Troy competes in biodiversity challenge Marble Bowl for second year

For the second year in a row, Troy University is participating in the Marble Bowl, a biodiversity competition held by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.

The Marble Bowl was originally open only to the University of Alabama and Auburn University to mimic their football rivalry and the Iron Bowl. Starting last year, the Marble Bowl opened its competition to multiple different schools across Alabama, including Troy University.

The competition is held on iNaturalist, an online platform that allows users to take pictures of plants and animals around them.

When uploaded, the app records the observation and logs what species was in the picture. The competition uses both factors to determine a school’s score.

Fisher Parrish, an environmental sciences graduate student from Dothan, Alabama, said that by participating in the competition, students can grow their knowledge of Alabama’s biodiversity.

"Alabama has extraordinary biodiversity, but many people don't realize how biologically rich the state is,” Parrish said. “An event like the Marble Bowl gives people an opportunity to experience that diversity firsthand.

“Once someone starts actively looking for species, they begin noticing organisms and habitats they may have walked past hundreds of times before.”

Dr. Chelsea Smith, entomologist and lecturer in the department of biological and environmental sciences, said the Marble Bowl can help students look closer at insect species and help catalogue more insects in Pike County.

“By getting them to just look more closely at everything, they're going to see all of the other insects we have,” Smith said. “When it comes to botany, a botanist might do a survey to determine all the different species of plants in the county, which could be done within a few years with going out to the field, but I don't think that would be possible to start fresh and catalog every single species of insect, there are just so many.

“[That] can be bad when they're in a tough spot because you don't know what they are. You don't see them.”

Troy University’s involvement started the same year that the competition expanded. In its first year competing, Troy University won second place against Auburn University.

Troy only lost to Auburn University, who they are leading this season by over 3,000 observations and almost 400 unique species at the time of writing this article.

At the time of writing, Troy University is in first place and far in the lead with 12,900 observations and 2,900 species against second place Auburn University with 9,600 observations and 2,600 species.

“Being able to compete successfully with universities several times our size and to have held the lead throughout the competition so far is something our students should be proud of,” said Director of the Troy University Arboretum Dr. Alvin Diamond. “More importantly, every observation they contribute adds to our knowledge of Alabama’s plants, animals, fungi and other organisms.”

Participants for Troy haven’t found species in exclusively Pike County, though. Currently, participants have observed numerous species across the state, particularly in Pike County, Jefferson County, Escambia County and Colbert County.

People interested in joining the competition can sign up in the iNaturalist app or visit www.inaturalist.org/signup. The competition is open to the community and will run until Nov. 30, two days after the Iron Bowl.