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Avian Research 2018, 9(1): 6 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-018-0098-5
Research | Open Access | Issue | Published: 26 February 2018

Contribution of citizen science towards cryptic species census: "many eyes" define wintering range of the Scaly-sided Merganser in mainland China

Show Author's Information Qing Zeng1,  Qian Wei2,  Guangchun Lei1( )
School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
China Birdwatching Association, Chengdu, China Keywords
Keywords:
Random forest, Citizen science, Wintering distribution, Mergus squamatus
Cite this article:
Zeng Q, Wei Q, Lei G. Contribution of citizen science towards cryptic species census: "many eyes" define wintering range of the Scaly-sided Merganser in mainland China. Avian Research, 2018, 9(1): 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40657-018-0098-5
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Abstract Full text About this article
Background

Citizen science has tremendous potential in advancing scientific knowledge and improving natural resource management. To detect the wintering distribution of the endangered species Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus), national wintering surveys were organized by China Birdwatching Association.

Methods

The surveys of M. squamatus were conducted in three successive winters from 2014 to 2016. A total of 2019 people from 102 organizations participated in the surveys. With three groups of 13 environmental variables, species distribution model for its wintering distribution of each year was developed using random forest. Schoener's D index was used to compare the distribution of M. squamatus in 3 years.

Results

Totally, 441, 634 and 1138 individuals of M. squamatus were recorded in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. Two main sites in Dabie Mountain and East Qinling mountains were verified and the wintering range of M. squamatus was defined. The wintering range was found to be highly identical for the 3 years.

Conclusions

The highly overlapped distribution range among years suggested that the wintering range of M. squamatus was relatively stable. Well organized and coordinated citizen science can be used to define distribution range and improve species conservation.


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About this article

Contribution of citizen science towards cryptic species census: "many eyes" define wintering range of the Scaly-sided Merganser in mainland China

Show Author's information Qing Zeng1, Qian Wei2, Guangchun Lei1( )
School of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China
China Birdwatching Association, Chengdu, China Keywords

Abstract

Background

Citizen science has tremendous potential in advancing scientific knowledge and improving natural resource management. To detect the wintering distribution of the endangered species Scaly-sided Merganser (Mergus squamatus), national wintering surveys were organized by China Birdwatching Association.

Methods

The surveys of M. squamatus were conducted in three successive winters from 2014 to 2016. A total of 2019 people from 102 organizations participated in the surveys. With three groups of 13 environmental variables, species distribution model for its wintering distribution of each year was developed using random forest. Schoener's D index was used to compare the distribution of M. squamatus in 3 years.

Results

Totally, 441, 634 and 1138 individuals of M. squamatus were recorded in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. Two main sites in Dabie Mountain and East Qinling mountains were verified and the wintering range of M. squamatus was defined. The wintering range was found to be highly identical for the 3 years.

Conclusions

The highly overlapped distribution range among years suggested that the wintering range of M. squamatus was relatively stable. Well organized and coordinated citizen science can be used to define distribution range and improve species conservation.

Keywords: Random forest, Citizen science, Wintering distribution, Mergus squamatus

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 06 January 2018
Accepted: 07 February 2018
Published: 26 February 2018
Issue date: January 2018

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2018.

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all the volunteers for their input concerning the 3-year surveys. We are also grateful to Dr. Wen Li from the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW and Dr. Taej Mundkur from Wetlands International for their valuable comments.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

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