Abstract
Forums and social networks store a big deal of data on flora and fauna, collected especially by amateurs. To what extent are these data useful to contribute to biodiversity data systems? In this paper, we addressed the question about the "suitability for use" of primary biodiversity data by exploring two popular and valued Italian Forums of Natural Science (Forum Natura Mediterraneo and Forum Entomologi Italiani) and tried to assess their scientific potential. The aim of our work was to evaluate and discuss taxonomic reliability of the identification of butterfly species and the accuracy of their geographic locations. For each forum thread, we examined the posted images of butterflies, checked the diagnoses and georeferenced the observations from the textual descriptions provided by the users. Then, we compared each final identification by users with an independent identification by expert taxonomists. Looking at species level identifications, users identified 3764 out of 4029 specimens (93.4%) and experts agreed with them in 3649 cases: a high percentage agreement (po = 96.9%). As for the geographic data, we were able to georeferenced 97.9% of the observations (70% with an estimated extent less than 2500m). Results of this study, although limited to butterflies, suggest that the final identifications from forums show a surprisingly small bias and that the 'democratic' approach to taxonomy ultimately produces few uncertainties. The selected forums contain large amounts of primary biodiversity data in digital format, correctly identified and georeferenced with satisfactory accuracy and this capital is too valuable to remain unused. The formalization of collaborations with scientific projects and institutions would bring the forums in the area of “official” citizen science initiatives, giving the forums a role of citizens' scientific training. The recognition of a scientific role makes forum managers and users more deeply involved and data protection over time, currently entrusted to forum managers, would be greatly enhanced.
Highlights
Research in natural sciences has a long tradition of cooperation between professional researchers and amateurs (Dickinson and Bonney 2012, Miller-Rushing et al 2012, Vermeulen et al 2013)
As far as biodiversity is concerned, forums and social networks store a big deal of data on flora and fauna, collected especially by amateurs
The question is: do these data, produced by inexperienced citizens without following any scientific project guidelines, constitute a reliable source of primary data to feed big data systems on biodiversity?. We addressed this basic question about the "suitability for use" of primary biodiversity data from the natural sciences forums and tried to assess their scientific potential
Summary
Research in natural sciences has a long tradition of cooperation between professional researchers and amateurs (Dickinson and Bonney 2012, Miller-Rushing et al 2012, Vermeulen et al 2013). Networking between natural scientists facilitates the global sharing of primary data on biodiversity, taxonomies, environmental data and general information (see e.g. GBIF, Catalogue of Life, LTER, LifeWatch). The CS approach is increasingly used in scientific projects to enlarge and improve the knowledge on biodiversity by collecting georeferenced data on the presence of rare or protected species or habitats (Kallimanis et al 2017, Katsanevakis et al 2015, Kullenberg and Kasperowski 2016, Martellos et al 2016, Zapponi et al 2017), setting up surveillance networks for alien species (Johnson et al 2020, Maistrello et al 2016, Zenetos et al 2013) or digitalizing paper labels from museum specimens A CS approach may be addressed to any problems in which human skills are irreplaceable for collecting and/or processing massive amount of data (Aceves-Bueno et al 2017, Xue 2014)
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