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Deep learning with citizen science data enables estimation of species diversity and composition at continental extents

Courtney L. Davis; Yiwei Bai; Di Chen; Orin Robinson; Viviana Ruiz‐Gutierrez; Carla P. Gomes; Daniel Fink
Ecology · Vol. 104, Issue 12 · 2023

Abstract

Effective solutions to conserve biodiversity require accurate community‐ and species‐level information at relevant, actionable scales and across entire species' distributions. However, data and methodological constraints have limited our ability to provide such information in robust ways. Herein we employ a Deep‐Reasoning Network implementation of the Deep Multivariate Probit Model (DMVP‐DRNets), an end‐to‐end deep neural network framework, to exploit large observational and environmental data sets together and estimate landscape‐scale species diversity and composition at continental extents. We present results from a novel year‐round analysis of North American avifauna using data from over nine million eBird checklists and 72 environmental covariates. We highlight the utility of our information by identifying critical areas of high species diversity for a single group of conservation concern, the North American wood warblers, while capturing spatiotemporal variation in species' environmental associations and interspecific interactions. In so doing, we demonstrate the type of accurate, high‐resolution information on biodiversity that deep learning approaches such as DMVP‐DRNets can provide and that is needed to inform ecological research and conservation decision‐making at multiple scales.

Bibliographic Information

JournalEcology
PublisherWiley
Publication Date2023-12-01
Publication Year2023
Volume104
Issue12
Document TypeJournal Article
Print ISSN0012-9658
eISSN1939-9170
DOI10.1002/ecy.4175
SubjectEcology & Organismal Biology

Access Information

NARA Access Coverage1997-01-01~Current
Journal Homepagehttps://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/loi/19399170
Publisher PageOpen Publisher Page
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