Aquatic Plant Biologist Needed for Lake Vegetation Image Labeling

We are looking for a biology, botany, aquatic ecology, fisheries, wetland ecology, or environmental science specialist to help identify and label aquatic vegetation in drone imagery of lakes. This project focuses on plant identification and visual interpretation, not just generic image annotation. The imagery includes floating and near-surface lake vegetation such as: - floating aquatic vegetation - water hyacinth-like mats - water lettuce-like plants - duckweed or small floating plants - submerged aquatic vegetation visible from the surface - hydrilla/SAV-like vegetation - algae or surface scum - emergent shoreline vegetation - open water - glare/shadow/turbid/unclear water Responsibilities: - Review drone image tiles of lake surfaces - Identify aquatic vegetation categories where visually possible - Mark uncertain cases instead of guessing - Help decide which plant classes can realistically be identified from imagery - Create or improve a visual labeling guide for other annotators - Optionally review labels created by non-expert annotators Ideal background: - Botany, aquatic plants, aquatic macrophytes, wetland ecology, freshwater ecology, fisheries, environmental science, or plant taxonomy - Experience identifying aquatic plants in lakes, wetlands, ponds, rivers, or reservoirs - Familiarity with invasive aquatic plants is a strong plus - Experience with drone/satellite imagery, GIS, CVAT, Label Studio, QGIS, or image annotation is helpful but not required This will start with a paid test batch of 30–50 images. Strong candidates may continue part-time as expert reviewers or labeling-guide contributors. Please answer: 1. What is your background in biology, botany, fisheries, wetlands, aquatic ecology, or plant identification? 2. Have you identified aquatic plants before? If yes, which types? 3. Are you familiar with floating aquatic plants such as water hyacinth, water lettuce, duckweed, Azolla, or similar plants? 4. Are you familiar with submerged aquatic vegetation such as hydrilla, eelgrass, pondweed, coontail, or similar plants? 5. Are you comfortable marking an image as uncertain when species-level ID is not possible? 6. Have you worked with drone, aerial, or satellite imagery before?