Abstract
The ongoing digital revolution in the age of big data is opening new research opportunities. Culturomics and iEcology, two emerging research areas based on the analysis of online data resources, can provide novel scientific insights and inform conservation and management efforts. To date, culturomics and iEcology have been applied primarily in the terrestrial realm. Here, we advocate for expanding such applications to the aquatic realm by providing a brief overview of these new approaches and outlining key areas in which culturomics and iEcology are likely to have the highest impact, including the management of protected areas; fisheries; flagship species identification; detection and distribution of threatened, rare, and alien species; assessment of ecosystem status and anthropogenic impacts; and social impact assessment. When deployed in the right context with awareness of potential biases, culturomics and iEcology are ripe for rapid development as low-cost research approaches based on data available from digital sources, with increasingly diverse applications for aquatic ecosystems.
Highlights
The digital revolution provides unique opportunities to gain additional or complementary knowledge on the environment and related human values, attitudes, norms, preferences, and behaviors
We demonstrated the potential of these new approaches and advocated for expanding it into aquatic realms, where they are likely to increase quickly as new tools are developed and their limitations and biases are better understood and addressed (Fig 2)
With the right tools and expertise, digital data represent a rich and unique resource for both aquatic and terrestrial research. They can contribute to monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post-2020 Biodiversity Goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) [79]
Summary
The digital revolution provides unique opportunities to gain additional or complementary knowledge on the environment and related human values, attitudes, norms, preferences, and behaviors. Approaches based on data available from digital sources, with increasingly diverse applications for aquatic ecosystems.
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