Format: ORAL

Leonardo O. Alvarado-Crdenas

Departamento de Biología Comparada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, México

By 2003, humanity had created the equivalent of 5 exabytes of information. Today, this information is generated in 2 days. Although most of it is entertainment, some of it has allowed us to benefit and connect the daily life of citizens and scientists. Social networks have enabled a proximity between science and society, but citizen science platforms have created a very productive link, an example of which is INaturalist. In Mexico, INaturalist integrates more than 3000 photos daily, many of them exotic or cultivated organisms, but others of great importance for the information they contain. This has contributed to aspects such as systematics, biogeography, plant-animal interactions, biological invasions and, of course, the relationship between people and scientists. One of the plant families that has benefited from these platforms is the Apocynaceae. This is one of the most diverse families in the world, with more than 5000 species, and in Mexico there are about 500 species, making it the 12th most diverse family in the country. Since 2018, the INaturalist database has been managed as the Apocynaceae of Mexico project. The project includes about 60,000 photos, the presence of 4 specialists in the group and a curation of more than 80 %. As a result, the distribution of many taxa has been adjusted. Over 400 species have been documented, including some with flowers and fruits. The documentation includes the presence of five species that have not been collected in over 30 years, the discovery of five new species, and the identification of invasive species within natural areas. Likewise, floral visitors and potential pollinators have been documented, many of them unknown to the country. Proper utilization and management of this information will enhance the comprehension of the biology and systematics of the organisms under investigation.