The Pollen Diary was already launched as a scientific project in 2009. Meanwhile it has become an important service for pollen allergy sufferers in 13 European countries: Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Sweden, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The number of users is growing every year, not at least because of the projects that were made possible by the Pollen Diary, such as the pollen app, the exposure map and the personalized pollen information.

Users have the possibility to document their own allergic complaints (intensity and symptoms) together with their medication intake. This gives an overview of the pollen allergy and allows them to compare the symptoms with the measured pollen concentrations on a continuous basis as well as at the end of the stress phase of the allergy. In addition, it is possible to download an excel file with all entries. There, all data are summarized and additionally correlation calculations of pollen count and symptoms are provided. This is a first step towards the identification of the trigger. And even after the diagnosis by a specialist, the pollen diary is a valuable support for patients and medics to track the success of a therapy, the administration of medication or the course of the pollen allergy.

To make such a service possible in the first place, the Pollen Diary is linked to the European pollen database, and can therefore be used without any problems in all countries where it is already available. Special attention has been paid to easy handling as well as to compliance with the latest EU directives on data protection (more under the terms of use of the Pollen Diary).

Since 2013, the pollen diary can also be accessed via the "Pollen" app on Android and iOS. If a user documents complaints, a personalised pollen forecast is available free of charge, tailored to the personal reaction profile. Via the app, users can also get the stress forecast and other practical helpers for the everyday life of an allergy sufferer, which are offered free of charge on the homepage of the Austrian Pollen Warning Service.

Europe-wide pollen information is reached via this portal: www.polleninfo.org.

Image gallery

“Homegrown - There is nothing like a homegarden”

Project description

With their variety of plant species and the experience of the gardeners, rural home gardens constitute an integral component of the cultivated landscape in the Lienz district, East Tyrol. Together with pupils of the BG/BRG Lienz school (and biology, math/physics and English teachers), scientists are investigating rural home gardens, including stocks of plant species and the use of plants. These results will be compared with those taken 20 years ago from the same gardens and will help to identify changes in gardens and their cultivation. These diachronic perspectives allow a precise and empirically established overview of changes in rural home gardens in the countryside of an industrial and services-focused state, in the context of demographic and economic changes and the search for a new identity.

To gain a better understanding of the local perception of the significance of rural home gardens, observations from gardeners and their neighbours concerning ecosystem services in gardens and their significance will also be recorded.

The project will also investigate cultivation techniques that adapt to extreme weather or ensure sustainable growth. It will also find out why people grow gardens and which values and approaches guide their behaviour or actions in gardens.

As part of an additional citizen science module, the local population in East Tyrol and Oberen Drautal will be combined. The module appeals to gardeners who are interested in taking surveys in their gardens, according to methodological direction and by monitoring their gardens, so as to demonstrate the material and immaterial ecosystem services in gardens. These gardeners and the cooperating young people will be trained in simple quantitative and qualitative survey methods for this purpose. This will take into account the opportunities that depend on the education and experience of each individual participant.

The starting point for developing analogue survey tools for the researching gardeners is a universal T-card office planner (49 x 47.3 cm, 7 panels, light grey) with 20 slots and 7 columns. The card slot system provides a weekday structure (Monday to Sunday), an hourly structure (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and six variables for recording ecosystem services.

On the universal T-card planner, the gardeners use the provided weekday and time scales with differently coloured slots to record the following specific information in writing about the individual ecosystem services during the recording period:

• Provisioning services, such as the yield of vegetables and fruits from the home garden (name of the person harvesting, time and duration, name of the harvested fruits and vegetables, the amount harvested and its respective use).
• Regulating services, such as birds, insects or pests in the home garden (name of the observing person, time and duration, name and number of birds, insects or pests observed).
• Cultural services, such as cultivation techniques in the home garden (name of the person cultivating, time and duration, tools used, etc.) or activities in the home garden when used as a place for relaxation and leisure.

The time spent in the garden will be recorded with a simple stopwatch. Some plant materials will be weighed out with simple, easily available kitchen scales. The card slots will be placed somewhere protected from weather or positioned where they are in the gardener’s view. This location will be decided on site with the gardener.

The duration of collections using the card slot system will be calculated at at least a week and will then be passed on to another gardener. Seven card slot systems will be prepared. The recordings ran from 1 August to 31 August 2018.

Through the participation of citizen scientists, a continuous observation and record of local perception (emic viewpoint) of the ecosystem services of home gardens is guaranteed. The methods were proposed by a gardener from the region being researched and were discussed/considered together with other gardeners from the area. The citizen scientists were actively involved in data acquisition and collection, data analysis and interpretation and the publication of results in the project report, scientific journals and conferences and in local media (dolomitenstadt.at). The collected data was continuously documented and stored by scientific guardians. Interim and final results were returned to the participating gardeners as part of the “give back” culture in the citizen science final event (“Gartenfest”).

Project collaborators

Heidemarie Pirker

Brigitte Vogl-Lukasser

Partners

BG/BRG Lienz (Renate Hölzl, Arno Oberegger, Hansjörg Schönfelder and the pupils of class 6b (from academic year 2018/2019: 7b).

Marie-Luise Wohlmuth (workshops on soil biology)

Ramona Walder (photography)

Peter Werlberger (video)

Gerhard Pirkner (dolomitenstadt.at)

Germain Weber & Team (Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna)

Christian Ragger (REVITAL - Integrative Naturraumplanung GmbH)

Image gallery

(Click on an image to enlarge)

The Ragweed Finder was developed in 2017 by the Austrian Pollen Information Service at MedUni Vienna and has also been available to download as an app for Android and iOS since 2019.

The Ragweed Finder consists of four components:

1. Specimen report
2. Ragweed distribution map
3. Information about Ragweed
4. Manual to recognize ragweed

Specimen report

The most important data such as location, population size and symptoms can be entered quickly using the specimen report. Uploading a photo is mandatory, otherwise a reported specimen cannot be verified by the experts of the Ragweed Finder team. Users can decide whether to report by name or anonymously (only via email address).

Ragweed distribution map

Already verified specimen reports of ragweed are listed herein within the current season. The number of symbols amounts to the number of reports displayed on the map. The colouring around the specimen sites indicate the symptom intensity.

About Ragweed

What is ragweed? Where does it grow? What is known about ragweed pollen allergy? What can be done? These and other questions are answered in this compilation of the most important information about ragweed.

Recognize Ragweed

Some ragweed pollen allergy sufferers do not know their allergy trigger and may walk along an infested field without recognizing the plant. However, in order to report ragweed, a reliable identification of the plant is required. Many photos as well as a short instruction on how to take convincing pictures turns the interested citizen into a ragweed expert.

What happens with the specimen reports?

First of all, the specimen reports have to be evaluated. Each verified report is then transferred to the distribution map. Users will be informed about the evaluation of their specimen report via e-mail. The verified specimen reports are forwarded once a week to the responsible institutions/federal state governments. This enables the authorities to set appropriate corrective actions (e.g. mowing) and locate ragweed hotspots.

So far, there is no comprehensive legal obligation to report or remove ragweed in Austria. Only in Burgenland a law to control and prevent the spread of ragweed was passed in 2021.

Highlights:

1. For the first time, a tool for recording ragweed plants is available free of charge for all of Austria.
2. The ragweed distribution map is available for the public.
3. Thanks to a guideline and a checklist for reporting ragweed specimen, anyone can identify and report ragweed.

Ragweed pollen allergy sufferers can be an active support to contain the uncontrolled spread of ragweed!

With the Citizen Science Project "CITREE" a crowdsourcing instrument for monitoring the growth of urban trees, will be developed and used. It builds on the "Sparkling Science" project "Woody Woodpecker", which deals with the growth, structure and function of wood.

Urban trees fulfill a variety of functions, such as improving the microclimate and air, noise protection or the design of public spaces. Monitoring of urban trees is important because climate change leads to an intensification of stress on the trees. In cities, trees are exposed to extreme heat and drought and are additionally affected by other stress factors such as pollutant emissions, limited root space, salt stress or pest infestation. Therefore, trees in cities are "living laboratories" that allow analyses of stress mechanisms and estimates of future developments. CITREE is intended to provide a tool for monitoring urban trees and thus create a bridge between citizens and their trees: On the one hand citizens can participate in the monitoring process, on the other hand they can see and learn how their trees grow. This feedback will also be used to present the work of public institutions (e.g. city nurseries) and will enable school projects on urban trees and urban ecology.

 (c) CITREE

CITREE is based on easy to install and cheap band-dendrometers, with which the trunk circumference and thus the growth can be measured. Dendrometers installed on urban trees are read by citizens who have access to the CITREE database via QR code and smartphone. The CITREE database collects the growth data of all trees and makes it available to involved citizens, the public, public institutions and researchers.

The main work packages of the project are:

1. Selection/modification of suitable dendrometers
2. Development of an installation system
3. Development of the CITREE database
4. Test and optimization of the developed systems under urban conditions
5. Data analysis and
6. Installation of the systems in Austrian cities.

The project will be carried out at the Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck and will benefit from the long experience in the field of science communication of the PI (Stefan Mayr) and his staff. The development of the CITREE database is carried out in cooperation with the University of Ghent and the company Phyto-IT, Belgium. A cooperation with the School of Education, University of Innsbruck serves the didactical optimization. For the installation in Austrian cities, city nurseries and researchers will be contacted to collect a first broader data set on the growth of urban trees. In the long term, CITREE is to be further developed into CITREE-EU, thus enabling a monitoring network in European cities.

Tasks and roles in the project:

• Citizen Scientists:enter the numbers read from the dendrometer and receive a graphical display of the calculated tree diameter including the previous history.
• Tree patrons: Select trees, install dendrometers according to instructions, collect information on the location and condition of these trees. Can download the records of the database.
• Research assistants: handle special cases (resetting dendrometer, removing obvious mismeasurements...), tracking patterns of growth, vandalism, etc.
• IT-assistant: Creating new trees in the database and on the homepage

If you have any questions about the project, or are interested in participating in the project, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We take care of our meadows and alpine pastures!

For more than a decade, hundreds of farmers have been saying "We look at our meadows and alpine pastures!".

The regular observations of the more than 700 participants impressively show that on more than 80 % of the monitoring plots in extensive grassland the number of individuals of the species observed has remained the same or even increased.

By observing the animals and plants every year, the perspective with which the farmers perceive their meadow changes and a process of more conscious action is set in motion.

Background

In monitoring extensive grassland, participants look at which management practices promote or inhibit the occurrence of individual plant and animal species.

The Austria-wide observations of plant and animal diversity provide new insights into the benefits of management in extensive grassland. (By extensive grassland we mean species-rich meadows that are mowed a maximum of two to three times a year or not at all or only slightly fertilized and gentle grazing.)

The species-rich grassland has been displaced by a frightening 90% since the 1960s due to structural changes in agriculture and land use change! The last occurrences of colorful flower meadows are therefore landscapes with a high number of species and important retreat areas for plant and animal diversity in Austria!

By regularly observing the development of indicator species, the meaning of different agri-environmental measures (ÖPUL) such as contractual nature conservation, organic farming (BIO) and environmentally friendly and biodiversity-promoting management (UBB) is made understandable and it is observed at farm level whether agricultural subsidies also have an effect on the area.

The nature conservation monitoring will show which type of management is well suited for the type of meadow under consideration and therefore leads to safe stocks of the observed indicator species. As a result, management requirements can be better evaluated on the basis of feedback from farmers and funding can be awarded in a targeted manner.

Participate

All farmers with (potentially) extensive meadows and pastures who take part in the agri-environmental measure ÖPUL “Organic farming (BIO)” or “Environmentally friendly and biodiversity-promoting management (UBB)” can take part. At the beginning there is an enrollment by an ecologist. It is agreed which indicator species are to be observed and counted annually. The participants then document the indicator species and the management of the meadow every year and enter the data on the online platform www.naturschutzmonitoring.at.

Project duration: until 2029

Information on participation:

• Hotline: +43 677 643 130 71
• Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Quotations of participants

„This year I deliberately left a patch of rambling bellflowers so that they could sow seeds. Now I am already curious whether they will be more next year!“

„This project is going places. My son wanted to reforest our rough pasture some time ago, because the fodder is worth nothing and mowing takes a lot of time. Since your expert showed him that there are a lot of rare animals and plants living in it, he hasn't said anything about it. He even helps me counting now.“

„What makes me particularly happy is that for once it is not about control or money, but about seeing and appreciating the beautiful aspects of our work.“

You can also follow the ÖKL on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for further information.

Project management

Barbara Steurer
Österreichisches Kuratorium für Landtechnik und Landentwicklung (ÖKL)
Gußhausstraße 6
1040 Wien, Austria
www.oekl.at

This project of the Austrian Alpine Association - a biodiversity monitoring above the timberline - increases our knowledge about alpine animal and plant species, their habitats and about the interrelationships of our actions and the effects on this sensitive living environment. The collected data on the 20 animal and plant species contribute to scientific questions on biodiversity in the Alps.

Message

Which animals live and which plants grow in our mountains? Within the framework of "Vielfalt bewegt! Alpenverein from young to old" the Austrian Alpine Club investigates the most elevated habitats in Austria - a project for mountain enthusiasts and everyone who wants to become one!

This project overseen by the Austrian Alpine Club is planned as a long-term study and should contribute to the preservation and promotion of biological diversity in the Alps. Biodiversity monitoring in the highest habitats in Austria is intended to inspire people with an affinity for the mountains.

Like all citizen science projects, this project also depends on its voluntary helpers, who observe typical animal and plant species of the Alpine region over a longer period of time and condense and pass on their knowledge about the Alpine habitat.

Aims of the project

The purpose of monitoring is to develop appropriate measures on the basis of the knowledge gathered, which can reduce the decline of species and secure or improve habitats for endangered species in the long term. The consequences of climate change (migration of some species to higher regions or changes in food resources) can also be demonstrated in this way. On the one hand, distribution maps are to be generated to provide information on the occurrence of the individual species and, on the other hand, the data are to be made available for publications etc. on request.

The project offers mountaineers the opportunity to experience nature consciously and attentively again in contrast to summit attempt and pressure to perform.

The project "Vielfalt bewegt! Alpenverein from young to old" provides knowledge about alpine species and the connections to the conservation of biological diversity in alpine habitats in an age-appropriate form for children, youths, parents and grandparents. The pillar for the long-term continuation of the project idea is the intergenerational exchange about nature, its habitats and species. Parents and grandparents become multipliers. In the course of this, cooperation with "Alpenvereinsjugend", which has been active in education for sustainable development for a long time, is also strengthened.

• Alpine salamander Alpine salamander
• Small Apollo Small Apollo
• Mountain Arnica (Wolf's bane) Mountain Arnica (Wolf's bane)
• Alpine chough Alpine chough
• Mountain avens Mountain avens
• Identifying species Identifying species
• Alpine Azalea Alpine Azalea
• Identifying species II Identifying species II
• Identifying species III Identifying species III
• Spotted Nutcracker Spotted Nutcracker
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Procedure

Different indicator species, which have their habitat above the forest line, were selected on the basis of various criteria  - including alpine ptarmigan, mountain avens, oak spider or mountain azalea.

Observations are made at any time and on any hike, as the whim takes you!

Compact identification guides for the selected plants and animals should make it easier for the observers to track down the species during their hikes. Exciting and informative stories serve as a reminder. Data from nature observation, such as geographical location, altitude, weather or a description of the habitat of the indicator species, can then be entered in clearly structured questionnaires. As a matter of principle, observations are only made along existing hiking trails in order to conserve flora and fauna. 

To make monitoring a little easier, a handy mapping guide was designed that can easily be taken into the field in addition to the 20 revised identification guides. In the mapping guide, the monitoring is briefly introduced again and it is explained where, how and when the 20 species sought can best and most easily be found. Selected identification sheets as well as the mapping instructions can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. A continuously updated distribution map can be seen here. The nature diary presents 20 animal and plant species that are typical for the Alpine region and also describes many helpful tips and tricks for observing them.

To record the observations, you can either use the web portal "Diversity moves, Alpine Association" or the app of the project. You can take photos directly with your smartphone; your location is automatically determined by the GPS transmitter. This way, if the internet connection is up and running, the observation can be transmitted directly to the web portal. If there is no reception, the data is saved locally in the app and sent to the web portal as soon as a connection can be found again.

How can you participate?

To take part in "Diversity moves! Alpine Club from Young to Old", you can register for the project via the registration form on the website. As soon as the registration is completed, you will receive a confirmation from the project team and can get started right away.

Memo Game

Within the project "Diversity moves! Alpine Club from Young to Old" (Biodiversity Monitoring), a beautiful memo game with 32 pairs of cards has been created. The drawn illustrations show different alpine animal and plant species that have their habitat above the timberline. In the enclosed booklet, in addition to the game instructions, all species are explained and their special characteristics highlighted. Sustainably packaged in a handy cotton bag, the game takes up hardly any space.

© Birgit Kantner

With the support of the federal government and the European Union within the framework of the implementation of the Austrian Programme for Rural Development 2014-2020.

We invite urban community gardens, garden projects or similar garden initiatives to take part in this project and research alongside us. The goal of this project is to scientifically assess the potential risk of heavy metal contamination in crop plants in Vienna’s city gardens.

Background

Urban gardening has become increasingly popular over the last two decades. However, gardeners are often concerned about their crops being contaminated by heavy metals.

Plant access to heavy metals is strongly influenced by the soil properties and the plants being cultivated. Through targeted soil management, it is possible to reduce the likelihood of heavy metals transferring to plants.

We want to learn whether the heavy metal content in plants grown in one variant (e.g. a mix with compost) differs from that of plants grown in a control variant (untreated urban soil).

How do we want to test this?

We need you for this! Become a citizen scientist and conduct a “pan test” in your urban garden with spinach and/or radishes. Plant and soil samples will be collected from these tests and an analysis for heavy metals will then be carried out in our laboratory.

The entire gardening community will benefit from involvement in this project. Together, we can collect the following information about the location of the garden:

• Whether and to what extent your garden is polluted by heavy metals.
• If there is contamination, whether the transfer of these heavy metals to plants can be reduced by selected soil treatments.
• In addition, we will also work with you on site to determine soil and plant parameters, such as pH values, soil microbial activity and plant vitality. Through this, you can also receive more information about the condition of the soil on site and your soil treatment.

More information on the Heavy Metal City-Zen project can be found on the website.

Who can take part in the Heavy Metal City-Zen project?

• People who are involved in a community garden, garden project or similiar garden initiative.
• These gardens are in Vienna or an urban area surrounding Vienna.

What do I need to do to take part in the project?

Just send us an e-mail stating that you are interested in participating to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Project results

The results from the project are presented in the corresponding blog post (in German).

Project management: Andrea Watzinger –  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Scientific project management: Rebecca Hood-Nowotny –  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Institute of Soil Research
Department of Forest and Soil Sciences
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Konrad-Lorenz-Strasse 24 | 3430 Tulln

For updates, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

The project was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

In the Institute of Silviculture at the BOKU University, the occurrence, spread, causes and characteristics of forest fires in Austria have been analysed as part of various research projects since 2008. The array stretches back over several decades and includes approximately 8,000 fires, more than 7,000 of which were categorised as forest fires. The majority of forest fires were recorded in spring and summer. Parts of Carinthia, Tyrol, Styria, and the southern regions of Lower Austria were comparably highly affected by forest fires. Most of the fires were caused by human actions. These were either direct, caused by an out-of-control fire, or indirect, e.g. by a carelessly discarded cigarette. In the summer months, fires caused by lightning also play a role as they make up 40 % of the total. Many forest fires are investigated in more detail as case studies in order to analyse fire behaviour, the mortality of individual trees affected and the regeneration of forests. Increased attention is also being paid to the processing of forest fires before the year 2000.

In spring 2013, the Institute of Silviculture created an online platform that enables easy collection and analysis of forest fires that is not dependent on systems. The “Fire Database” web GIS application is available for free and allows interested members of the public to scan forest fire incidents and create statistics or graphics. Similarly, current or past forest fires can be recorded through an online entry form.

Podcast episode

In June 2023, project coordinator Mortimer Müller was guest on the Österreich forscht podcast Wissen macht Leute - you can listen to the episode here (in German). 

Citizen Science Seminar

In 2021, poject coordinator Harald Vacik held a lecture about "Fire Database" as part of the lecture series "Citizen Science Seminar" at BOKU University: "Challenges of forest fire research in the alpine region" (in German). At the bottom of this page you can watch the video recording of the lecture.

Links

• Forest Fire Database Austria
• Forest Fire blog Austria
• Forest fire research at BOKU
• European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS)

• Cloud of smoke from the forest fire near Neunkirchen, Lower Austria, on 1st August 2013 Cloud of smoke from the forest fire near Neunkirchen, Lower Austria, on 1st August 2013
• Forest fire near Neunkirchen, Lower Austria, on 1st August 2013 Forest fire near Neunkirchen, Lower Austria, on 1st August 2013
• Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (1) Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (1)
• Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (2) Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (2)
• Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (3) Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (3)
• Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (4) Damage caused by the forest fire near Neunkirchen (4)
• Number of forest fires 1994-2014 (reported via Fire-Database) Number of forest fires 1994-2014 (reported via Fire-Database)
• Distribution of forest fires over the year (totals from the years 1994-2014; reported via Fire-Database) Distribution of forest fires over the year (totals from the years 1994-2014; reported via Fire-Database)
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Since 2006, a wide variety of nature observations can be reported on naturbeobachtung.at. Specially designed reporting masks for various groups of animals, plants and fungi allow detailed entries. The reporters can, as far as possible, identify their observations taxonomically or report them as "undetermined species". The latter can then be subsequently identified by the community. Optionally, more precise reports are possible, e. g. with weather data or a detailed description of the site including site photos. Uploading photos of specimens is explicitly encouraged (and mandatory in the app, which also provides mobile access to naturbeobachtung.at). The possibility to upload "picture series" of an observed individual makes it much easier for the experts to check the reports, especially for species that are difficult to identify.

Discuss with like-minded people

A special highlight of the web version is the lively discussion forum with over 240,000 text contributions from over 40,000 discussions. Here, registrants can exchange information with other nature enthusiasts, show their most beautiful nature photographs or ask experts for identification help.

Report even easier with the app!

In 2018, the web version was expanded to include a free app for smartphones with the same name. Reporting via the app is simple, straightforward and fast: images (Exif data) and GPS data "automatically" provide all relevant data that are important for reporting an observation. The reports from the web and app are synchronized and can therefore be viewed on all devices.

Android App

iOS App

What will happen with the records?

All reports are checked regularly by experts. For reports with already assigned species name, the determination is checked and evaluated as "confirmed", "plausible", "doubtful" or "wrong". If the species name has not yet been assigned, the expert "determines" the species. If the reporter was only able to assign the observation to one species group, experts have the possibility to "specify" the finding on species level. The reporters are automatically informed of the result of the data check or determination - via email in the web application, via push message in the app.

Who checks the data?

More than 60 experts from all biological disciplines provide naturbeobachtung.at with their expertise. Most of them are volunteer experts from universities, museums or technical offices. In the course of time, more and more "amateur experts" with profound knowledge of species have also been authorized to validate data on the platform. The introduction of people to scientific activities is a declared goal of this Citizen Science project!

Teaching species knowledge - with fun

In 2021, the web version and app were expanded to include two new functions especially for schoolchildren and newcomers: Firstly, competitions - searches for a small number of easily recognizable species over a certain period of time - are intended to provide a playful introduction to observing, recognizing and reporting species. Species knowledge can secondly be tested and improved in an exciting way with various species quizzes: In increasing degrees of difficulty, the task is to assign the correct species name to a photo shown.

What has happened so far 

To date, almost 930,000 observations have been reported by over 17,000 contributors and more than 650,000 photos have been uploaded. The data obtained are used for further conservation measures and provide an excellent basis for current scientific work.

The most common examples for the use of observation data from naturbeobachtung.at are master and doctoral theses as well as scientific publications. However, observation data are also forwarded to various institutions: For example, data on selected animal groups in Styria were used in the compilation of the "Red Lists of Styria" in 2021, and plant observations from Salzburg were used in the biodiversity database at the Haus der Natur in 2022.

In this way, the Naturschutzbund with its Citizen Science platform naturbeobachtung.at significantly supports biodiversity research in Austria! Join us – as a nature observer or expert!

Podcast episode

If you would like to learn more, you can listen to the "Wissen macht Leute" podcast episode about the project (in German). More information can be found here.

Citizen Science Seminar

In 2021, poject coordinator Gernot Neuwirth held a lecture about naturbeobachtung.at as part of the lecture series "Citizen Science Seminar" at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU): "Factors for a successful contribution of Citizen Science to biodiversity research" (in German). At the end of this page you can watch the video recording of the lecture.  

• Fire salamander Fire salamander
• Ladybird spider Ladybird spider
• Fire Salamander Fire Salamander
• Bombus argillaceus Bombus argillaceus
• Southern festoon Southern festoon
• Cypripedium calceolus Cypripedium calceolus
• European stag beetle European stag beetle
• Common European viper Common European viper
• European mantis European mantis
• Bleeding fairy helmet Bleeding fairy helmet
• Stoat Stoat
• Eurasian pygmy owl Eurasian pygmy owl
• Exemplary project page Exemplary project page
• Image Gallery (web version, details) Image Gallery (web version, details)
• Express input mask Express input mask
• Raster chart with farmland filter Raster chart with farmland filter
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