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Northern CA PPSR Projects 1

Return to Main Additional Participatory Science Projects

Welcome to our ongoing effort to catalog citizen science and other public participation in scientific research (PPSR) projects for UC California Naturalists and other citizen scientists.  We invite you to browse the listed projects or enter key words (like birds, youth, invasive, coast, Alameda, etc.) in the search box above to find projects in your area. It's a great way to stay involved and keep developing your skills as a natural scientist!

A vast majority of the information in the database was gathered from project websites and may be out of date. We encourage you to contact projects directly to get involved and learn about most recent opportunities. If you work with a listed project and would like to add to, update, or correct the information we have, please email cghdixon@ucdavis.edu. Also, please consider filling out the "PPSR perspectives" survey. Click here to access the survey, which will help guide this project in the coming year.

If you know of a project not on our list, please go to the "tell us about a project" link on the left so we can list the project here. Thanks for your help!

Special thanks goes to the National Science Foundation Informal Science Education program and the Stephen J. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation for supporting this database of projects.

LA Spider Survey

  • Organization Name
    Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
  • Project Website
  • Organization Website
  • Partners
    N / A
  • Contact Name
    N / A
  • Contact Email
    spidersurvey@nhm.org
  • Contact Phone
    N / A
  • Other Contact Information
    N / A
  • Project Purpose (taken from project materials)

    Learn more about how widespread introduced species of spiders have become, and how they have interacted with the native spiders; learn more about how urbanization and the loss of natural habitat has affected populations and distributions of naturally occurring spiders.

  • Participant Activities

    Set up a pitfall trap to catch spiders in your garden and send them to the Museum. NHM-LAC will identify them, catalog them, and create a map of the species distributions of our resident spiders.

  • Data Entry
    • Collection Kits
    • Data Sheets
  • Other Participant Activities
    N / A
  • System Studied
    • Invasive Species
    • Invertebrates
  • Geographic Scope
    Local
  • Region
    Los Angeles
  • Location
    Los Angeles County
  • Location - Map
    Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County 900 Exposition Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90007
  • Time Commitment
    • Other (see Other Information below)
  • Volunteer Qualifications
    N / A
  • Volunteer Training

    Online training resources address how to set up a pitfall trap and collect spiders, how to follow observation protocol, how to identify spiders, as well as information about spiders generally.

  • Cost to Participant
    N / A
  • How will the findings be used?

    Data and reports are accessible on the site, and are used by museum scientists.

  • Other Information
    N / A
  • Photo
    ppsr_la_spider_survey
  • last update:
    N / A

If you work with this project and would like to add to or update the information below, please email cghdixon@ucdavis.edu.

If you know of a project not on our list, please go to the "tell us about a project" link on the left so we can list the project here. Thanks for your help!

This database is focused on projects in California focused on the environment. For opportunities outside California, as well as national projects that don't have a California-specific components, check http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citscitoolkit/projects.