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The eBird enterprise: An integrated approach to development and application of citizen science

ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University

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Title The eBird enterprise: An integrated approach to development and application of citizen science
Names Sullivan, Brian L. (creator)
Aycrigg, Jocelyn L. (creator)
Barry, Jessie H. (creator)
Bonney, Rick E. (creator)
Bruns, Nicholas (creator)
Cooper, Caren B. (creator)
Damoulas, Theo (creator)
Dhondt, Andre A. (creator)
Dietterich, Thomas G. (creator)
Farnsworth, Andrew (creator)
Fink, Daniel (creator)
Fitzpatrick, John W. (creator)
Fredericks, Thomas (creator)
Gerbracht, Jeff (creator)
Gomes, Carla (creator)
Hochachka, Wesley M. (creator)
Iliff, Marshall J. (creator)
Lagoze, Carl (creator)
La Sorte, Frank A. (creator)
Merrifield, Matthew (creator)
Morris, Will (creator)
Phillips, Tina B. (creator)
Reynolds, Mark (creator)
Rodewald, Amanda D. (creator)
Rosenberg, Kenneth V. (creator)
Trautmann, Nancy M. (creator)
Wiggins, Andrea (creator)
Winkler, David W. (creator)
Wong, Weng-Keen (creator)
Wood, Christopher L. (creator)
Yu, Jun (creator)
Kelling, Steve (creator)
Date Issued 2014-01 (iso8601)
Note This is the publisher’s final pdf. The published article is copyrighted by Elsevier and can be found at: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/biological-conservation/.
Abstract Citizen-science projects engage volunteers to gather or process data to address scientific questions. But
citizen-science projects vary in their ability to contribute usefully for science, conservation, or public policy.
eBird has evolved from a basic citizen-science project into a collective enterprise, taking a novel
approach to citizen science by developing cooperative partnerships among experts in a wide range of
fields: population and distributions, conservation biologists, quantitative ecologists, statisticians, computer
scientists, GIS and informatics specialists, application developers, and data administrators. The goal
is to increase data quantity through participant recruitment and engagement, but also to quantify and
control for data quality issues such as observer variability, imperfect detection of species, and both spatial
and temporal bias in data collection. Advances at the interface among ecology, statistics, and computer
science allow us to create new species distribution models that provide accurate estimates across broad
spatial and temporal scales with extremely detailed resolution. eBird data are openly available and used
by a broad spectrum of students, teachers, scientists, NGOs, government agencies, land managers, and
policy makers. Feedback from this broad data use community helps identify development priorities. As
a result, eBird has become a major source of biodiversity data, increasing our knowledge of the dynamics
of species distributions, and having a direct impact on the conservation of birds and their habitats.
Genre Article
Topic eBird
Identifier Sullivan, B. L., Aycrigg, J. L., Barry, J. H., Bonney, R. E., Bruns, N., Cooper, C. B., ... & Kelling, S. (2014). The eBird enterprise: An integrated approach to development and application of citizen science. Biological Conservation, 169, 31-40. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2013.11.003

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