos and observations of invasive species
• IveGot1: Identify and report Invasive Species in Florida
• Nature’s Notebook Android App: from USA-NPN’s. Record observations on hundreds of species of plants and animals, as well as add new locations and species to your list in the field.
• iMapInvasives: online tool for invasive species reporting and data management.
• the USDA National Agricultural Library has a webpage with smartphone applications for invasive species monitoring and identification: link
• Loss of the Night: for estimating the brightness of the night sky as part of a project on light pollution
• BirdLog: the official app for data entry into the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s bird project.
• Secchi: the Secchi Disk project encourages participation in a global study of phytoplankton in the sea by creating and using their own secchi disk.
• mPing: report on precipitation
• Marine Debris Tracker: log trash on coastlines and waterways
• NoiseTube: monitor noise pollution with your smartphone
• CalFlora: report native plant occurrences in California and then visualize them on the CalFlora map.
• Creekwatch: monitor the quality of your local watershed
• CitSci.org: resources to develop your own Citizen Science Project, including app building (NB: looks *really* comprehensive and certainly has applications beyond CS, I think).
• Urubu Mobile: Developed by Brazil’s Federal University in Lavras’ Center for The Study of Road Ecology (UFLA/CBEE) this cool app is used to register animal roadkill to study and mitigate the impacts of roads (read more here and here). Available for download for Android phones here.  PS “Urubu” is “vulture”in Portuguese…typical Brazilian sense of humor!

Teaching Tools

• Skeptical Science
• GeographCA
• R Instructor: an interactive and multimedia tool designed to facilitate the learning process of R.

Communication Tools and Productivity

• Dropbox
• Evernote
• WordPress app for blogs
• Mendeley
• Twitter or Plume for Twitter accounts
• Quickoffice
• Keynote for digital presentations