Observer‐oriented approach improves species distribution models from citizen science data

Abstract

Monitoring biodiversity is fundamental for conservation and sustainable use of natural resources but governmental, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and scientific agencies often lack financial resources to support long-term biodiversity assessment by professional scientists and volunteers (Bland et al., 2015; Kelling et al., 2018). Collection of field-data is often very expensive and requires a high economic and time effort, even to get a low amount of information, especially under the ongoing global economic crisis

En route to the North: modelling crested porcupine habitat suitability and dispersal flows across a highly anthropized area in northern Italy

“…Notwithstanding the limited extension of the study area and, consequently, of the number of species occurrences considered for developing the habitat suitability model and the potential dispersal corridors, compared with other nation-wide researches (Mori et al 2013(Mori et al , 2018(Mori et al , 2021Milanesi et al 2020), we obtained highly reliable results, which provide important insights for the conservation of the strictly protected crested porcupine in northern Italy, especially in light of the ongoing expansion process across the Po River Plain. In this human-dominated area, where the fragmentation of suitable habitats increases species vulnerability, conservation measures should be aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of the existing ecological network (McRae et al 2008;Dondina et al 2018b) to support the colonization of unoccupied but highly suitable areas.…”

“…3 Cumulative density of smoothed least-cost paths modelled for every pair of source location Fig. 4 Boyce index validation of predicted corridors for the crested porcupine across the study area on future scenarios of expansion under predicted climate changes (Mori et al 2018(Mori et al , 2021Milanesi et al 2020). In this study, we provided the first assessment of habitat suitability and ecological connectivity for the crested porcupine in the highly anthropized Po Plain, a key area for the species expansion towards the northernmost regions of Italy.…”

“…Predictive distribution models developed for the crested porcupine in Italy (e.g., Mori et al 2018;Milanesi et al 2020) generally limited the suitable range for the species south of the Po Plain, the intensively cultivated lowland area interposed between the Apennines and the Alps (but see Mori et al 2013). The colonization of the Po Plain and the northernmost western region of Italy is expected within the next 30-40 years under severe scenarios of climate changes (Mori et al 2018).…”

“…Although multiple future scenarios of expansion for this species have been already developed for the whole country (Mori et al 2018(Mori et al , 2021Milanesi et al 2020), focusing on a particular area can provide important details useful for enhancing the effectiveness of conservation actions. In other words, species protection and mitigation measures aimed to reduce human-wildlife conflicts should include the peculiarities of the landscape at the regional scale.…”

Acta Plantarum, more than a forum: a new national floristic distribution database completes the numerous online IPFI facilities

“…Most projects are able to obtain and manage data at scales or resolutions that are unreachable by classical research groups, to address both large-scale and local challenges (Bonney et al 2014). Data collected by citizen scientists are currently used for several purposes, such as global biodiversity monitoring (Chandler et al 2017, McKinley et al 2017, Pocock et al 2018, local biodiversity conservation (Bell et al 2008, Schmeller et al 2009, Barnard et al 2017, Milanesi et al 2020, monitoring and mapping alien species (Delaney et al 2008, Ingwell and Preisser 2011, Burrack et al 2012, Crall et al 2015, Nimis et al 2019, monitoring of protected areas or taxa (Forrester et al 2017, Bonnet et al 2020, and production of distribution maps (Riservato et al 2014, Pocock et al 2015, Croce and Nazzaro 2017.…”