Batch-produced, GIS-informed range maps for birds based on provenanced, crowd-sourced data inform conservation assessments.

Huang, Ryan M

Medina, Wilderson

Brooks, Thomas M

Butchart, Stuart HM

Fitzpatrick, John W

Hermes, Claudia

Jenkins, Clinton N

Johnston, Alison

Lebbin, Daniel J

Li, Binbin V

Ocampo-Peñuela, Natalia

Parr, Mike

Wheatley, Hannah

Wiedenfeld, David A

Wood, Christopher

Pimm, Stuart L

Mousseau, Tim A

2024-05-10T19:47:36Z

2024-05-10T19:47:36Z

2021-01

Accurate maps of species ranges are essential to inform conservation, but time-consuming to produce and update. Given the pace of change of knowledge about species distributions and shifts in ranges under climate change and land use, a need exists for timely mapping approaches that enable batch processing employing widely available data. We develop a systematic approach of batch-processing range maps and derived Area of Habitat maps for terrestrial bird species with published ranges below 125,000 km2 in Central and South America. (Area of Habitat is the habitat available to a species within its range.) We combine existing range maps with the rapidly expanding crowd-sourced eBird data of presences and absences from frequently surveyed locations, plus readily accessible, high resolution satellite data on forest cover and elevation to map the Area of Habitat available to each species. Users can interrogate the maps produced to see details of the observations that contributed to the ranges. Previous estimates of Areas of Habitat were constrained within the published ranges and thus were, by definition, smaller-typically about 30%. This reflects how little habitat within suitable elevation ranges exists within the published ranges. Our results show that on average, Areas of Habitat are 12% larger than published ranges, reflecting the often-considerable extent that eBird records expand the known distributions of species. Interestingly, there are substantial differences between threatened and non-threatened species. Some 40% of Critically Endangered, 43% of Endangered, and 55% of Vulnerable species have Areas of Habitat larger than their published ranges, compared with 31% for Near Threatened and Least Concern species. The important finding for conservation is that threatened species are generally more widespread than previously estimated.

PONE-D-21-23994

1932-6203

1932-6203

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/30693

eng

Public Library of Science (PLoS)

PloS one

10.1371/journal.pone.0259299

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

Animals

Birds

Geographic Information Systems

Endangered Species

Crowdsourcing

Batch-produced, GIS-informed range maps for birds based on provenanced, crowd-sourced data inform conservation assessments.

Journal article

Li, Binbin V|0000-0001-6188-7512

Pimm, Stuart L|0000-0003-4206-2456

e0259299

11

Duke

Nicholas School of the Environment

Environmental Sciences and Policy

University Initiatives & Academic Support Units

Initiatives

Duke Science & Society

Duke Kunshan University

DKU Faculty

Published

16