Julia Paskin | LAist | July 25, 2022
Researchers want your help to collect samples at four specific locations in Los Angeles as part of a much wider effort in the state to learn about changes in biodiversity.
The project, called CALeDNA, for California Environmental DNA, encourages everyone to be a citizen scientist. Volunteers get a kit to take small amounts of soil, sediment, and water.
Because plants, animals and fungi shed DNA, one can sequence the genes of living things that have once passed through that sample. Then volunteers upload the data through the iNaturalist app.
Ariel Levi Simons with UC Santa Cruz says studying changes in biodiversity reveals important trends.