Data collected by citizen scientists reveal the role of climate and phylogeny on the frequency of shelter types used by frogs across the Americas

Forti, Lucas Rodriguez; Pontes, Mariana Retuci; Augusto‐Alves, Guilherme; Martins, Allana; Hepp, Fábio; Szabo, Judit K.

doi:10.1016/j.zool.2022.126052

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…This leads to unequal sampling effort and over‐representation of observations in times and places that people choose to be in nature (e.g. Schubert et al., 2019; Forti, Pontes, et al., 2022). In addition, citizen scientists tend to over document and mis‐identify rare species while simultaneously ignoring or under documenting common species (Bird et al., 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenological patterns in ecology: Problems using circular statistics and solutions based on simulations

Willig,

Rojas‐Sandoval,

Presley

2024

Methods Ecol Evol

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Quantification of phenological patterns (e.g. migration, hibernation or reproduction) should involve statistical assessments of non‐uniform temporal patterns. Circular statistics (e.g. Rayleigh test or Hermans‐Rasson test) provide useful approaches for doing so based on the number of individuals that exhibit particular activities during a number of time intervals. This study used monthly reproductive activity as an example to illustrate problems in applying circular statistics to data when marginal totals characterize experimental designs (e.g. the number of reproductively active individuals per time interval depends on sampling effort or sampling success). We illustrate the nature of this problem by crafting four exemplar data sets and developing a bootstrapping simulation procedure to overcome complications that arise from the existence of marginal totals. In addition, we apply circular statistics and our bootstrapping simulation to empirical data on the reproductive phenology of six species of Neotropical bats from the Amazon. Because sampling effort or success can differ among time intervals, circular statistics can produce misleading results of two types: those suggesting uniform phenologies when empirical patterns are markedly modal, and those suggesting non‐uniform phenologies when empirical patterns are uniform. The bootstrapping simulation overcomes these limitations: the exemplar phenology in which the percentage of reproductively active individuals is modal is appropriately identified as non‐uniform based on the bootstrapping approach, and the exemplar phenology in which the percentage of reproductively active individuals is invariant is appropriately identified as uniform based on the bootstrapping approach. The reproductive phenology of each of the six empirical examples is non‐uniform based on the bootstrapping approach, and this is true for bats species with unimodal peaks or bimodal peaks. In addition to problems with marginal totals, a review of analyses of phenological patterns in ecology identified two other frequent issues in the application of circular statistics: sampling bias and pseudoreplication. Each of these issues and potential solutions are also discussed. By providing source code for the execution of the Rayleigh test and Hermans‐Rasson test, along with the code for the bootstrapping simulation, we offer a useful tool for assessing non‐random phenologies when marginal totals characterize experimental designs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenological patterns in ecology: Problems using circular statistics and solutions based on simulations

Willig,

Rojas‐Sandoval,

Presley

2024

Methods Ecol Evol

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“…The multilayered design ensures that breaches in the external material do not provide access points before they can be repaired, with the internal wire mesh adding strength to prevent the fence from drooping without the need for supporting wires. However, using multiple layers increases project costs, and because amphibians are known to seek shelter underneath surfaces and in confined spaces (Forti et al 2022), the risk of individuals getting stuck within multi-layered fencing also needs to be considered.…”

Section: Recommendationmulti-layered Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from past designs: improving amphibian fences using an adaptive management approach

et al. 2023

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Fences have been widely used to exclude, manage, or monitor both native and invasive amphibian populations. Given that fences are artificial barriers that impact animal movements within the landscape, it is critical they do not allow for unwanted movement or lead to unintended animal welfare risks. We have carried out a literature review to identify features that have been used for amphibian fences, as well as aspects of fence design, installation, and maintenance that have limited their effectiveness. We also describe our own application of adaptive management to amphibian exclusion fences, in which we detected flaws and improved features, and monitored the effectiveness of these changes. Based on an exploration of the literature and our experiences, we found several key attributes to fences that must be considered when created for amphibians, including height, lip barriers, underground barriers, support frameworks, gates, seams, clearance zones, and moisture refuges. We found that studies commonly do not detail all of these aspects of their fences, and that few openly describe flaws in the design, installation, and subsequent maintenance of their fences. This is potentially concerning because it may limit chances to make improvements to fence designs that are specific for amphibians. We subsequently provide considerations and recommendations for each key fence attribute, along with maintenance and monitoring advice. These take into account intended fence purpose, desired fence permeability, and project constraints for a variety of amphibian types, life histories, and developmental stages. They are intended to be used by managers to assist in designing an effective fence for their target species. Some of our recommendations to reduce animal welfare risks are to minimise the use of: (1) fence materials that could cause abrasion injuries, (2) dry substrates that could lead to desiccation, (3) geofabrics that could lead to entanglement, and (4) fence aprons that animals could easily become trapped under. This is likely to be a valuable guide for practitioners who are required to install amphibian fences and for policy makers who prescribe fences for mitigation. This guide is applicable for projects managing threatened native species, as well as invasive species, such as the cane toad (Rhinella marina).

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“…The advancements of technology and accessible platforms like eBird and iNaturalist have increased participation and are producing massive amounts of biodiversity and ecological data around the world [4,5]. These data have been used to answer questions of phenology [6,7], species range changes [8], species migrations [9], phenotypic variation [10,11], species interactions [12], habitat use [13,14], and body condition and disease [15]. The data from these platforms are also helping researchers discover new species and track invasive species [16,17], improve species distribution models [18,19], and increase our understanding of large scale effects of climate on animal behaviour [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Not all who wander are lost: Trail bias in community science

Geurts,

Reynolds,

Starzomski

2023

PLoS ONE

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The exponential growth and interest in community science programs is producing staggering amounts of biodiversity data across broad temporal and spatial scales. Large community science datasets such as iNaturalist and eBird are allowing ecologists and conservation biologists to answer novel questions that were not possible before. However, the opportunistic nature of many of these enormous datasets leads to biases. Spatial bias is a common problem, where observations are biased towards points of access like roads and trails. iNaturalist–a popular biodiversity community science platform–exhibits strong spatial biases, but it is unclear how these biases affect the quality of biodiversity data collected. Thus, we tested whether fine-scale spatial bias due to sampling from trails affects taxonomic richness estimates. We compared timed transects with experienced iNaturalist observers on and off trails in British Columbia, Canada. Using generalized linear mixed models, we found higher overall taxonomic richness on trails than off trails. In addition, we found more exotic as well as native taxa on trails than off trails. There was no difference between on and off trail observations for species that are rarely observed. Thus, fine-scale spatial bias from trails does not reduce the quality of biodiversity measurements, a promising result for those interested in using iNaturalist data for research and conservation management.

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Data collected by citizen scientists reveal the role of climate and phylogeny on the frequency of shelter types used by frogs across the Americas

Cited by 11 publications

References 62 publications

Phenological patterns in ecology: Problems using circular statistics and solutions based on simulations

Phenological patterns in ecology: Problems using circular statistics and solutions based on simulations

Learning from past designs: improving amphibian fences using an adaptive management approach

Not all who wander are lost: Trail bias in community science

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