scholarly journals A citizen science approach to evaluating US cities for biotic homogenization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misha Leong ◽  
Michelle D Trautwein
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Biodiversity ◽  
Biotic Homogenization ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Urban Intensification ◽  
The City ◽  
Us Cities

Cities around the world have converged on structural and environmental characteristics that exert similar eco-evolutionary pressures on local communities. However, evaluating how urban biodiversity responds to urban intensification remains poorly understood because of the challenges in capturing the diversity of a range of taxa within and across multiple cities from different types of urbanization. Here we utilize a growing resource—citizen science data. We analyzed 66,209 observations representing 5,209 species generated by the City Nature Challenge project on the iNaturalist platform, in conjunction with remote sensing (NLCD2011) environmental data, to test for urban biotic homogenization at increasing levels of urban intensity across 14 metropolitan cities in the United States. Based on community composition analyses, we found that while similarities occur to an extent, urban biodiversity is often much more a reflection of the taxa living locally in a region. At the same time, the communities found in high intensity development were less explained by regional context than communities from other land cover types were. We also found that the most commonly observed species are often shared between cities and are non-endemic and/or have a distribution facilitated by humans. This study highlights the value of citizen science data in answering questions in urban ecology.

scholarly journals A citizen science approach to evaluating US cities for biotic homogenization

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6879 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misha Leong ◽  
Michelle Trautwein
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Biodiversity ◽  
Biotic Homogenization ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Urban Intensification ◽  
The City ◽  
Us Cities

Cities around the world have converged on structural and environmental characteristics that exert similar eco-evolutionary pressures on local communities. However, evaluating how urban biodiversity responds to urban intensification remains poorly understood because of the challenges in capturing the diversity of a range of taxa within and across multiple cities from different types of urbanization. Here we utilize a growing resource—citizen science data. We analyzed 66,209 observations representing 5,209 species generated by the City Nature Challenge project on the iNaturalist platform, in conjunction with remote sensing (NLCD2011) environmental data, to test for urban biotic homogenization at increasing levels of urban intensity across 14 metropolitan cities in the United States. Based on community composition analyses, we found that while similarities occur to an extent, urban biodiversity is often much more a reflection of the taxa living locally in a region. At the same time, the communities found in high-intensity development were less explained by regional context than communities from other land cover types were. We also found that the most commonly observed species are often shared between cities and are non-endemic and/or have a distribution facilitated by humans. This study highlights the value of citizen science data in answering questions in urban ecology.

scholarly journals A citizen science approach to evaluating US cities for biotic homogenization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misha Leong ◽  
Michelle D Trautwein
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Biodiversity ◽  
Biotic Homogenization ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Urban Intensification ◽  
The City ◽  
Us Cities

Cities around the world have converged on structural and environmental characteristics that exert similar eco-evolutionary pressures on local communities. However, evaluating how urban biodiversity responds to urban intensification remains poorly understood because of the challenges in capturing the diversity of a range of taxa within and across multiple cities from different types of urbanization. Here we utilize a growing resource—citizen science data. We analyzed 66,209 observations representing 5,209 species generated by the City Nature Challenge project on the iNaturalist platform, in conjunction with remote sensing (NLCD2011) environmental data, to test for urban biotic homogenization at increasing levels of urban intensity across 14 metropolitan cities in the United States. Based on community composition analyses, we found that while similarities occur to an extent, urban biodiversity is often much more a reflection of the taxa living locally in a region. At the same time, the communities found in high intensity development were less explained by regional context than communities from other land cover types were. We also found that the most commonly observed species are often shared between cities and are non-endemic and/or have a distribution facilitated by humans. This study highlights the value of citizen science data in answering questions in urban ecology.

scholarly journals A citizen science approach to evaluating US cities for biotic homogenization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Misha Leong ◽  
Michelle D Trautwein
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Biodiversity ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Metropolitan Cities ◽  
Regional Specificity ◽  
Urban Intensification ◽  
The City ◽  
Us Cities

Background. Cities around the world have converged on structural and environmental characteristics that exert similar eco-evolutionary pressures on local communities. However, evaluating how urban biodiversity responds to urban intensification remains poorly understood because of the challenges in capturing the diversity of a range of taxa within and across multiple cities from different types of urbanization. Methods. Here we utilize a growing resource—citizen science data. We analyzed 66,209 observations representing 5,209 species generated by the City Nature Challenge project on the iNaturalist platform, in conjunction with remote sensing (NLCD2011) environmental data, to test for urban homogenization at increasing levels of urban intensity across 14 metropolitan cities in the United States. Results. Based on community composition analyses, we found that while urban homogenization occurs to an extent, urban biodiversity is often much more a reflection of the regional specificity of taxa. On the other hand, we also found that the most commonly observed species are often shared between cities and are non-endemic and/or have a distribution facilitated by humans. This study highlights the value of citizen science data in answering questions in urban ecology.

scholarly journals Mapping the Urban Lead Exposome: A Detailed Analysis of Soil Metal Concentrations at the Household Scale Using Citizen Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Filippelli ◽  
Jessica Adamic ◽  
Deborah Nichols ◽  
John Shukle ◽  
Emeline Frix
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Metal Concentrations ◽  
Soil Lead ◽  
Urban Core ◽  
Lead And Zinc ◽  
Property Scale ◽  
Core Soil ◽  
The City ◽  
Soil Metal

An ambitious citizen science effort in the city of Indianapolis (IN, USA) led to the collection and analysis of a large number of samples at the property scale, facilitating the analysis of differences in soil metal concentrations as a function of property location (i.e., dripline, yard, and street) and location within the city. This effort indicated that dripline soils had substantially higher values of lead and zinc than other soil locations on a given property, and this pattern was heightened in properties nearer the urban core. Soil lead values typically exceeded the levels deemed safe for children’s play areas in the United States (<400 ppm), and almost always exceeded safe gardening guidelines (<200 ppm). As a whole, this study identified locations within properties and cities that exhibited the highest exposure risk to children, and also exhibited the power of citizen science to produce data at a spatial scale (i.e., within a property boundary), which is usually impossible to feasibly collect in a typical research study.

scholarly journals Estimating the annual distribution of monarch butterflies in Canada over 16 years using citizen science data

FACETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 238-253
Author(s):  
D. T. Tyler Flockhart ◽  
Maxim Larrivée ◽  
Kathleen L. Prudic ◽  
D. Ryan Norris
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Habitat Restoration ◽  
Danaus Plexippus ◽  
The United States ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Eastern Canada ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Monarch Butterflies ◽  
Breeding Distribution

Monarch butterflies ( Danaus plexippus, Linnaeus, 1758) are comprised of two migratory populations separated by the Rocky Mountains and are renowned for their long-distance movements among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Both populations have declined over several decades across North America prompting all three countries to evaluate conservation efforts. Monitoring monarch distribution and abundance is a necessary aspect of ongoing management in Canada where they are a species at risk. We used presence-only data from two citizen science data sets to estimate the annual breeding distribution of monarch butterflies in Canada between 2000 and 2015. Monarch breeding distribution in Canada varied widely among years owing to natural variation, and when considering the upper 95% of the probability of occurrence, the annual mean breeding distribution in Canada was 484 943 km2 (min: 173 449 km2; max: 1 425 835 km2). The area of occurrence was approximately an order of magnitude larger in eastern Canada than in western Canada. Habitat restoration for monarch butterflies in Canada should prioritize productive habitats in southern Ontario where monarchs occur annually and, therefore, likely contribute most to the long-term viability of monarchs in eastern North America. Overall, our assessment sets the geographic context to develop successful management strategies for monarchs in Canada.

scholarly journals Metropolitan USA: Evidence from the 2010 Census

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Rennie Short
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Central City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Census ◽  
The City ◽  
Us Cities

I will review the major changes in the distribution of the metropolitan population of the United States (US), as revealed by the 2010 data recently released by the US Census. These data allow us to track recent changes and provide the basis for a discussion of longer-term trends identified in previous studies of US cities (Short 2006, 2007) and the city suburban nexus (Hanlon et al. 2010). In brief summary, the paper will show the continuing metropolitanization and suburbanization of the US population. A more nuanced picture will reveal evidence of stress in suburban areas and population resurgence in selected central city areas. Overall, the story is one of a profound revalorization and a major respatialization of the US metropolis.

scholarly journals A grid mapping scheme for the flora of Tyumen city: a case study for an invasive and a synanthropic plant species

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.V. Kuzmin ◽  
◽  
A.A. Khapugin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Grid Cell ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Biodiversity Inventory ◽  
Synanthropic Species ◽  
Biological Studies ◽  
Grid Mapping ◽  
The City ◽  
Mapping Scheme ◽  
Expert Data

Biodiversity inventory is one of the widespread fields in biological studies around the world. The understanding the correct distribution of each taxon needs obtaining the complete number of species’ records in the study area. In this research, we compared the completeness of reliable expert data and citizen science data obtained through iNaturalist platform for the urban area of the city Tyumen. The comparison was conducted using the grid mapping scheme developed by us for the study area with grid cell size of 1 × 1 km. As target plants, an invasive species Heracleum sosnowskyi and a synanthropic species Urtica cannabina were selected. We found that neither only expert data nor only citizen science (iNaturalist) data can reflect a reliable distribution of these species in the city Tyumen. We believe that only joint coordinated use of both citizen science data and expert data could provide the relevant and reliable data on species’ distribution.

scholarly journals Arctic expedition cruise tourism and citizen science: a vision for the future of polar tourism

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-111
Author(s):  
Audrey R. Taylor ◽  
Þórný Barðadóttir ◽  
Sarah Auffret ◽  
Annette Bombosch ◽  
Allison Lee Cusick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Science Data ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cruise Industry ◽  
Cruise Tourism

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for using citizen science – defined as a data collection method through which non-professionals engage in contributing to authentic scientific inquiry – within the expedition cruise industry to contribute significantly to the collection of environmental data from hard-to-access Arctic areas. Design/methodology/approach The authors review trends in Arctic expedition cruise tourism and current needs in Arctic research and monitoring, and clarify where the expedition cruise tourism industry could have the most impact by providing data to the scientific community. The authors also compare the regulatory context in the Antarctic to that in the Arctic and discuss how these differences could affect the widespread use of citizen science. At last, the authors describe some general principles for designing citizen science programs to be successful on board, and highlight several existing programs that are being recognized for their contributions to a greater scientific understanding of the Arctic. Findings The authors find that citizen science data from the expedition cruise industry are underutilized as a tool for monitoring Arctic change. Numerous examples illustrate how citizen science programs on-board expedition ships can successfully collect robust scientific data and contribute to enhancing the knowledge and stewardship capacity of cruise passengers. Inclusion of citizen science data from the expedition cruise industry should be considered a critical part of international Arctic observing networks and systems. Social implications Active participation in Arctic citizen science by tourists on expedition cruise ships has many potential benefits beyond the collection of high quality data, from increasing passengers’ knowledge and understanding of the Arctic while on board, to affecting their attitudes and behaviors after they return home. Originality/value The potential for tourism to contribute to Arctic observing systems has been discussed previously in the scientific literature; the authors narrow the focus to citizen science programs in the expedition cruise industry, and provide concrete examples, in the hope that this will streamline acceptance and implementation of these ideas by researchers and tourism practitioners.

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