In the race to document the species on Earth before they go extinct, researchers and citizen scientists have assembled billions of records.
In the race to document the species on Earth before they go extinct, researchers and citizen scientists have assembled billions of records. Most records either come from physical specimens in a museum or digital field observations, but both are useful for detecting shifts in the number and abundance of species in an area. However, a new Stanford study has found that both record types are flawed, and the degree to which they are riddled with coverage gaps and biases depends on the kind of dataset.
Back in Charles Darwin’s day, and up until relatively recently, naturalists recorded the species present in an area by collecting and preserving samples of the plants, insects, fish, birds, and other animals in a region for museums and educational collections. Today, most records of biodiversity are often in the form of photos, videos, GPS coordinates, and other digital records with no corresponding physical sample of the organism they represent in a museum or herbarium.
“With the rise of technology it is easy for people to make observations of different species with the aid of a mobile application,” said Barnabas Daru, assistant professor of biology in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.
Read more at: Stanford University
