Quantifying Ant Population for Monitoring Environmental Health.

For thousands of years, Ants are symbols of unity and hardworking. They farm fungi, raise aphids as livestock, launch armies into war, use pheromones to alarm and confuse enemies, capture slaves, engage in child labor, exchange information ceaselessly.

Biodiversity loss and extinction of species is a major problem we are facing these days. Its aftermath is the climate crisis we are currently living in, some days there is a wildfire, some days untimely rains, glaciers melting, sea levels rising, and a lot more. ****

Conservationists, Ecologists, Evolutionary Biologists, Paleontologists, Zoologists, Botanists are studying various ecosystems, species, and habitats to try and conserve them and get better insights in saving them from going extinct.

Ants, a type of invertebrate, are the most abundant and diverse group inhabiting the Earth and almost omnipresent (except Antarctica). So, can we monitor the health of an environment or ecosystem by studying and quantifying the Ant population in a frugal way and importantly involve citizens!!

What is this project trying to achieve?

  1. Design easy solutions to identifying ants (Mobile based application)
  2. Harnessing the solutions developed into the Citizen Science Program.
  3. Sampling ant population at different locations (Urban setting Vs Rural or countryside - same climatic conditions).
  4. Harnessing the information in monitoring the environmental health.
  5. Create awareness about biodiversity.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Idea Board

Team Roster

Meeting Notes

Code of Conduct

Documentation page

Summary