Using open access observational data for conservation action: A case study for birds

Abstract

Ensuring that conservation decisions are informed by the best available data is a fundamental challenge in the face of rapid global environmental change. Too often, new science is not easily or quickly translated into conservation action. Traditional approaches to data collection and science delivery may be both inefficient and insufficient, as conservation practitioners need access to salient, credible, and legitimate data to take action. Open access data could serve as a tool to help bridge the gap between science and action, by providing conservation practitioners with access to relevant data in near real time. Broadscale citizen-science data represent a fast-growing resource for open access databases, providing relevant and appropriately scaled data on organisms, much in the way autonomous sensors do so on the environment. Several such datasets are now broadly available, yet documentation of their application to conservation is rare. Here we use eBird, a project where individuals around the world submit data on bird distribution and abundance, as an example of how citizen-science data can be used to achieve tangible conservation science and action at local, regional, and global scales. Our examination illustrates how these data can be strategically applied to improve our understanding of spatial and temporal distributions of birds, the impacts of anthropogenic change on ecological systems, and creative conservation solutions to complex problems. We raise awareness of the types of conservation action now happening with citizen-science data, and discuss the benefits, limitations, and caveats of this approach.

Innovation in Citizen Science – Perspectives on Science-Policy Advances

“…A major factor contributing to the scientific impact of eBird is the rich nature of the project's data across large temporal and spatial scales using a monitoring design that allows for rigorous data analysis. In addition, because eBird data are open access, they are now being downloaded and utilized by many different groups and thereby amplify the scientific impact of the project (Sullivan et al 2017).…”

Status and trends of American Flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) in Florida, USA

“…We compiled quantitative data spanning 7 decades from (1) rare bird reports from Audubon Field Notes (and subsequent titles from 1947 to 2007; Bowman 1978, Loftin et al 1991; (2) field observation reports from Florida Field Naturalist (1989-2014; (3) Audubon's Christmas Bird Count (Dunn et al 2005); (4) eBird (Sullivan et al 2017); (5) EDDMapS (an online reporting system for invasive species); and (6) the Frezza dataset-P.F. began documenting Florida flamingo sightings starting in the early 2000s-including personal observations and reports from coworkers, collaborative scientists, and fishing guides.…”

“…Museum specimen data are increasingly digitized and accessible online (Constable et al 2010), and citizen science projects increasingly produce new distribution and population data (Dunn et al 2005, Sullivan et al 2017.…”

Identifying Reliable Opportunistic Data for Species Distribution Modeling: A Benchmark Data Optimization Approach

“…Advocates of opportunistic data, however, contend that there are a number of techniques for handling reliability issues, and that as long as researchers are aware of the key limitations and use the data appropriately, opportunistic data can supplement professionally collected data and potentially help bridge the gap between science and action [12,28]. Furthermore, the sheer quantity and spatial extent of opportunistic data can provide researchers and policy makers with information on ecological trends that may otherwise go unnoticed due to the relative scarcity of professionally collected data [4,10].…”

“…Although professionally collected data are the preferred data source for SDM, they are expensive to collect and are often in short supply. Data collected using proper crowdsourcing techniques, often termed "opportunistic data" [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] or unstructured volunteer data, can provide ecologists with a variety of biodiversity monitoring data. Consequently, volunteer-based citizen science monitoring systems have attracted a lot of attention.…”