The role of participatory methodologies in large-scale biodiversity monitoring: present status and future opportunities

This document corresponds to the slides used in one of the sessions of the Marine Biodiversity Networking Fridays

The presentation was recorded in the Marine Biodiversity Networking Fridays YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/live/qNS_D7p_jGQ

More details at: https://www.aircentre.org/en/networking-fridays

Resume

Public participation in research is by far one of the main and cost-effective sources for big data and knowledge production in biodiversity monitoring. However, there are still some concerns about the quality of the reported data from volunteers. In recent years, “quality” has been extended as a multidimensional concept. Accurate observations for understanding the biodiversity status and dynamics should be considered as one of the important components, but others may play a key role in biodiversity pattern identification: completeness (maximisation of the number of observations per unit time or space), or timeliness (early identification of target species) are two examples of new components to consider in this extended multidimensional quality concept. In this presentation, these concepts will be discussed, particularly in the framework of two EU projects: the outcomes from the ANERIS, and the challenges addressed in the ongong BEAGLE, planed to start in October 2026.