Combining culturomic sources to uncover trends in popularity and seasonal interest in plants |
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Authors: | Reut Vardi John C. Mittermeier Uri Roll |
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Affiliation: | 1. The Albert Katz International School for Desert Studies, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000 Israel;2. School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY U.K.;3. Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, 8499000 Israel |
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Abstract: | Culturomic tools enable the exploration of trends in human–nature interactions, although they entail inherent biases and necessitate careful validation. Furthermore, people may engage with nature across different culturomic data sets differently. We evaluated people's digital interest and engagement with plant species based on Wikipedia and Google data and explored the conservation implications of these temporal interest patterns. As a case study, we explored the digital footprints of the most popular plant species in Israel. We analyzed 4 years of daily page views from Hebrew Wikipedia and 10 years of daily Google search volume in Israel. We modeled popularity of plant species in these 2 data sets based on a suite of plant attributes. We further explored the seasonal trends of people's interest in each species. We found differences in how people interacted digitally with plants in Wikipedia and Google. Overall, in Google, searches for species that have utility to humans were more common, whereas in Wikipedia, plants that serve as cultural emblems received more attention. Furthermore, in Google, popular species attracted more attention over time, opposite to the trend in Wikipedia. In Google, interest in species with short bloom duration exhibited more pronounced seasonal patterns, whereas in Wikipedia, seasonality of interest increased as bloom duration increased. Together, our results suggest that people's digital interactions with nature may be inherently different depending on the sources explored, which may affect use of this information for conservation. Although culturomics holds much promise, better understanding of its underpinnings is important when translating insights into conservation actions. |
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Keywords: | ambassador species blooming flagship species flowers Google-Trends human–nature interactions seasonality Wikipedia especie bandera especie embajadora estacionalidad florecimiento flores Google-Trends interacciones humano-naturaleza Wikipedia 代表物种 开花 旗舰种 花朵 谷歌趋势 人类与自然的互动 季节性 维基百科 |
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