Business & Economy
Technology helps 'citizen scientists' track invasive species
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By CHELSEA MONGEAU
Capital News Service
LANSING — Citizen scientists are getting recruited for the ongoing fight against invasive and non-indigenous species in the Great Lakes region. Michigan Sea Grant and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have built an online platform that shows where people can report the presence of non-indigenous species. And the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network has built an application for smart phones that lets the user identify and track invasive species in Michigan and elsewhere in the Midwest. There has been little to no research on the socioeconomic or ecological effects that many non-indigenous species have on the Great Lakes. But species that are termed “invasive” are known to actively damage other species native to the ecosystem.