How to use the app

On the Android Play store:
Download the "Youth for Arctic Nature" app
This version is recommended

For iOS:
https://app.arcticnature.org/

You can download the user manual here

app_manual.pdf
File Size:	782 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Contact [email protected] for more information

What does the app do?

The YAN app is a nature monitoring app. It functions in teams, with one team administrator which is approved by the project coordinator, and team members approved by the administrator. This ensures that the app is safe for youth - for example, team leaders are responsible for moderating pictures that are shared through the app. Team members can define monitoring plots they are interested in, and in these areas they can report species of fauna or flora that they have seen, as well as some environmental data like cloud cover or temperature. They can also upload pictures of their observations.
Anyone on the app can see the data collected by users, and the app generates graphs to make data easier to visualize.

Why an app?

Apps facilitate community science, which has been shown to be effective in the Arctic to follow population health in endangered species, as well as to monitor environmental factors. Apps make it easier to collect, store, share and download data.
While there are other apps for nature monitoring, making a dedicated app that is safe for youth, easy to use, flexible, scalable, and easy to translate was necessary for the project.

Ongoing and planned projects

• The Great Seal Count. Annual event where locals and visitors count seals. This was shown to predict national trends in seal populations.
  
• New youth nature club with Hólar University students. This rural University welcomes many students who are interested in nature and outdoor activities.
• Fish monitoring with local youth groups. An annual ice fishing event teaching where data about the fish and the ice are recorded.
• Invasive crab monitoring with local Icelandic youth groups. Crab traps are set up in harbors, and invasive Icelandic rock crabs are counted, measured, and cooked.
• Shore ecology monitoring project in the Faroe Islands. Based on methodologies used in Svalbard research, students will look at different species of seaweeds and invertebrates on the Faroese shore.
• Nature monitoring around Perlan. This summer 2023, the Icelandic Museum of Natural History will be encouraging families to go and discover nature and local species around the museum using an identification booklet to be published soon as well as the app.