Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads

Invasive alien plants are considered a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Therefore, there is a huge demand of spatial and temporal data on their distribution for investigating possible drivers of species invasions and for predictions of future distributions. We use Google Street View imagery...

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Autores principales:	Dorota Kotowska, Tomas Pärt, Michał Żmihorski
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Elsevier 2021
Materias:	Agricultural abandonment Farmland Goldenrods Invasive alien plants Monitoring Remote data collection Ecology QH540-549.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/9a402e5337ad4ca2b110faf2e2657b01
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:9a402e5337ad4ca2b110faf2e2657b01
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:9a402e5337ad4ca2b110faf2e2657b012021-12-01T04:32:38ZEvaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads1470-160X10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107020https://doaj.org/article/9a402e5337ad4ca2b110faf2e2657b012021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X20309596https://doaj.org/toc/1470-160XInvasive alien plants are considered a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Therefore, there is a huge demand of spatial and temporal data on their distribution for investigating possible drivers of species invasions and for predictions of future distributions. We use Google Street View imagery (GSV) as a new source of spatial and temporal data. GSV provides millions of panoramic views along road networks worldwide allowing for the identification of many plant species, including invasive ones. Thus, GSV has a great potential to support ecological research in documenting species distribution, but reliable validation of its precision and accuracy is lacking. Here, we describe and evaluate an approach using GSV to visually track the spread of invasive alien plants, the North American goldenrods (Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea) occurring abundantly along road network in Poland (Central Europe). We determined presence/absence of the species along 160 randomly selected transects of a length of 500 m by visual inspection of GSV images and compared it with field surveys at the same transects. We show that the occurrence of goldenrods in GSV is a reliable predictor of their occurrence in the wild. Sampling parameters, like road width, season when GSV pictures were taken and number of months elapsed since taking the GSV pictures, did not change the correlation between outputs of the two methods (GSV and field sampling). Furthermore, both the occurrence of goldenrods observed in the field and their occurrence in GSV have similar relations to habitat characteristics investigated (the same direction of relationship and similar effect size). We suggest Google Street View images may be an additional tool to be used in the detection and tracking of the spread of invasive alien plants along roadsides. The approach may be useful in assessing temporal changes in roadside vegetation and managing problematic plant species across large spatial scales and may contribute to the further development of more efficient sampling methods in ecological studies.Dorota KotowskaTomas PärtMichał ŻmihorskiElsevierarticleAgricultural abandonmentFarmlandGoldenrodsInvasive alien plantsMonitoringRemote data collectionEcologyQH540-549.5ENEcological Indicators, Vol 121, Iss , Pp 107020- (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Agricultural abandonment Farmland Goldenrods Invasive alien plants Monitoring Remote data collection Ecology QH540-549.5
spellingShingle	Agricultural abandonment Farmland Goldenrods Invasive alien plants Monitoring Remote data collection Ecology QH540-549.5 Dorota Kotowska Tomas Pärt Michał Żmihorski Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
description	Invasive alien plants are considered a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Therefore, there is a huge demand of spatial and temporal data on their distribution for investigating possible drivers of species invasions and for predictions of future distributions. We use Google Street View imagery (GSV) as a new source of spatial and temporal data. GSV provides millions of panoramic views along road networks worldwide allowing for the identification of many plant species, including invasive ones. Thus, GSV has a great potential to support ecological research in documenting species distribution, but reliable validation of its precision and accuracy is lacking. Here, we describe and evaluate an approach using GSV to visually track the spread of invasive alien plants, the North American goldenrods (Solidago canadensis and S. gigantea) occurring abundantly along road network in Poland (Central Europe). We determined presence/absence of the species along 160 randomly selected transects of a length of 500 m by visual inspection of GSV images and compared it with field surveys at the same transects. We show that the occurrence of goldenrods in GSV is a reliable predictor of their occurrence in the wild. Sampling parameters, like road width, season when GSV pictures were taken and number of months elapsed since taking the GSV pictures, did not change the correlation between outputs of the two methods (GSV and field sampling). Furthermore, both the occurrence of goldenrods observed in the field and their occurrence in GSV have similar relations to habitat characteristics investigated (the same direction of relationship and similar effect size). We suggest Google Street View images may be an additional tool to be used in the detection and tracking of the spread of invasive alien plants along roadsides. The approach may be useful in assessing temporal changes in roadside vegetation and managing problematic plant species across large spatial scales and may contribute to the further development of more efficient sampling methods in ecological studies.
format	article
author	Dorota Kotowska Tomas Pärt Michał Żmihorski
author_facet	Dorota Kotowska Tomas Pärt Michał Żmihorski
author_sort	Dorota Kotowska
title	Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
title_short	Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
title_full	Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
title_fullStr	Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
title_full_unstemmed	Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
title_sort	evaluating google street view for tracking invasive alien plants along roads
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/9a402e5337ad4ca2b110faf2e2657b01
work_keys_str_mv	AT dorotakotowska evaluatinggooglestreetviewfortrackinginvasivealienplantsalongroads AT tomaspart evaluatinggooglestreetviewfortrackinginvasivealienplantsalongroads AT michałzmihorski evaluatinggooglestreetviewfortrackinginvasivealienplantsalongroads
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Evaluating Google Street View for tracking invasive alien plants along roads

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