Culturomics is an emerging field of study that seeks to understand human culture through the quantitative analysis of changes in word frequencies in large bodies of digital texts. Culturomics research can help practitioners in nature conservation respond to cultural trends, building and reinvigorating its societal relevance. We identify five areas where culturomics can be used to advance the practice and science of conservation: (1) recognizing conservation‐oriented constituencies and demonstrating public interest in nature, (2) identifying conservation emblems, (3) providing new metrics and tools for near‐real‐time environmental monitoring and to support conservation decision making, (4) assessing the cultural impact of conservation interventions, and (5) framing conservation issues and promoting public understanding. More generally, culturomics opens up an exciting new area of research, equipping conservationists with novel tools to explore and shape human interactions with the natural world.

BackgroundThe migratory patterns of animals are changing in response to global environmental change with many species forming resident populations in areas where they were once migratory. The white stork (Ciconia ciconia) was wholly migratory in Europe but recently guaranteed, year-round food from landfill sites has facilitated the establishment of resident populations in Iberia. In this study 17 resident white storks were fitted with GPS/GSM data loggers (including accelerometer) and tracked for 9.1 ± 3.7 months to quantify the extent and consistency of landfill attendance by individuals during the non-breeding and breeding seasons and to assess the influence of landfill use on daily distances travelled, percentage of GPS fixes spent foraging and non-landfill foraging ranges.ResultsResident white storks used landfill more during non-breeding (20.1 % ± 2.3 of foraging GPS fixes) than during breeding (14.9 % ± 2.2). Landfill attendance declined with increasing distance between nest and landfill in both seasons. During non-breeding a large percentage of GPS fixes occurred on the nest throughout the day (27 % ± 3.0 of fixes) in the majority of tagged storks. This study provides first confirmation of year-round nest use by resident white storks. The percentage of GPS fixes on the nest was not influenced by the distance between nest and the landfill site. Storks travelled up to 48.2 km to visit landfills during non-breeding and a maximum of 28.1 km during breeding, notably further than previous estimates. Storks nesting close to landfill sites used landfill more and had smaller foraging ranges in non-landfill habitat indicating higher reliance on landfill. The majority of non-landfill foraging occurred around the nest and long distance trips were made specifically to visit landfill.ConclusionsThe continuous availability of food resources on landfill has facilitated year-round nest use in white storks and is influencing their home ranges and movement behaviour. White storks rely on landfill sites for foraging especially during the non-breeding season when other food resources are scarcer and this artificial food supplementation probably facilitated the establishment of resident populations. The closure of landfills, as required by EU Landfill Directives, will likely cause dramatic impacts on white stork populations.

Digital data are accumulating at unprecedented rates. These contain a lot of information about the natural world, some of which can be used to answer key ecological questions. Here, we introduce iEcology (i.e., internet ecology), an emerging research approach that uses diverse online data sources and methods to generate insights about species distribution over space and time, interactions and dynamics of organisms and their environment, and anthropogenic impacts. We review iEcology data sources and methods, and provide examples of potential research applications. We also outline approaches to reduce potential biases and improve reliability and applicability. As technologies and expertise improve, and costs diminish, iEcology will become an increasingly important means to gain novel insights into the natural world. Information Age, Big Data, and iEcologyThe information age is characterized by rapid accumulation of myriad types of digital data [1]. Central to this revolution is the Internet, which is a source of unprecedented amounts of diverse and readily accessible data, via webpages, social media, and various other data platforms. These data are constantly created and stored in the digital realm and form an omnipresent part of the modern world. They also provide novel opportunities for research that the scientific community is only beginning to explore. Here, we describe an emerging research approach -iEcology (i.e., internet ecology), which we define as the study of ecological patterns and processes using online data generated for other purposes and stored digitally (Figure 1). These data can be used to address fundamental ecological questions and to analyze ecological processes at a range of spatiotemporal scales and across a diverse range of contexts. As such, iEcology has the potential to provide new understandings of ecological dynamics and mechanisms, complementing more traditional methods of obtaining ecological data.While iEcology can be considered to fit within the wider scope of ecological informatics (see Glossary), it is distinct from other uses of Big Data sources in the biological sciences in that data are not specifically and intentionally generated to address ecological and environmental questions [2][3][4]. Moreover, iEcology expands on the traditional scope of ecological informatics with new data sources and dedicated methods to analyze them. iEcology is predominantly focused on collecting, collating, and exploring data generated online by human society, either passively or unintentionally (e.g., Internet search activity, social media interactions, and uploaded data and media), a process also referred to as passive crowdsourcing [5]. iEcology uses digital methods to access, handle, and analyze these data, in a manner akin to techniques from other research fields such as sociology, culture and media studies, biomedical sciences, computer sciences, and economics [6,7]. iEcology also shares part of its toolbox with conservation culturomicsan emerging research area in conservation science [8-10]alb...