ORCID Profile
0000-0003-0415-2709
Current Organisation
University of Florida
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Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 20-12-2019
DOI: 10.15560/15.6.1119
Abstract: We surveyed the birds of East Kwaio, Malaita, Solomon Islands from 20 October to 2 November 2018. We conducted 66 point counts and recorded or observed 58 species of resident landbirds, including 23 of the 24 passerine species known from the island of Malaita and 15 waterbird species. We collected some form of s les (e.g., whole specimens and/or blood s les) from 61 in iduals of 17 species, including representatives of the four species-level endemics: Malaita Fantail Rhipidura malaitae (Mayr, 1931), Malaita Dwarf-Kingfisher Ceyx malaitae (Mayr, 1935), Malaita White-eye Zosterops stresemanni (Mayr, 1931), and Red-bellied Myzomela Myzomela malaitae (Mayr, 1931). We demonstrate the considerable potential for conservation of the Malaitan avifauna on traditional lands in the mountains of East Kwaio. The extensive knowledge of the local people was a key factor in the success of the expedition. To facilitate ongoing conservation efforts, we documented the local Kwaio names of the birds we encountered.
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 02-10-2019
Abstract: We are currently in the midst of Earth's sixth extinction event, and measuring bio ersity trends in space and time is essential for prioritizing limited resources for conservation. At the same time, the scope of the necessary bio ersity monitoring is overwhelming funding for professional scientific monitoring. In response, scientists are increasingly using citizen science data to monitor bio ersity. But citizen science data are ‘noisy’, with redundancies and gaps arising from unstructured human behaviours in space and time. We ask whether the information content of these data can be maximized for the express purpose of trend estimation. We develop and execute a novel framework which assigns every citizen science s ling event a marginal value, derived from the importance of an observation to our understanding of overall population trends. We then make this framework predictive, estimating the expected marginal value of future bio ersity observations. We find that past observations are useful in forecasting where high-value observations will occur in the future. Interestingly, we find high value in both ‘hotspots’, which are frequently s led locations, and ‘coldspots’, which are areas far from recent s ling, suggesting that an optimal s ling regime balances ‘hotspot’ s ling with a spread across the landscape.
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Date: 17-10-2022
DOI: 10.1146/ANNUREV-ENVIRON-112420-015910
Abstract: Ecological thresholds comprise relatively fast changes in ecological conditions, with respect to time or external drivers, and are an attractive concept in both scientific and policy arenas. However, there is considerable debate concerning the existence, underlying mechanisms, and generalizability of ecological thresholds across a range of ecological subdisciplines. Here, we usethe general concept of scale as a unifying framework with which to systematically navigate the variability within ecological threshold research. We review the literature to show how the observational scale adopted in any one study, defined by its organizational level, spatiotemporal grain and extent, and analytical method, can influence threshold detection and magnitude. We highlight a need for nuance in synthetic studies of thresholds, which could improve our predictive understanding of thresholds. Nuance is also needed when translating threshold concepts into policies, including threshold contingencies and uncertainties.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 02-01-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-03-2020
DOI: 10.1111/EVO.13943
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-07-2020
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 29-04-2019
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 19-03-2021
DOI: 10.1071/WR20154
Abstract: Citizen science initiatives and the data they produce are increasingly common in ecology, conservation and bio ersity monitoring. Although the quality of citizen science data has historically been questioned, biases can be detected and corrected for, allowing these data to become comparable in quality to professionally collected data. Consequently, citizen science is increasingly being integrated with professional science, allowing the collection of data at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales. iNaturalist is one of the most popular bio ersity citizen science platforms globally, with more than 1.4 million users having contributed over 54 million observations. Australia is the top contributing nation in the southern hemisphere, and in the top four contributing nations globally, with over 1.6 million observations of over 36 000 identified species contributed by almost 27 000 users. Despite the platform’s success, there are few holistic syntheses of contributions to iNaturalist, especially for Australia. Here, we outline the history of iNaturalist from an Australian perspective, and summarise, taxonomically, temporally and spatially, Australian bio ersity data contributed to the platform. We conclude by discussing important future directions to maximise the usefulness of these data for ecological research, conservation and policy.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 24-12-2020
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.04863
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-03-2021
DOI: 10.1111/JBI.14093
Abstract: As urban areas continue to expand, it is increasingly important to quantify species‐specific responses to urban environments, and how these change across the full annual cycle. Our objective was to quantify urban tolerance for North American birds across the time. We tested (a) whether intra‐annual variability of urban tolerance differed between migrants and residents and (b) whether intra‐annual variability of urban tolerance was phylogenetically conserved. We then assessed how the relationship between ecological and life history traits and urban tolerance differed both across the year and between migrants and residents. North America. Birds. We integrated a large citizen science dataset of observations for 237 bird species, remotely sensed VIIRS night‐time lights data, and trait data on each species. We estimate, for each species and each month of the year, a continuous measure of urban tolerance (i.e. the median of their distribution of observations across an urbanization gradient). We then use phylogenetic linear models to assess the relationship between this measure of urban tolerance and various life history and ecological traits. There was a distinct drop in the overall urban tolerance scores corresponding with the breeding period this pattern was more pronounced for migrants compared to residents. Migrants also had greater intra‐annual variability than resident species. We also found that the strength of the relationships between ecological and life history traits and urban tolerance was highly seasonal for most traits considered, and some ergent patterns were noted between migrants and residents. The urban tolerance of birds greatly changed throughout the annual cycle, with different patterns for migrants and residents. Compared to residents, migrants showed more intra‐annual variability of urban tolerance with a drop in the average urban tolerance score during the breeding season. Together, our results suggest that urban tolerance is a function of both species and season, and they highlight the importance of considering the dynamic nature of birds' use of urban ecosystems throughout the full annual cycle.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1071/WR17141
Abstract: Context Citizen science is increasingly used to collect bio ersity data to inform conservation management, but its validity within urban greenspaces remains largely unresolved. Aims To assess the validity of eBird data for generating bio ersity estimates within an urban greenspace. Methods We compared data from structured avian surveys with eBird data at an urban greenspace in Sydney during 2012–16, using species richness and Shannon ersity indices. We also compared community composition, using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and dissimilarities using non-parametric MANOVA. Key results Structured surveys had a lower overall species richness (80 versus 116) and Shannon ersity (3.64 versus 3.94) than eBird data, but we found no significant differences when using years as replicates. After standardising the richness and ersity indices by time spent surveying in a given year, structured surveys produced significantly higher bio ersity estimates. Further, when grouped into species occupying different broad habitats, there were no significant differences in waterbird or landbird species richness, or in Shannon ersity between data sources. Conclusions The most likely explanation for the larger magnitudes of the bio ersity indices from the eBird data is the increase in effort manifested in the number of observers, time spent surveying and spatial coverage. This resulted in increased detection of uncommon species, which in turn accounted for a significant difference (R2 = 0.21, P = 0.015) in overall community composition measured by the two methods. Implications Our results highlight the opportunities provided by eBird data as a useful tool for land managers for monitoring avian communities in urban areas.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 31-08-2023
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13105
Abstract: Large and severe fires (‘mega‐fires’) are increasing in frequency across the globe, often pushing into ecosystems that have previously had very long fire return intervals. The 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season was one of the most catastrophic fire events on record. Almost 19 million hectares were burnt across the continent displacing and killing unprecedented numbers of native fauna, including bird species. Some bird species are known to thrive in post‐fire environments, while others may be absent for an extended period from the firegrounds until there is sufficient ecosystem recovery. To test for systematic patterns in species use of the post‐fire environment, we combined citizen science data from eBird with data on sedentism, body size, range size and the specialisation of diet and habitat. Using generalised additive models, we modelled the responses of 76 bird species to the 2019–2020 Australian mega‐fires. Twenty‐two species decreased in occurrence after the fire 30 species increased and no significant effect was found for the remaining 24 species. Furthermore, diet specialists, and birds with smaller body sizes and range sizes were less likely to be found in burnt areas after the fire event compared to before, a result which generates testable hypotheses for recovery from other mega‐fires across the globe. Being displaced from the firegrounds for an event of this geographic magnitude may have severe consequences for population dynamics and thus warrant considerable conservation attention in pre‐fire planning and in the post‐fire aftermath.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2019
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 27-10-2021
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-09-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-08-2022
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.06287
Abstract: The widespread use of species traits in basic and applied ecology, conservation and biogeography has led to an exponential increase in functional ersity analyses, with 10 000 papers published in 2010–2020, and 1800 papers only in 2021. This interest is reflected in the development of a multitude of theoretical and methodological frameworks for calculating functional ersity, making it challenging to navigate the myriads of options and to report detailed accounts of trait‐based analyses. Therefore, the discipline of trait‐based ecology would benefit from the existence of a general guideline for standard reporting and good practices for analyses. We devise an eight‐step protocol to guide researchers in conducting and reporting functional ersity analyses, with the overarching goal of increasing reproducibility, transparency and comparability across studies. The protocol is based on: 1) identification of a research question 2) a s ling scheme and a study design 3–4) assemblage of data matrices 5) data exploration and preprocessing 6) functional ersity computation 7) model fitting, evaluation and interpretation and 8) data, metadata and code provision. Throughout the protocol, we provide information on how to best select research questions, study designs, trait data, compute functional ersity, interpret results and discuss ways to ensure reproducibility in reporting results. To facilitate the implementation of this template, we further develop an interactive web‐based application ( stepFD ) in the form of a checklist workflow, detailing all the steps of the protocol and allowing the user to produce a final ‘reproducibility report' to upload alongside the published paper. A thorough and transparent reporting of functional ersity analyses ensures that ecologists can incorporate others' findings into meta‐analyses, the shared data can be integrated into larger databases for consensus analyses, and available code can be reused by other researchers. All these elements are key to pushing forward this vibrant and fast‐growing field of research.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 08-02-2021
Publisher: Pensoft Publishers
Date: 17-02-2020
DOI: 10.3897/ZOOKEYS.912.38253
Abstract: This dataset represents expert-validated occurrence records of calling frogs across Australia collected via the national citizen science project FrogID (www.frogid.net.au). FrogID relies on participants recording calling frogs using smartphone technology, after which point the frogs are identified by expert validators, resulting in a database of georeferenced frog species records. This dataset represents one full year of the project (10 November 2017–9 November 2018), including 54,864 records of 172 species, 71% of the known frog species in Australia. This is the first instalment of the dataset, and we anticipate providing updated datasets on an annual basis.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 14-05-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15670
Abstract: Urban expansion poses a serious threat to bio ersity. Given that the expected area of urban land cover is predicted to increase by 2–3 million km 2 by 2050, urban environments are one of the most widespread human‐dominated land‐uses affecting bio ersity. Responses to urbanization differ greatly among species. Some species are unable to tolerate urban environments (i.e., urban avoiders), others are able to adapt and use areas with moderate levels of urbanization (i.e., urban adapters), and yet others are able to colonize and even thrive in urban environments (i.e., urban exploiters). Quantifying species‐specific responses to urbanization remains an important goal, but our current understanding of urban tolerance is heavily biased toward traditionally well‐studied taxa (e.g., mammals and birds). We integrated a continuous measure of urbanization—night‐time lights—with over 900,000 species' observations from the Global Bio ersity Information Facility to derive a comprehensive analysis of species‐specific ( N = 158 species) responses of butterflies to urbanization across Europe. The majority of butterfly species included in our analysis avoided urban areas, regardless of whether species' urban affinities were quantified as a mean score of urban affinity across all occurrences (79%) or as a species' response curve to the whole urbanization gradient (55%). We then used species‐specific responses to urbanization to assess which life history strategies promote urban affinity in butterflies. These trait‐based analyses found strong evidence that the average number of flight months, likely associated with thermal niche breath, and number of adult food types were positively associated with urban affinity, while hostplant specialism was negatively associated with urban affinity. Overall, our results demonstrate that specialist butterflies, both in terms of thermal and diet preferences, are most at risk from increasing urbanization, and should thus be considered in urban planning and prioritized for conservation.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 08-02-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-08-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16367
Abstract: Anthropogenic habitat modification significantly challenges bio ersity. With its intensification, understanding species' capacity to adapt is critical for conservation planning. However, little is known about whether and how different species are responding, particularly among frogs. We used a continental‐scale citizen science dataset of ,000 audio recordings of 42 Australian frog species to investigate how calling—a proxy for breeding—phenology varied along an anthropogenic modification gradient. Calling started earlier and breeding seasons lengthened with increasing modification intensity. Breeding seasons averaged 22.9 ± 8.25 days (standard error) longer in the most modified compared to the least modified regions, suggesting that frog breeding activity was sensitive to habitat modification. We also examined whether calls varied along a modification gradient by analysing the temporal and spectral properties of advertisement calls from a subset of 441 audio recordings of three broadly distributed frog species. There was no appreciable effect of anthropogenic habitat modification on any of the measured call variables, although there was high variability. With continued habitat modification, species may shift towards earlier and longer breeding seasons, with largely unknown ecological consequences in terms of proximate and ultimate fitness.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-09-2020
DOI: 10.1111/CSP2.287
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2022
DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.3966
Abstract: Broad‐scale bio ersity monitoring relies, at least in part, on the efforts of citizen, or community, scientists. To ensure robust inferences from citizen science data, it is important to understand the spatial pattern of s ling effort by citizen scientists and how it deviates from an optimal pattern. Here, we develop a generalized workflow to estimate the optimal distribution of s ling effort for inference of species ersity (e.g., species richness, Shannon ersity, and Simpson's ersity) patterns using the relationship between species ersity and land cover. We used data from the eBird citizen science project that was collected across heterogeneous landscapes in Florida (USA) to illustrate this workflow across different grain sizes. We found that a relatively small number of s les are needed to meet 95% s ling completeness when ersity estimation is focused on dominant species: 43, 64, 96, 123, 172, and 176 for 5 × 5, 10 × 10, 15 × 15, 20 × 20, 25 × 25, and 30 × 30‐km 2 grain sizes, respectively. In contrast, three to five times more s les are necessary to infer species ersity when estimation is focused on rare species. However, in both cases, the optimal distribution of effort was spatially heterogeneous, with more effort needed in regions of higher ersity. Our results highlight the potential of citizen science data to make informed comparisons of species ersity in space and time, as well as how s ling effort inherently depends on monitoring goals, such as whether dominant or rare species are targeted. Our general workflow allows for the quantification of s ling effort needed to estimate species ersity with citizen science data and can guide future adaptive s ling by citizen science participants.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 15-04-2021
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-2019
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 29-06-2023
DOI: 10.1071/ZO23012
Abstract: An increasing number of species are establishing populations outside of their native ranges, often with negative ecological and economic impacts. The detection and surveillance of invasive species presents a huge logistical challenge, given the large spatial regions in which new populations can appear. However, data collected through citizen science projects are increasingly recognised as a valuable source for detection and monitoring of invasive species. We use data from a national citizen science project, FrogID, to quantify the spread of the eastern dwarf tree frog (Litoria fallax) outside its historical native range in Australia. Of 48 012 records of L. fallax in the FrogID database, 485 were located far outside the historical native range of the species. L. fallax has established geographically large populations hundreds of kilometres away from its native range, and these appear to be spreading in extent over time. These populations have resulted in novel species co-occurrences, with L. fallax now co-occurring with at least two frog species not present in their native range. Although the impacts of the invasive populations of L. fallax remain unknown, our work highlights the value in leveraging citizen science projects to detect and monitor native species that can become invasive far outside their historical range.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 03-2022
Publisher: Inter-Research Science Center
Date: 28-04-2022
DOI: 10.3354/MEPS14027
Abstract: Citizen science initiatives that collect opportunistic photos, or recordings, of living organisms (e.g. iNaturalist) are increasingly recognized for their importance in monitoring bio ersity. These projects are focussed primarily on recording the occurrence of in idual species in space and time. Each photo potentially also contains additional valuable information. Here, we explored the amount and potential value of background information captured in fish photographs as a method to characterise reef habitats. The habitat in the background of fish photographs shared on iNaturalist was analysed for 6 sites across Australia. To measure accuracy of the habitat data captured in the iNaturalist photos, the habitat composition of each site was compared to standardised photo-quadrats from the citizen science project Reef Life Survey (RLS). Across all sites, 70-85% of the fish photographs from iNaturalist contained discernible biotic habitat in the background. Habitat composition as measured from the background of opportunistic fish photographs was similar to those of standardised surveys from RLS. In the face of rapid environmental change, opportunistic photographs collected by recreational ers represent a complementary way to rapidly and cost-effectively collect habitat data at more reefs and more frequently than is generally feasible with standardised scientific surveys.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2023
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12939
Abstract: Ecologists routinely use statistical models to detect and explain interactions among ecological drivers, with a goal to evaluate whether an effect of interest changes in sign or magnitude in different contexts. Two fundamental properties of interactions are often overlooked during the process of hypothesising, visualising and interpreting interactions between drivers: the measurement scale – whether a response is analysed on an additive or multiplicative scale, such as a ratio or logarithmic scale and the symmetry – whether dependencies are considered in both directions. Overlooking these properties can lead to one or more of three inferential errors: misinterpretation of ( i ) the detection and magnitude (Type‐D error), and ( ii ) the sign of effect modification (Type‐S error) and ( iii ) misidentification of the underlying processes (Type‐A error). We illustrate each of these errors with a broad range of ecological questions applied to empirical and simulated data sets. We demonstrate how meta‐analysis, a widely used approach that seeks explicitly to characterise context dependence, is especially prone to all three errors. Based on these insights, we propose guidelines to improve hypothesis generation, testing, visualisation and interpretation of interactions in ecology.
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 17-05-2021
Abstract: For the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation, abundance estimates of organisms are essential. Quantifying abundance, however, is difficult and time consuming. Using a data integration approach integrating expert-derived abundance estimates and global citizen science data, we estimate the global population of 9,700 bird species (∼92% of all extant bird species). We conclude that there are many rare species, highlighting the need to continue to refine global population estimates for all taxa and the role that global citizen science data can play in this effort.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-12-2022
Abstract: Quantifying intraspecific and interspecific trait variability is critical to our understanding of biogeography, ecology and conservation. But quantifying such variability and understanding the importance of intraspecific and interspecific variability remain challenging. This is especially true of large geographic scales as this is where the differences between intraspecific and interspecific variability are likely to be greatest. Our goal is to address this research gap using broad‐scale citizen science data to quantify intraspecific variability and compare it with interspecific variability, using the ex le of bird responses to urbanization across the continental United States. Using more than 100 million observations, we quantified urban tolerance for 338 species within randomly s led spatial regions and then calculated the standard deviation of each species' urban tolerance. We found that species' spatial variability in urban tolerance (i.e. standard deviation) was largely explained by the variability of urban cover throughout a species' range ( R 2 = 0.70). Variability in urban tolerance was greater in species that were more tolerant of urban cover (i.e. the average urban tolerance throughout their range), suggesting that generalist life histories are better suited to adapt to novel anthropogenic environments. Overall, species differences explained most of the variability in urban tolerance across spatial regions. Together, our results indicate that (1) intraspecific variability is largely predicted by local environmental variability in urban cover at a large spatial scale and (2) interspecific variability is greater than intraspecific variability, supporting the common use of mean values (i.e. collapsing observations across a species' range) when assessing species–environment relationships. Further studies, across different taxa, traits and species–environment relationships are needed to test the role of intraspecific variability, but nevertheless, we recommend that when possible, ecologists should avoid using discrete categories to classify species in how they respond to the environment.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 10-10-2019
Publisher: British Ornithologists' Club
Date: 16-12-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-11-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-022-01891-Z
Abstract: Synthesis of primary ecological data is often assumed to achieve a notion of 'generality', through the quantification of overall effect sizes and consistency among studies, and has become a dominant research approach in ecology. Unfortunately, ecologists rarely define either the generality of their findings, their estimand (the target of estimation) or the population of interest. Given that generality is fundamental to science, and the urgent need for scientific understanding to curb global scale ecological breakdown, loose usage of the term 'generality' is problematic. In other disciplines, generality is defined as comprising both generalizability-extending an inference about an estimand from the s le to the population-and transferability-the validity of estimand predictions in a different s ling unit or population. We review current practice in ecological synthesis and demonstrate that, when researchers fail to define the assumptions underpinning generalizations and transfers of effect sizes, generality often misses its target. We provide guidance for communicating nuanced inferences and maximizing the impact of syntheses both within and beyond academia. We propose pathways to generality applicable to ecological syntheses, including the development of quantitative and qualitative criteria with which to license the transfer of estimands from both primary and synthetic studies.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-05-2022
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.06219
Abstract: Large‐scale bio ersity databases have great potential for quantifying long‐term trends of species, but they also bring many methodological challenges. Spatial bias of species occurrence records is well recognized. Yet, the dynamic nature of this spatial bias – how spatial bias has changed over time – has been largely overlooked. We examined the spatial bias of species occurrence records within multiple bio ersity databases in Germany and tested whether spatial bias in relation to land cover or land use (urban and protected areas) has changed over time. We focused our analyses on urban and protected areas as these represent two well‐known correlates of s ling bias in bio ersity datasets. We found that the proportion of annual records from urban areas has increased over time while the proportion of annual records within protected areas has not consistently changed. Using simulations, we examined the implications of this changing s ling bias for estimation of long‐term trends of species' distributions. When assessing bio ersity change, our findings suggest that the effects of spatial bias depend on how it affects s ling of the underlying land‐use change drivers affecting species. Overs ling of regions undergoing the greatest degree of change, for instance near human settlements, might lead to overestimation of the trends of specialist species. For robust estimation of the long‐term trends in species' distributions, analyses using species occurrence records may need to consider not only spatial bias, but also changes in the spatial bias through time.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 10-11-2020
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 16-04-2020
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 23-08-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-03-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.7307
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 03-05-2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-03-2018
DOI: 10.1111/IBI.12555
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 04-2023
Abstract: One way to improve the value of citizen science data for a specific aim is through promoting adaptive s ling, where the marginal value of a citizen science observation is dependent on existing data collected to address a specific question. Adaptive s ling could increase s ling at places or times—using a dynamic and updateable framework—where data are expected to be most informative for a given ecological question or conservation goal. We used an experimental approach to test whether the participants in a popular Australian citizen science project—FrogID—would follow an adaptive s ling protocol aiming to maximize understanding of frog ersity. After a year, our results demonstrated that these citizen science participants were willing to adopt an adaptive s ling protocol, improving the s ling of bio ersity consistent with a specific aim. Such adaptive s ling can increase the value of citizen science data for bio ersity research and open up new avenues for citizen science project design.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 05-03-2021
Publisher: Waterbird Society
Date: 09-2016
DOI: 10.1675/063.039.0305
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2023
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.2808
Abstract: Most ecological studies use remote sensing to analyze broad‐scale bio ersity patterns, focusing mainly on taxonomic ersity in natural landscapes. One of the most important effects of high levels of urbanization is species loss (i.e., biotic homogenization). Therefore, cost‐effective and more efficient methods to monitor biological communities' distribution are essential. This study explores whether the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can predict multifaceted avian ersity, urban tolerance, and specialization in urban landscapes. We s led bird communities among 15 European cities and extracted Landsat 30‐meter resolution EVI and NDVI values of the pixels within a 50‐m buffer of bird s le points using Google Earth Engine (32‐day Landsat 8 Collection Tier 1). Mixed models were used to find the best associations of EVI and NDVI, predicting multiple avian ersity facets: Taxonomic ersity, functional ersity, phylogenetic ersity, specialization levels, and urban tolerance. A total of 113 bird species across 15 cities from 10 different European countries were detected. EVI mean was the best predictor for foraging substrate specialization. NDVI mean was the best predictor for most avian ersity facets: taxonomic ersity, functional richness and evenness, phylogenetic ersity, phylogenetic species variability, community evolutionary distinctiveness, urban tolerance, diet foraging behavior, and habitat richness specialists. Finally, EVI and NDVI standard deviation were not the best predictors for any avian ersity facets studied. Our findings expand previous knowledge about EVI and NDVI as surrogates of avian ersity at a continental scale. Considering the European Commission's proposal for a Nature Restoration Law calling for expanding green urban space areas by 2050, we propose NDVI as a proxy of multiple facets of avian ersity to efficiently monitor bird community responses to land use changes in the cities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-10-2023
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16955
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-09-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GEB.13405
Abstract: We assessed the spatial distribution of four different types of avian specialization throughout Europe, identifying landscape features associated with specialization and quantifying where the Natura 2000 network intersects with areas of high avian specialization. Europe. Present day. European breeding birds. We used the European Atlas of breeding birds and four avian specialization measures (diet, foraging behaviour, foraging substrate and habitat). We calculated specialization richness and identified geographical hotspots for each of these ecological traits. We tested whether elevational gradient, landscape heterogeneity or dominant land use predicted each type of specialization richness. We determined which types of European protected areas are most associated with higher specialization richness. Diet and foraging substrate specialists increased with elevation, whereas richness of foraging behavioural specialists decreased. There was a greater richness of dietary and habitat specialists in forests than in other environments. The Natura 2000 areas declared under Bird and both directives (Birds and Habitats) intersected with a high dietary, foraging substrate and habitat specialist richness. The richness of foraging behaviour specialists was high in Birds directive areas. Single and multiple hotspots of specialization were greater in protected than non‐protected areas. However, almost 30% of specialization hotspots did not intersect with protected areas. Our findings suggest that higher levels of avian specialization in Europe are positively associated with elevation and forested land cover. Importantly, we found that the Natura 2000 network supports all types of avian ecological specialization, albeit mainly in areas declared under both directives.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 03-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10531-022-02398-6
Abstract: Citizen science is on the rise, with growing numbers of initiatives, participants and increasing interest from the broader scientific community. iNaturalist is an ex le of a successful citizen science platform that enables users to opportunistically capture and share bio ersity observations. Understanding how data from such opportunistic citizen science platforms compare with and complement data from structured surveys will improve their use in future bio ersity research. We compared the opportunistic fish photographs from iNaturalist to those obtained from structured surveys at eight study reefs in Sydney, Australia over twelve years. iNaturalist recorded 1.2 to 5.5 times more fish species than structured surveys resulting in significantly greater annual species richness at half of the reefs, with the remainder showing no significant difference. iNaturalist likely recorded more species due to having simple methods, which allowed for broad participation with substantially more iNaturalist observation events (e.g., es) than structured surveys over the same period. These results demonstrate the value of opportunistic citizen science platforms for documenting fish species richness, particularly where access and use of the marine environment is common and communities have the time and resources for expensive recreational activities (i.e., underwater photography). The datasets also recorded different species composition with iNaturalist recording many rare, less abundant, or cryptic species while the structured surveys captured many common and abundant species. These results suggest that integrating data from both opportunistic and structured data sources is likely to have the best outcome for future bio ersity monitoring and conservation activities.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15623
Abstract: Anthropogenic habitat modification is accelerating, threatening the world's bio ersity. Understanding species' responses to anthropogenic modification is vital for halting species' declines. However, this information is lacking for globally threatened hibians, informed primarily by small community‐level studies. We integrated ,000 verified citizen science observations of frogs, with a global continuous measure of anthropogenic habitat modification for a continental scale analysis of the effects of habitat modification on frogs. We derived a modification tolerance index—accounting for anthropogenic stressors such as human habitation, agriculture, transport and energy production—for 87 species (36% of all Australian frog species). We used this index to quantify and rank each species' tolerance of anthropogenic habitat modification, then compiled traits of all the frog species and assessed how well these equipped species to tolerate modified habitats. Most of Australia's frog species examined were adversely affected by habitat modification. Habitat specialists and species with large geographic range sizes were the least tolerant of habitat modification. Call dominant frequency, body size, clutch type and calling position (i.e. from vegetation) were also related to tolerance of habitat modification. There is an urgent need for improved consideration of anthropogenic impacts and improved conservation measures to ensure the long‐term persistence of frog populations, particularly focused on specialists and species identified as intolerant of modified habitats.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-07-2020
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.07356
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-06-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-022-15218-2
Abstract: Citizen scientists play an increasingly important role in bio ersity monitoring. Most of the data, however, are unstructured—collected by erse methods that are not documented with the data. Insufficient understanding of the data collection processes presents a major barrier to the use of citizen science data in bio ersity research. We developed a questionnaire to ask citizen scientists about their decision-making before, during and after collecting and reporting species observations, using Germany as a case study. We quantified the greatest sources of variability among respondents and assessed whether motivations and experience related to any aspect of data collection. Our questionnaire was answered by almost 900 people, with varying taxonomic foci and expertise. Respondents were most often motivated by improving species knowledge and supporting conservation, but there were no linkages between motivations and data collection methods. By contrast, variables related to experience and knowledge, such as membership of a natural history society, were linked with a greater propensity to conduct planned searches, during which typically all species were reported. Our findings have implications for how citizen science data are analysed in statistical models highlight the importance of natural history societies and provide pointers to where citizen science projects might be further developed.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2018
DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.2347
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-06-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13251
Abstract: The influence of resource availability on ecosystem function varies spatially and temporally, among and within ecosystems. Dramatic shifts in moisture‐driven resources can drive bottom‐up effects on animal behaviours and distributions. Further, complexity arises when landscapes are influenced by large mammalian grazers and predator‐induced trophic cascades, such as those mediated by the dingo ( Canis familiaris (Dingo)) in the eastern arid Strzelecki Desert in Australia. During the driest two‐year period on record for this region, we investigated the persistence of avian communities associated with structurally distinct dunes and swale habitats, and across two different land management regimes (pastoral land with livestock and dingoes, and Sturt National Park managed for conservation without these animals). We grouped all birds into dietary functional groups to infer patterns of habitat use associated with available resources. We also compared incidental observations of the ‘winter’ bird community in part of the study region between the extended dry period of 2018/2019 and wet period of 2020/2021. Despite habitat partitioning, the avian community did not differ between land management regimes except in species richness during the dry period, likely driven by the low numbers of birds present during the surveys. Incidental observations indicated that insectivorous and omnivorous species dominated the bird community in the dry period, with granivorous species forming a greater proportion of the bird community during wet times. Birds with completely or partially insectivorous diets dominated avian species composition on surveys in the dry period, but there were distinct structural vegetation associations among functional groups, indicating that heterogeneity in vegetation structure was likely important for the conservation of refuges, which enable the persistence of avifauna during extended dry periods. Distinct habitat type, structure and available resources shaped avian communities in this landscape, during the extremely resource‐limited extended dry period, with implications for conservation and management, particularly given the increasing drying effects of climate change.
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 19-05-2019
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2018
DOI: 10.1111/JAV.01825
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2022
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 30-09-2023
DOI: 10.32942/X2CP5T
Publisher: BirdLife Australia, Ltd.
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.20938/AFO35051056
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-10-2021
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.12959
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-11-2017
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 11-11-2020
Abstract: Citizen science is fundamentally shifting the future of bio ersity research. But although citizen science observations are contributing an increasingly large proportion of bio ersity data, they only feature in a relatively small percentage of research papers on bio ersity. We provide our perspective on three frontiers of citizen science research, areas that we feel to date have had minimal scientific exploration but that we believe deserve greater attention as they present substantial opportunities for the future of bio ersity research: s ling the unders led, capitalizing on citizen science's unique ability to s le poorly s led taxa and regions of the world, reducing taxonomic and spatial biases in global bio ersity data sets estimating abundance and density in space and time, develop techniques to derive taxon-specific densities from presence or absence and presence-only data and capitalizing on secondary data collection, moving beyond data on the occurrence of single species and gain further understanding of ecological interactions among species or habitats. The contribution of citizen science to understanding the important bio ersity questions of our time should be more fully realized.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 26-03-2019
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-07-2023
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-023-38493-Z
Abstract: Urbanisation is occurring around the world at a rapid rate and is generally associated with negative impacts on bio ersity at local, regional, and global scales. Examining the behavioural response profiles of wildlife to urbanisation helps differentiate between species that do or do not show adaptive responses to changing landscapes and hence are more or less likely to persist in such environments. Species-specific responses to urbanisation are poorly understood in the Southern Hemisphere compared to the Northern Hemisphere, where most of the published literature is focussed. This is also true for raptors, despite their high ersity and comparably high conservation concern in the Southern Hemisphere, and their critical role within ecosystems as bioindicators of environmental health. Here, we explore this knowledge gap using community science data sourced from eBird to investigate the urban tolerance of 24 Australian raptor species at a continental scale. We integrated eBird data with a global continuous measure of urbanisation, artificial light at night (ALAN), to derive an urban tolerance index, ranking species from positive to negative responses according to their tolerance of urban environments. We then gathered trait data from the published literature to assess whether certain traits (body mass, nest substrate, habitat type, feeding guild, and migratory status) were associated with urban tolerance. Body size was negatively associated with urban tolerance, as smaller raptors had greater urban tolerance than larger raptors. Out of the 24 species analysed, 13 species showed tolerance profiles for urban environments (positive response), and 11 species showed avoidance profiles for urban environments (negative response). The results of this study provide impetus to conserve native habitat and improve urban conditions for larger-bodied raptor species to conserve Australian raptor ersity in an increasingly urbanised world.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-01-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 25-01-2019
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.06158
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2022
Publisher: Center for Open Science
Date: 14-06-2022
Abstract: The inherent complexity and multi-causality of nature makes attempts to gain understanding and guidance about critical issues including rates of bio ersity loss, or the effectiveness of actions such as tree planting, wickedly difficult and often subject to poorly-substantiated assertions about their generality. Synthesis of primary ecological data is often assumed to achieve a notion of ‘generality’, through the quantification of overall effect sizes and consistency among studies, and has become a dominant research approach in ecology. Assertions about generality should raise the question: what exactly is generality? Ecologists rarely define either the generality of their findings, their estimand (what is estimated, based on the question of interest) or population of interest. Given that generality is fundamental to the philosophy of science, and the urgent need for scientific understanding and applied conservation actions to curb ecological breakdown, the loose use of the term ‘generality’ is problematic. In other disciplines generality is defined as comprising both generalisability: extending an inference about an estimand from the s le to the population, and transferability: the validity of estimand predictions in a different s ling unit or population. We review current practice in ecological synthesis, and demonstrate that by failing to define the assumptions that underpin generalisations and transfers of effect sizes, generality often misses its target. We then provide guidance for communicating nuanced inferences, and maximising the impact of syntheses both within and beyond academia. We finally propose pathways to generality applicable to ecological syntheses, which includes development of quantitative and qualitative criteria with which to license the transfer of estimands from both primary and synthetic studies.
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-11-2020
Publisher: Resilience Alliance, Inc.
Date: 19-10-2015
DOI: 10.1111/JOFO.12121
Publisher: Resilience Alliance, Inc.
Date: 2017
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-10-2022
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13634
Abstract: Here we investigate the strength of the relationships between meteorological factors and calling behaviour of 100 Australian frog species using continent‐wide citizen science data. First, we use this dataset to quantify the meteorological factors that best predict frog calling. Second, we investigate the strength of interactions among predictor variables. Third, we assess whether frog species cluster into distinct groups based on shared drivers of calling. Australia. To assess the relationship between calling and meteorological traits, we used spatio‐temporal subs ling (daily data fitted to 10 km 2 grid cells) of call and meteorological data as inputs to a boosted regression tree. We scaled the model outputs, which created a descriptive ranking of predictor importance. For strongly day‐driven species, we conducted further analyses to examine the influences of meteorological factors within the breeding season. We found a strong seasonal signal, with day of year the strongest relationship to calling in 67 out of our 100 species, moderate relationships between temperature and calling, and weak relationships between rainfall and calling. Despite the common narratives, we found that frogs did not group into distinct categories based upon the influence of meteorological factors. For strongly day‐driven species, we found similar patterns within the breeding season. We demonstrate the importance of day of year and temperature thresholds in predicting frog calling behaviour in Australia. Understanding how meteorological conditions influence phenological events, such as breeding, will be increasingly important considering the rapid changes in environmental conditions and stability throughout most of the world, and how important breeding is to species survival.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 25-05-2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1093/JUE/JUAA002
Abstract: One of the major drivers of global bio ersity declines is habitat loss and modification, often associated with anthropogenic environments. To mitigate bio ersity declines, a comprehensive understanding of how species respond to novel anthropogenic environments is required. Compared to natural habitats, human-modified environments often have increased noise and light pollution, potentially affecting acoustically communicating species, such as frogs. These areas may force animals to modulate or alter their calls to communicate with potential mates, as they compete with anthropogenic noise. Using large-scale citizen science data, coupled with remotely sensed data, we examined how the advertisement calls of the Australian red tree frog (Litoria rubella) varied in response to a gradient consistent with anthropogenic disturbance. After measuring a suite of acoustic properties of L.rubella across its range, we discovered that their advertisement calls showed no response to a disturbance urbanisation gradient. The advertisement calls of the species were highly variable, both at continental and local scales. Our results indicate that acoustic communication in male L.rubella may not be impeded in human-modified habitats as (1) they are a loud species typically heard over background noise and multi-species choruses and (2) their calls are highly variable—potentially serving as a buffer to any acoustic disturbances. Overall, our results provide evidence that some frog species may be acoustically urban tolerant and provide a greater understanding of the responses frogs exhibit to human-mediated environmental change.
Publisher: California Digital Library (CDL)
Date: 21-10-2023
DOI: 10.32942/X2089S
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-10-2023
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.06759
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-01-2022
DOI: 10.1111/EVO.14390
Abstract: When working with a citizen science database like eBird, there are many possible ways to filter or subs le observations. Here, we discuss the potential biases and assumptions that surround different subs ling approaches or filtering that can be done to the eBird database. Restricting observations to species that are known to frequently hybridize, a specific time of the year, or a specific location, has the potential to greatly inflate the calculated per-in idual rate of hybridization. Such filtering also assumes that researchers know a birds' capacity to hybridize with all other species in its range, which we argue is an unfounded assumption. We ultimately conclude that a limited filtering approach is ideal when using a citizen science database to attempt to address a broad question such as: what is the per in idual rate of hybridization across all of the bird species in the United States?
Publisher: Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.7882/AZ.2019.009
Abstract: Urbanisation is altering local flora and fauna, but urban greenspaces can provide refugia for a variety of taxa. However, we often lack basic bio ersity information (e.g., species richness) for these urban greenspaces. Citizen science projects are continuously improving our understanding of ecology at broad temporal and spatial scales. But, many conservation-relevant decisions are idiosyncratic and made at small management scales (e.g., local government). Given a general bias of citizen science data towards areas with large human populations, citizen scientists are best placed to contribute to improving our understanding of the bio ersity within cities and urban greenspaces. We introduce the Greenspace Bird Calculator: a web-app aimed at enhancing our collective knowledge of bird ersity in urban greenspaces. Users of the web-app could be land managers seeking to understand the bird ersity in the greenspaces they manage. It is built in a reproducible workflow, allowing anyone to delineate a greenspace and submit it to the web-app administrator, receiving an output comprising the greenspace’s total bird ersity. The Greenspace Bird Calculator web-app provides an automated tool to utilise existing eBird citizen science data to calculate species richness for urban greenspaces globally. Critically, the GBC web-app statistically assesses available data that otherwise would be unlikely to be considered by decision-makers. This web-app is an ex le of the evolution of citizen science, whereby the data collected has been analysed to allow accessible interpretation and inclusion into urban greenspace management and planning.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-10-2020
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.6833
Abstract: Many animals rely on vocal communication for mating advertisement, territorial displays, and warning calls. Advertisement calls are species‐specific, serve as a premating isolation mechanism, and reinforce species boundaries. Nevertheless, there is a great deal of interspecific variability of advertisement calls. Quantifying the variability of calls among in iduals within a species and across species is critical to understand call evolution and species boundaries, and may build a foundation for further research in animal communication. However, collecting a large volume of advertisement call recordings across a large geographic area has traditionally posed a logistical barrier. We used data from the continental‐scale citizen science project FrogID to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of call characteristics in six Australian frog species. We found intraspecific call variability in both call duration and peak frequency across species. Using res ling methods, we show that variability in call duration and peak frequency was related to the number of in iduals recorded, the geographic area encompassed by those in iduals, and the intra‐annual time difference between those recordings. We conclude that in order to accurately understand frog advertisement call variation, or “anuran accents,” the number of in iduals in a s le must be numerous ( N ≥ 20), encompass a large geographic area relative to a species' range, and be collected throughout a species' calling season.
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 10-11-2022
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-06-2019
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2021
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-2023
Abstract: Citizen science programs are becoming increasingly popular among naturalists but remain heavily biased taxonomically and geographically. However, with the explosive popularity of social media and the near-ubiquitous availability of smartphones, many post wildlife photographs on social media. Here, we illustrate the potential of harvesting these data to enhance our bio ersity understanding using Bangladesh, a tropical bio erse country, as a case study. We compared bio ersity records extracted from Facebook with those from the Global Bio ersity Information Facility (GBIF), collating geospatial records for 1013 unique species, including 970 species from Facebook and 712 species from GBIF. Although most observation records were biased toward major cities, the Facebook records were more evenly spatially distributed. About 86% of the Threatened species records were from Facebook, whereas the GBIF records were almost entirely Of Least Concern species. To reduce the global bio ersity data shortfall, a key research priority now is the development of mechanisms for extracting and interpreting social media bio ersity data.
Location: United States of America
Location: Germany
No related grants have been discovered for Corey Callaghan.