Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The loss of biodiversity and decline of forest ecosystems highlight the need for large-scale biodiversity monitoring. Citizen science (CS) can provide extensive data on species occurrences, but observations may be affected by biases. This thesis first examines whether CS observations of saproxylic beetles reflect local species richness, using research data from fast-growing broadleaf (FGB) stands in Scania, Sweden. Second, this thesis investigates how municipal-level factors influence CS observations of saproxylic beetles in Scania. Species richness of saproxylic beetles from 24 FGB research sites was compared with CS data using GIS and simple linear regressions. Relationships between CS observations and municipal-level factors, including human population density, forest cover and protected areas, were also analysed. No significant relationship was found between CS saproxylic beetle richness and local species richness from the FGB stands at any spatial scale. In contrast, several municipal-level factors revealed a significant relationship to CS observations, specifically human population density and protected areas. These results indicate that citizen science observations of saproxylic beetles are strongly influenced by sampling biases and are currently too limited to predict local species richness in local stands. However, citizen science data still provide valuable information on saproxylic beetles and, when combined with structured research data, can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of forest biodiversity and its spatial patterns.