Patterns of contribution to citizen science biodiversity projects increase understanding of volunteers' recording behaviour.

Elizabeth H Boakes,Muki Haklay,Martin Harvey,David B Roy,Gianfranco Gliozzo,Valentine Seymour,Chloë Smith

doi:10.1038/srep33051

Elizabeth H Boakes, Muki Haklay + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/srep33051

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Abstract

The often opportunistic nature of biological recording via citizen science leads to taxonomic, spatial and temporal biases which add uncertainty to biodiversity estimates. However, such biases may also give valuable insight into volunteers’ recording behaviour. Using Greater London as a case-study we examined the composition of three citizen science datasets – from Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC, iSpot and iRecord - with respect to recorder contribution and spatial and taxonomic biases, i.e. when, where and what volunteers record. We found most volunteers contributed few records and were active for just one day. Each dataset had its own taxonomic and spatial signature suggesting that volunteers’ personal recording preferences may attract them towards particular schemes. There were also patterns across datasets: species’ abundance and ease of identification were positively associated with number of records, as was plant height. We found clear hotspots of recording activity, the 10 most popular sites containing open water. We note that biases are accrued as part of the recording process (e.g. species’ detectability) as well as from volunteer preferences. An increased understanding of volunteer behaviour gained from analysing the composition of records could thus enhance the fit between volunteers’ interests and the needs of scientific projects.

Highlights

The often opportunistic nature of biological recording via citizen science leads to taxonomic, spatial and temporal biases which add uncertainty to biodiversity estimates
The mix of opportunistic records and focussed surveys that tend to constitute citizen science data mean that data can contain a variety of biases4 and often may better represent distributions of recorders than species5
These biases are usually discussed in the literature as obstacles to be controlled for6–8 but such biases can be viewed in a positive light because they provide valuable information regarding volunteers’ recording behaviour

Summary

Introduction

The often opportunistic nature of biological recording via citizen science leads to taxonomic, spatial and temporal biases which add uncertainty to biodiversity estimates Such biases may give valuable insight into volunteers’ recording behaviour. The mix of opportunistic records and focussed surveys that tend to constitute citizen science data mean that data can contain a variety of biases and often may better represent distributions of recorders than species. The mix of opportunistic records and focussed surveys that tend to constitute citizen science data mean that data can contain a variety of biases and often may better represent distributions of recorders than species5 These biases are usually discussed in the literature as obstacles to be controlled for but such biases can be viewed in a positive light because they provide valuable information regarding volunteers’ recording behaviour. The implications of these biases are discussed more fully by Isaac and Pocock

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