Photographs as an essential biodiversity resource: drivers of gaps in the vascular plant photographic record

Abstract

The photographic record is increasingly becoming an important biodiversity resource for primary research and conservation monitoring. However, globally, there are important gaps in this record even in relatively well-researched floras.To quantify the gaps in the Australian native vascular plant photographic record, we systematically surveyed 33 sources of well-curated species photographs, assembling a list of species with accessible and verifiable photographs, as well as the species for which this search failed.Of 21 077 Australian native species, 3715 lack a verifiable photograph across our 33 surveyed resources. There are three major geographic hotspots of unphotographed species in Australia, all far from current population centres. Many unphotographed species are small in stature or uncharismatic, and many are also recently described.The large number of recently described species without accessible photographs was surprising. There are longstanding efforts in Australia to organise the plant photographic record, but in the absence of a global consensus to treat photographs as an essential biodiversity resource, this has not become common practice. Many recently described species are small-range endemics and some have special conservation status. Completing the botanical photographic record across the globe will facilitate a virtuous feedback loop of more efficient identification, monitoring and conservation.

Online community photo-sharing in entomology: a large-scale review with suggestions on best practices

“…Unlike structured surveys, where sampling time and intensity are often strictly controlled, community photograph data, and community science data more generally, are unstructured and prone to bias. This bias can manifest in multiple ways, such as most observations being made on weekends when users have more free time, more observations being made during warmer months, certain environments having more representation in data, and more records coming from developed areas where more people live, certain taxa being over- or under-represented, and observers not finding or reporting all species at a site (van Strien et al 2013b, Silvertown et al 2015, Troudet et al 2017, Callaghan et al 2021, Di Cecco et al 2021, Mesaglio and Callaghan 2021, Mesaglio et al 2023b). These biases are not likely to be an issue when using single or a few records for, for example, distribution.…”

A near-complete dataset of plant growth form, life history, and woodiness for all Australian plants

“…Analyses have indicated that plants with different values for the traits in question (life history, growth form, and stem woodiness) exhibit different functional trade-offs (Šímová et al 2018;Vico et al 2016;Towers et al 2023). Similarly, plants with different values for these three categorical traits display different numeric trait-climate associations (Flores-Moreno et al 2019), require different conservation strategies (Mayfield, Ackerly, and Daily 2006), have different responses to key disturbances (Gallagher et al 2021;Clarke et al 2013), and even differ in the degree to which they have a public photographic record (Mesaglio et al 2023). Having complete tabular datasets for these traits across the Australian flora, therefore, has direct implications for the management and conservation of these species, in addition to facilitating more broad-scale biogeographic analyses.…”

“…Many additional studies will have chosen study taxa based on their scores for plant growth form, life history, and woodiness; this dataset represents a rapid way to scan a list of potential study taxa for appropriate study taxa. Within our research group, the plant growth form dataset has already been used twice (Towers et al 2023; Mesaglio et al 2023).…”

Pasta Fortification with Leaves of Edible Wild Plants to Lower the P Glycaemic Index of Handmade Fresh Noodles

“…The plants were harvested on private land in Meridional Italy. Plant recognition application PlantNet was used for botanical identification [7]. The leaves were cleaned with distilled water and dried at 50 ± 1°C in a tray dryer (Melchioni Babele) for 6 h. The dried leaves were milled (Kenwood CH580), and sifted with a 500 µm sieve, obtaining plant powders.…”