Mapping species distributions with social media geo-tagged images: Case studies of bees and flowering plants in Australia

摘要

Data sources on species distribution and range are typically expensive and time consuming to build, and traditional survey techniques often have spatial, temporal, or scale-related gaps. Social network sites, on the other hand, can provide massive amounts of cost effective data that may potentially yield information of direct benefit to supplement and understand ecological phenomena. Previous research explored using social network site content to enhance information collected by experts or professional surveys in domains including species distribution and land cover. However, the data quality and general suitability of social network sites data for answering questions related to species distribution and range is highly variable and this aspect of its value to science remains underexplored.