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Data acquisition for conservation assessments: is the effort worth it?
Virgilio Hermoso1, Mark J Kennard, Simon Linke
1Australian Rivers Institute and Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge, National Environmental Research Program Northern Australia Hub, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia. virgilio.hermoso@gmail.com
Plos One
|April 5, 2013
Summary
Data quality impacts conservation planning accuracy. Improving data for rare species, rather than acquiring new data, is key to reducing errors and enhancing conservation outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Conservation Science
- Biodiversity Assessment
- Data Uncertainty in Ecology
Background:
- Conservation planning accuracy relies on data quality.
- The impact of data uncertainty on conservation outcomes remains poorly understood.
- Previous studies have explored imperfect datasets but not error translation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate how data uncertainty affects conservation planning outcomes.
- To quantify commission and omission errors in conservation assessments.
- To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of conservation plans using varying data quality.
Main Methods:
- Comparing conservation planning outcomes from three datasets with progressive data quality.
- Analyzing commission and omission errors.
- Evaluating the trade-offs between conservation planning effectiveness and efficiency.
Main Results:
- Data quality significantly influences conservation assessment accuracy.
- Investing in new data acquisition may not always improve outcomes due to introduced errors.
- Poorly sampled rare species create a trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency.
Conclusions:
- Improving data quality for uncertain, particularly rare, species is more beneficial than broad data acquisition.
- Focusing on high-uncertainty data enhances conservation planning effectiveness and efficiency.
- Strategic data improvement is recommended given the costs and time of data acquisition.
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