Quantifying error in occurrence data: Comparing the data quality of iNaturalist and digitized herbarium specimen data in flowering plant families of the southeastern United States

White, Elizabeth; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Guralnick, Robert

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0295298

Cited by 13 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 56 publications

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“…flowers, fruits and growing nature of P. montana ). As highlighted in White et al (2023), careful consideration is essential when dealing with species identifications that depend on intricate morphological details (e.g. Cyperaceae, Poaceae, bryophytes).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond a diagnostic tool: Validating standardized Mahalanobis distance as a species distribution model for invasive alien species in North America

Stinziano,

Charron,

Damus

2024

Preprint

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Species distribution models (SDMs) are useful tools for predicting where new invasive species can establish within a country, supporting both preparatory and response activities. National Plant Protection Organizations use SDMs to inform risk assessment and surveillance activities for emerging plant pests. However, SDMs face multiple and difficult statistical challenges, including multi-collinearity of input variables, correlation structures in climate variables that vary through time and space, limited species observation data, and they often lack formal tests of model performance. We have implemented a previously-reported extrapolation-detection tool as an SDM, rather than a diagnostic tool of SDMs. This method characterizes the observed multivariate climate envelope by using Mahalanobis distance to take advantage of the correlation between climate variables, and identifies areas where the climatic conditions are outside the range of the observed climate envelope. Model outputs include climate suitability maps, and most-important covariate analyses to identify the environmental drivers of the results while assisting in variable reduction. We performed a formal test to assess the ability of the SDM to identify areas invaded by invasive plant pests in North America. Using a list of 23 species from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's regulated plant pest list, we demonstrate that this method achieves a high level of accuracy (> 85%) for determining climate suitability for North American plant pest invasions, especially when combined with most-important covariate-guided variable reduction. This suggests that the model is suitable for identifying areas of North America that are susceptible to future invasions. We show that many of the errors occur at the edge of climate suitable areas, where we would expect greater uncertainty in model predictions due to potential over-constraining and geospatial averaging. We present additional analyses to support recommendations on the use and limitations of this SDM in a regulatory context.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond a diagnostic tool: Validating standardized Mahalanobis distance as a species distribution model for invasive alien species in North America

Stinziano,

Charron,

Damus

2024

Preprint

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Evaluating the definition and distribution of spring ephemeral wildflowers in eastern North America

Yancy,

Lee,

Kuebbing

et al. 2024

American J of Botany

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PremiseThe herbaceous layer accounts for the majority of plant biodiversity in eastern North American forests, encompassing substantial variation in life history strategy and function. One group of early‐season herbaceous understory species, colloquially referred to as spring ephemeral wildflowers, are ecologically and culturally important, but little is known about the prevalence and biogeographic patterns of the spring ephemeral strategy.MethodsWe used observations collected by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) to quantify the ephemerality of 559 understory forb species across eastern North America and classify them according to a continuous ephemerality index (ranging from 0 = never ephemeral to 1 = always ephemeral). We then used this information to model where ephemeral forbs were most common across the landscape with the goal of identifying geographic and environmental drivers important to their distributions and ranges.ResultsOnly 3.4% of all understory wildflower species were spring ephemerals in all parts of their range, and 18.4% (103 species) were ephemeral in at least part of their range. Spring ephemerals peaked in absolute species richness and relative proportion at mid latitudes.ConclusionsSpring ephemeral phenology is an important shade‐avoidance strategy for a large segment of the total understory species in temperate deciduous forests. In North America, the strategy is relatively most important for forest understories at mid latitudes. The definitions of spring ephemerality we provide here serve as an important ecological context for conservation priorities and to evaluate responses of this biodiverse group to future environmental change.

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Linking the macroclimatic niche of native lithophytic ferns and their prevalence in urban environments

Reichgelt

2024

American J of Botany

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PremiseVertical surfaces in urban environments represent a potential expansion of niche space for lithophytic fern species. There are, however, few records of differential success rates of fern species in urban environments.MethodsThe occurrence rates of 16 lithophytic fern species native to the northeastern USA in 14 biomes, including four urban environments differentiated by percentage of impervious surfaces, were evaluated. In addition, the natural macroclimatic ranges of these species were analyzed to test whether significant differences existed in climatic tolerance between species that occur in urban environments and species that do not.ResultsThree species appear to preferentially occur in urban environments, two species may facultatively occur in urban environments, and the remaining 11 species preferentially occur in nondeveloped rural environments. The natural range of fern species that occur in urban environments had higher summer temperatures than the range of species that do not, whereas other macroclimatic variables, notably winter temperatures and precipitation, were less important or insignificant.ConclusionsVertical surfaces in urban environments may represent novel niche space for some native lithophytic fern species in northeastern USA. However, success in this environment depends, in part, on tolerance of the urban heat island effect, especially heating of impervious surfaces in summer.

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Quantifying error in occurrence data: Comparing the data quality of iNaturalist and digitized herbarium specimen data in flowering plant families of the southeastern United States

Cited by 13 publications

References 56 publications

Beyond a diagnostic tool: Validating standardized Mahalanobis distance as a species distribution model for invasive alien species in North America

Beyond a diagnostic tool: Validating standardized Mahalanobis distance as a species distribution model for invasive alien species in North America

Evaluating the definition and distribution of spring ephemeral wildflowers in eastern North America

Linking the macroclimatic niche of native lithophytic ferns and their prevalence in urban environments

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