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Estimating species distributions from spatially biased citizen science data

Author

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  • Johnston, Alison
  • Moran, Nick
  • Musgrove, Andy
  • Fink, Daniel
  • Baillie, Stephen R.

Abstract

Ecological citizen science data are rapidly growing in availability and use in ecology and conservation. Many citizen science projects have the flexibility for participants to select where they survey, resulting in more participants, but also spatially biased data. It is important to assess the extent to which these spatially biased data can provide reliable estimates of species distributions. Here we quantify the extent of site selection bias in a citizen science project and the implications of this spatial bias in species distribution models. Using data from the BirdTrack citizen science project in Great Britain from 2007 to 2011, we modelled the spatial bias of data submissions. We next produced species occupancy models for 138 bird species, and assessed the impact of accounting for spatial bias. We compared the distributions to those produced using unbiased data from an Atlas survey from the same region and time period. Averaging across 138 species, models with spatially biased data produced accurate and precise estimates of species occupancy for most locations in Great Britain. However, these distributions were both less accurate and less precise in the Scottish Highlands, showing on average a positive bias. Accounting for the spatially biased sampling with weights led to on average greater accuracy in the Scottish Highlands, but did not increase precision. This region is both distinct in environmental characteristics and has a low density of observations, making it difficult to characterise environmental relationships with species occupancy. Accounting for the spatially biased sampling did not affect average accuracy or precision throughout most of the country. Spatially biased citizen science data can be used to estimate species occupancy in regions with stationary environmental relationships and good sampling across environmental space. The reliability of estimated species distributions from spatially biased data should be further validated and tested under a range of different scenarios.

Suggested Citation

  • Johnston, Alison & Moran, Nick & Musgrove, Andy & Fink, Daniel & Baillie, Stephen R., 2020. "Estimating species distributions from spatially biased citizen science data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 422(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:422:y:2020:i:c:s0304380019304351
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108927
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    2. Kolstoe, Sonja & Cameron, Trudy Ann, 2017. "The Non-market Value of Birding Sites and the Marginal Value of Additional Species: Biodiversity in a Random Utility Model of Site Choice by eBird Members," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 1-12.
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    4. D. Pati & B. J. Reich & D. B. Dunson, 2011. "Bayesian geostatistical modelling with informative sampling locations," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 98(1), pages 35-48.
    5. Fiske, Ian & Chandler, Richard, 2011. "unmarked: An R Package for Fitting Hierarchical Models of Wildlife Occurrence and Abundance," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 43(i10).
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    1. Schartel, Tyler E. & Cao, Yong, 2024. "Background selection complexity influences Maxent predictive performance in freshwater systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 488(C).
    2. Schaub, Sergei & Pfaff, Alexander & Bonev, Petyo, 2025. "Biodiversity and the Design of Result-based Payments: Evidence from Germany," Economics Working Paper Series 2502, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    3. Boyd, Robin J. & Bowler, Diana E. & Isaac, Nick J.B. & Pescott, Oliver L., 2024. "On the trade-off between accuracy and spatial resolution when estimating species occupancy from geographically biased samples," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 493(C).
    4. Coppée, Thomas & Paquet, Jean-Yves & Titeux, Nicolas & Dufrêne, Marc, 2022. "Temporal transferability of species abundance models to study the changes of breeding bird species based on land cover changes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 473(C).

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