Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Biodiversity
Seeing rare birds where there are none: self-rated expertise predicts correct species identification, but also more false rarities
Published: 2019-02-04
Subjects: Animal Sciences, Biodiversity, Life Sciences, Ornithology
The use of crowdsourced data is growing rapidly, particularly in ornithology. Citizen science greatly contributes to our knowledge, however, little is known about the reliability of data collected in that way. We found, using an online picture quiz, that self-proclaimed expert birders were more likely to misidentify common British bird species as exotic or rare species, compared to people who [...]
Dominance determines fish community biomass in a temperate seagrass ecosystem
Published: 2019-01-20
Subjects: Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Life Sciences, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
Biodiversity and ecosystem function are often correlated, but there are multiple hypotheses about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. Ecosystem functions such as primary or secondary production may be maximized by species richness, evenness in species abundances, or the presence or dominance of species with certain traits. Here, we combined surveys of natural fish communities (conducted [...]