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Poster Short Abstract

The Nature Observation Marathon in Estonia provides regular verified data across all living organisms for an open access database. The Marathon event has become the ambassador for the collaboration between scientists and citizens.

Poster Abstract

The Nature Observation Marathon in Estonia began in 2018 as a local initiative aimed at promoting nature observation and scientific data collection. Since then, it has evolved into a popular nationwide citizen science event, contributing valuable specimen data from across the country. The data, collected and saved on the PlutoF platform, is publicly accessible via biodiversity portals and published to global biodiversity databases, making it useful for researchers around the world.

The Nature Observation Marathon follows the format of BioBlitz. The data collection methods are efficient yet simple, allowing participation of hobby naturalists and even schoolchildren. All submitted observations are reviewed by experts before being accepted and uploaded to the database and must include sufficient evidential detail for verification. Open-access databases foster global collaboration—between scientists, and between scientists and citizens. Since 2023, the Nature Observation Marathon has expanded to neighboring countries, strengthening a growing network of scientists from various disciplines, including botanists, mycologists, ornithologists, data scientists, and others.

In our presentation, we describe the methodology used and highlight important variables affecting the results. We also illustrate the importance of citizen science with a few outcomes and propose ideas for future collaboration for both the Marathon-like events as well as the possibilities of PlutoF data platform. This example of a network of citizens and professional scientists working together has become a powerful tool for generating high-quality data, supporting a wide range of applications, including phenological studies, youth education, and nature conservation.