The scale of the planet’s biodiversity crisis demands a collective response, and one way science is tackling this enormous challenge is through engagement with the public.

FrogID is the Australian Museum’s flagship citizen science project. Participants download an app onto their smartphone which they then use to record frog calls.

The project is a striking demonstration of the power of community engagement in conservation. In less than seven years, the FrogID app has revolutionised science’s understanding of Australian frogs. Tens of thousands of people have now participated, registering over 1.3 million frog recordings. This makes FrogID the largest database of frog records for any country.

Dr Jodi Rowley is curator of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Biology at the Australian Museum, and FrogID’s Lead Scientist. In this seminar, Jodi will explain how FrogID’s occurrence records and audio recordings have helped uncover the true diversity and distributions of Australia’s frogs, as well as the impact of threats such as fires, drought, climate change and habitat modification.