Department of Natural and Social Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2010 Dec 17;5(12):e14381. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014381.
Monitoring change in species diversity, community composition and phenology is vital to assess the impacts of anthropogenic activity and natural change. However, monitoring by trained scientists is time consuming and expensive.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using social networks, we assess whether it is possible to obtain accurate data on bee distribution across the UK from photographic records submitted by untrained members of the public, and if these data are in sufficient quantity for ecological studies. We used Flickr and Facebook as social networks and Flickr for the storage of photographs and associated data on date, time and location linked to them. Within six weeks, the number of pictures uploaded to the Flickr BeeID group exceeded 200. Geographic coverage was excellent; the distribution of photographs covered most of the British Isles, from the south coast of England to the Highlands of Scotland. However, only 59% of photographs were properly uploaded according to instructions, with vital information such as 'tags' or location information missing from the remainder. Nevertheless, this incorporation of information on location of photographs was much higher than general usage on Flickr (∼13%), indicating the need for dedicated projects to collect spatial ecological data. Furthermore, we found identification of bees is not possible from all photographs, especially those excluding lower abdomen detail. This suggests that giving details regarding specific anatomical features to include on photographs would be useful to maximise success.
CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The study demonstrates the power of social network sites to generate public interest in a project and details the advantages of using a group within an existing popular social network site over a traditional (specifically-designed) web-based or paper-based submission process. Some advantages include the ability to network with other individuals or groups with similar interests, and thus increasing the size of the dataset and participation in the project.
监测物种多样性、群落组成和物候变化对于评估人为活动和自然变化的影响至关重要。然而，经过培训的科学家进行监测既耗时又昂贵。
方法/主要发现：我们利用社交网络评估了未经训练的公众通过提交的照片记录，是否能够准确地提供英国各地蜜蜂分布的数据，以及这些数据是否足以用于生态研究。我们使用了 Flickr 和 Facebook 作为社交网络，Flickr 用于存储照片以及与之相关的拍摄日期、时间和地点等数据。在六周内，上传到 Flickr BeeID 群组的照片数量超过了 200 张。地理覆盖范围非常广泛；照片的分布涵盖了不列颠群岛的大部分地区，从英格兰南部海岸到苏格兰高地。然而，只有 59%的照片按照说明正确上传，其余照片缺少重要信息，如“标签”或位置信息。尽管如此，这种照片位置信息的融入程度远高于 Flickr 的一般使用水平（约 13%），表明需要专门的项目来收集空间生态数据。此外，我们发现并非所有照片都能识别出蜜蜂，特别是那些没有显示腹部细节的照片。这表明，在照片中提供有关特定解剖特征的详细信息将有助于最大限度地提高识别成功率。
结论/意义：该研究展示了社交网络网站在激发公众对项目的兴趣方面的强大力量，并详细说明了在现有流行的社交网站内使用群组相对于传统（专门设计的）基于网络或基于纸张的提交过程的优势。一些优势包括与具有类似兴趣的其他个人或群体建立联系的能力，从而增加数据集的规模和参与项目的人数。
