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Finding the signal in the Noise of Citizen Science Observations

Steve Kelling, Alison Johnston, Daniel Fink, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Rick Bonney, Aletta Bonn, Miguel Fernandez, Wesley M. Hochachka, Romain Julliard, Roland Kraemer, Robert Guralnick
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/326314
Steve Kelling
1Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850
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Alison Johnston
2Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850 and the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, The David Attenborough Building, Cambridge England CB2 3QZ
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Daniel Fink
1Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850
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Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez
1Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850
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Rick Bonney
1Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850
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Aletta Bonn
3German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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Miguel Fernandez
4NatureServe, 4600 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington VA USA 22203
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Wesley M. Hochachka
1Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA 14850
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Romain Julliard
5Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
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Roland Kraemer
6Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Services, Permoserstr. 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Geography, Rudower Chaussee 16, 12489 Berlin, Germany
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Robert Guralnick
7Department of Natural History, and the Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainsville FLUSA 32611
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Abstract

While many observations of species are being collected by citizen science projects worldwide, it can be challenging to identify projects collecting data that effectively monitor biodiversity. Over the past several years the allure of taking a “Big Data” approach has provided the opportunity to gather massive quantities of observations via the Internet, too often with insufficient information to describe how the observations were made. Information about species populations — where and when they occur and how many of them are there — (i.e., the signal) can be lost because insufficient information is gathered to account for the inherent biases in data collection (i.e., the noise). Here we suggest that citizen science projects that have succeeded in motivating large numbers of participants, must consider factors that influence the ecological process that affect species populations as well as the observation process that determines how observations are made. Those citizen science projects that collect sufficient contextual information describing the observation process can be used to generate increasingly accurate information about the distribution and abundance of organisms. We illustrate this using eBird as a case study, describing how this citizen science platform is able to collect vital contextual information on the observation process while maintaining a broad global constituency of participants. We highlight how eBird provides information with which to generate biodiversity indicators — specifically distribution, abundance, and habitat associations — across the entire annual cycle, even for populations of long distance migratory birds, a highly challenging taxon.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 18, 2018.
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Finding the signal in the Noise of Citizen Science Observations
Steve Kelling, Alison Johnston, Daniel Fink, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Rick Bonney, Aletta Bonn, Miguel Fernandez, Wesley M. Hochachka, Romain Julliard, Roland Kraemer, Robert Guralnick
bioRxiv 326314; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/326314
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Finding the signal in the Noise of Citizen Science Observations
Steve Kelling, Alison Johnston, Daniel Fink, Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Rick Bonney, Aletta Bonn, Miguel Fernandez, Wesley M. Hochachka, Romain Julliard, Roland Kraemer, Robert Guralnick
bioRxiv 326314; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/326314

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