Abstract
Citizen science may offer a way to improve our knowledge of the spatial distribution of biodiversity and endemism, as the data collected by this method can be integrated into existing data sources to provide a more robust understanding of broad scale patterns of species richness. We explored whether data collected by citizen scientists agree on identifying regions of high avian species richness in a well-studied state. We compiled and examined the number of bird species detected in each of the 77 counties of Oklahoma based on published range maps, museum collections, and by five citizen science methods: the USGS Breeding Bird Survey, the Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas, eBird, the Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas, and National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Counts. We also quantified the number of species of conservation concern recorded by each method in each county. A total of 460 species were reported across the state, with the total number of species detected by each method ranging from 40% of this total (Winter Bird Atlas) to 94% of this total (eBird). In general, species totals were poorly correlated across methods, with only six of 21 combinations (28.6%) showing significant correlations. Total species numbers recorded in each county were correlated with human population density and county area, but not with mean annual temperature or precipitation. The total number of species of conservation concern was correlated with the total number of species detected, county area, and precipitation. Most of the citizen science methods examined in this study were not explicitly designed to identify regions of high biodiversity and so efforts to use these methods for this purpose should be employed only cautiously and with a thorough understanding of potential biases.
Highlights
Citizen science has taken on an increasing role in data collection and species identification at a local scale
Data collected by citizen scientists that pertains to species identification and location has the potential to provide a more thorough understanding of spatial and temporal patterns in species’ distributions [3] and potential shifts in migration pathways due to climate change [4]
Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), museum collections, and Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) surveys have been conducted for decades, leading to larger species tallies, while targeted efforts such as Oklahoma Breeding Bird Atlas (OBBA) and Oklahoma Winter Bird Atlas (OWBA) were conducted over a much shorter time period
Summary
Citizen science has taken on an increasing role in data collection and species identification at a local scale. Citizen science contributions facilitate a deeper understanding of broad scale biodiversity patterns [1,2]. Data collected by citizen scientists that pertains to species identification and location has the potential to provide a more thorough understanding of spatial and temporal patterns in species’ distributions [3] and potential shifts in migration pathways due to climate change [4]. While large data sets have the potential of expanding the scientific understanding of the spatial and temporal scale of species’ distributions, authors have noted that the utility of citizen science projects may be limited by heterogeneity of effort, skill and spatial extent [6,7,8].
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