Overcoming biodiversity blindness: Secondary data in primary citizen science observations

Abstract

In the face of the global biodiversity crisis, collecting comprehensive data and making the best use of existing data are becoming increasingly important to understand patterns and drivers of environmental and biological phenomena at different scales. Here we address the concept of secondary data, which refers to additional information unintentionally captured in species records, especially in multimedia‐based citizen science reports. We argue that secondary data can provide a wealth of ecologically relevant information, the utilisation of which can enhance our understanding of traits and interactions among individual organisms, populations and biodiversity dynamics in general. We explore the possibilities offered by secondary data and describe their main types and sources. An overview of research in this field provides a synthesis of the results already achieved using secondary data and different approaches to information extraction. Finally, we discuss challenges to the widespread use of secondary data, such as biases, licensing issues, use of metadata and lack of awareness of this trove of data due to a missing common terminology, as well as possible solutions to overcome these barriers. Although the exploration and use of secondary data is only emerging, the many opportunities identified show how these data can enrich biodiversity research and monitoring.

Emerging technologies in citizen science and potential for insect monitoring

“…Expert entomologists review the submitted images, so providing feedback to the participating volunteers and generating verified data that are valuable for public health agencies. Automated identification tools can also enable the collection of secondary data, such as species interactions, from submitted records [ 44 ]. For instance, plants could be automatically identified from photos of flower-visiting insects submitted by citizen scientists to capture these plant–pollinator interactions.…”

Extracting secondary data from citizen science images reveals host flower preferences of the Mexican grass‐carrying wasp Isodontia mexicana in its native and introduced ranges

“…Secondary data comprise the information that can be extracted from the observation evidence itself, as a by-product of the record of a species at a particular time and place. The additional information may include details of the observed species' ecological interactions, morphology, behavior, habitat and various other aspects of its traits and ecology (Pernat et al, 2024).…”

The implications of estimating rarity in Brazilian reptiles from GBIF data based on contributions from citizen science versus research institutions

“…With the widespread adoption of internet-enabled smartphones and the development of user-friendly applications to record biodiversity, members of the public, working in a nonprofessional and unpaid capacity, have been documenting the location of species worldwide (Deacon et al, 2023;Pocock et al, 2024;. These records are often accompanied by photographic and video documentation, providing valuable secondary information (Klinger et al, 2023;Pernat et al, 2024).…”