Mobilizing the community of biodiversity specimen collectors to effectively detect and document outliers in the Anthropocene.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Biological outliers (observations that fall outside of a previously understood norm, e.g., in phenology or distribution) may indicate early stages of a transformative change that merits immediate attention. Collectors of biodiversity specimens such as plants, fungi, and animals are on the front lines of discovering outliers, yet the role collectors currently play in providing such data is unclear.

Methods

We surveyed 222 collectors of a broad range of taxa, searched 47 training materials, and explored the use of 170 outlier terms in 75 million specimen records to determine the current state of outlier detection and documentation in this community.

Results

Collectors reported observing outliers (e.g., about 80% of respondents observed morphological and distribu

SUBMITTER: Pearson KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6851561 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature