Firefly Occurrences in Croatia – One Step Closer from Citizen Science to Open Data*

Gašparić, Helena Virić; Mikac, Katarina M.; Živković, Ivana Pajač; Krehula, Bruno; Oreskovic, M; GALEŠIĆ, M.A.; Ninčević, Pave; Varga, Filip; Lemić, Darija

doi:10.7906/indecs.20.2.4

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 28 publications

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“…Fireflies are compelling subjects, and numerous community science projects have focused on Lampyridae (see Supplementary Table S2). Observations submitted by community scientists in Europe have helped to create and refine firefly species checklists in Spain [77]; Flanders, Belgium [78]; and Croatia [79,80] and have aided in tracking range expansion of the introduced firefly Photinus signaticollis through Spain and France [81]. In Hong Kong, a firefly Survey Team established in 2020 has systematically gathered data on firefly distributions and abundances.…”

Section: Community Science Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating Firefly Diversity: Trends, Threats and Conservation Strategies

Lewis,

Jusoh,

Walker

et al. 2024

Insects

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Fireflies are a diverse group of bioluminescent beetles belonging to the family Lampyridae. Recent research on their diversity, evolution, behavior and conservation has greatly advanced our scientific understanding of these charismatic insects. In this review, we first summarize new discoveries about their taxonomic and ecological diversity, then focus on recent endeavors to identify and protect threatened fireflies around the world. We outline the main threats linked to recent population declines (habitat loss and degradation, light pollution, pesticide overuse, climate change and tourism) and describe relevant risk factors that predict which species will be particularly vulnerable to these threats. Although global coordination of firefly conservation efforts has begun only recently, considerable progress has already been made. We describe work by the IUCN SSC Firefly Specialist Group to identify species currently facing elevated extinction risks and to devise conservation strategies to protect them. To date, IUCN Red List assessments have been completed for 150 firefly taxa, about 20% of which face heightened extinction risks. The conservation status for many species has yet to be determined due to insufficient information, although targeted surveys and community science projects have contributed valuable new data. Finally, we highlight some examples of successful firefly habitat protection and restoration efforts, and we use the framework of the IUCN SSC Species Conservation Cycle to point out high-priority actions for future firefly conservation efforts.

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Section: Community Science Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illuminating Firefly Diversity: Trends, Threats and Conservation Strategies

Lewis,

Jusoh,

Walker

et al. 2024

Insects

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Instagram data for validating Nothofagus pumilio distribution mapping in the Southern Andes: A novel ground truthing approach

Werner,

Weidinger,

Böhner

et al. 2024

biogeography

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The availability of valid, non-biased species occurrence data has always been a major challenge for biodiversity research and modelling studies. Data from open-source databases or remote sensing are promising approaches to increase the availability of species occurrence data. However, these data may contain spatial, temporal, and taxonomic biases or require ground truthing. In recent years, social media has received attention for its contribution to species occurrence data sampling and ground truthing approaches. The wide reach of social media platforms allows for rapid and large-scale analyses. Here we introduce a novel Instagram ground truthing approach to validate the occurrence mapping of Nothofagus pumilio across its entire distribution range. The treeline species of the southern Andes has been extensively studied in small-scale studies, but large-scale modelling approaches are largely missing due to limited accessibility to treeline sites resulting in a lack of occurrence data. The content posted on the social media platform Instagram consists of images and videos in which the species N. pumilio and its location can be identified. By searching for suitable posts using hashtags and location tags, we created 1238 Instagram ground truthing points. We compared the performance of our dataset with open-source data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) through visual, quantitative, and bias analyses, acknowledging that both social media-based and Citizen Science data are subject to sampling and spatial biases due to collection in human-accessible areas. The Instagram ground truthing points were subsequently used to validate remote sensing occurrence data, generated using Sentinel-2 level 2A data and Supervised Classification. The combined approach – Instagram ground truthing and remote sensing – allows for the collection of occurrence data over the entire latitudinal range of N. pumilio, covering approximately 2000 km. The use of social media content provides potentially important contributions to species occurrence data sampling and ground truthing In our study we introduce a novel ground truthing approach for species occurrence data sampling based on Instagram data Instagram ground truthing points, combined with Supervised Classification generate species occurrence data of Nothofagus pumilio over its entire distribution range in the southern Andes The performance of the Instagram ground truthing points is evaluated by comparison with existing data from the GBIF database. Our Instagram ground truthing approach demonstrates a new way of sampling species occurrence data and can be applied to other suitable species and study areas.

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Firefly Occurrences in Croatia – One Step Closer from Citizen Science to Open Data*

Cited by 2 publications

References 28 publications

Illuminating Firefly Diversity: Trends, Threats and Conservation Strategies

Illuminating Firefly Diversity: Trends, Threats and Conservation Strategies

Instagram data for validating Nothofagus pumilio distribution mapping in the Southern Andes: A novel ground truthing approach

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