Social media images help fill 'major gaps' in global biodiversity data

A new study published in Conservation Biology shows that geotagged social media photos can significantly improve biodiversity datasets, especially in regions underrepresented in global monitoring efforts. Led by scientists from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, and Monash University, the team integrated Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) occurrence records with public images of the tawny coster butterfly (Acraea terpsicore) from Flickr and Facebook, and saw a 35% increase in total observations.