Biases in biodiversity data

[joerich]

I thought I would post this article about biases in biodiversity data because it is also something I have been thinking about. It mentions iNat and how we citizen scientists have a bias to observe the more spectacular organisms, such as flowers vs grass, elephants vs ants. (note, before I posted this, I scanned the Guidelines to see if posting such a link is permissible but I did not see where it was forboden - if it is, someone please delete.)
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-comparison-specimens-field-reveals-biases.html

[dianastuder]

For 2021 Great Southern Bioblitz I wrote a blog post about our 10 ‘most observed’ species. With the clear understanding that the 10 lean towards bling it on. Will be interesting see what bubbles up for us later in 2023.

For a South African botanical contrast, a scientist who deliberately seeks out unusual species. Both for his day job, and as a focus on holiday. He has about 10K species altogether. Over 7K when whittled down to plants in South Africa.