Geology topics

Jennifer N. Duberstein

Publications and source records attributed to Jennifer N. Duberstein.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2024

Perceived constraints to participating in wildlife-related recreation

Wildlife-related recreationists play an important role in conservation. Understanding constraints to wildlife-related activities is critical for maintaining or increasing participation in activities like birdwatching and hunting. A mail-out survey was administered to a generalized sample representative of U.S. residents (i.e., not specific to birdwatching or hunting) in early 2017 to determine what would limit them from participating in birdwatching and hunting (n = 1030). We employed a concurrent nested mixed-methods design: open-ended responses were thematically coded qualitatively in two distinct cycles (i.e., inductive, and then mixed inductive-deductive coding), and then the probability of expressing the second cycle codes was quantitatively modeled using multinomial logit models for the respective activities. Doing so empirically determined various groups’ constraints that are important to recruitment, retention, and reactivation (R 3 ) efforts for birdwatching and hunting. We found that the likelihood of experiencing unique constraints varied based on sociodemographic characteristics, and these relationships differed between birdwatching and hunting. Gender had a limited effect on constraints to birdwatching but was a strong indicator of intrapersonal constraints and limitations to involvement in hunting. The likelihood of expressing structural constraints decreased with age for both activities. Possessing strong social ties to the activities tended to reduce the likelihood of expressing constraints overall but this was especially true for hunting. Our findings inform R 3 efforts for wildlife-related recreation and provide direct results that organizations can apply in seeking to help Americans negotiate constraints and increase and diversify participation in wildlife-related recreation and conservation behavior.

Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism↗

USGS2023

Random forest classification of multitemporal Landsat 8 spectral data and phenology metrics for land cover mapping in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts

Geospatial data and tools evolve as new technologies are developed and landscape change occurs over time. As a result, these data may become outdated and inadequate for supporting critical habitat-related work across the international boundary in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts Bird Conservation Region (BCR 33) due to the area’s complex vegetation communities and the discontinuity in data availability across the United States (US) and Mexico (MX) border. This research aimed to produce the first 30 m continuous land cover map of BCR 33 by prototyping new methods for desert vegetation classification using the Random Forest (RF) machine learning (ML) method. The developed RF classification model utilized multitemporal Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager spectral and vegetation index data from the period of 2013–2020, and phenology metrics tailored to capture the unique growing seasons of desert vegetation. Our RF model achieved an overall classification F-score of 0.80 and an overall accuracy of 91.68%. Our results portrayed the vegetation cover at a much finer resolution than existing land cover maps from the US and MX portions of the study area, allowing for the separation and identification of smaller habitat pockets, including riparian communities, which are critically important for desert wildlife and are often misclassified or nonexistent in current maps. This early prototyping effort serves as a proof of concept for the ML and data fusion methods that will be used to generate the final high-resolution land cover map of the entire BCR 33 region.

Remote Sensing↗

USGS2022

Highly specialized recreationists contribute the most to the citizen science project eBird

Contributory citizen science projects (hereafter “contributory projects”) are a powerful tool for avian conservation science. Large-scale projects such as eBird have produced data that have advanced science and contributed to many conservation applications. These projects also provide a means to engage the public in scientific data collection. A common challenge across contributory projects like eBird is to maintain participation, as some volunteers contribute just a few times before disengaging. To maximize contributions and manage an effective program that has broad appeal, it is useful to better understand factors that influence contribution rates. For projects capitalizing on recreation activities (e.g., birding), differences in contribution levels might be explained by the recreation specialization framework, which describes how recreationists vary in skill, behavior, and motives. We paired data from a survey of birders across the United States and Canada with data on their eBird contributions (n = 28,926) to test whether those who contributed most are more specialized birders. We assigned participants to 4 contribution groups based on eBird checklist submissions and compared groups’ specialization levels and motivations. More active contribution groups had higher specialization, yet some specialized birders were not active participants. The most distinguishing feature among groups was the behavioral dimension of specialization, with active eBird participants owning specialized equipment and taking frequent trips away from home to bird. Active participants had the strongest achievement motivations for birding (e.g., keeping a life list), whereas all groups had strong appreciation motivations (e.g., enjoying the sights and sounds of birding). Using recreation specialization to characterize eBird participants can help explain why some do not regularly contribute data. Project managers may be able to promote participation, particularly by those who are specialized but not contributing, by appealing to a broader suite of motivations that includes both appreciation and achievement motivations, and thereby increase data for conservation.

Ornithological Applications↗

USGS2021

Racial, ethnic, and social patterns in the recreation specialization of birdwatchers: An analysis of United States eBird registrants

Although birdwatchers comprise a large and growing proportion of the American public, there is a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in the birdwatching community. Previous research suggests that this homogeneity is self-perpetuating, as ethno-racial minorities are less likely to pursue activities in which no one they know participates. However, it is unclear whether this trend in birdwatching participation also applies to degree of subsequent participant involvement. Using a national online survey of US birdwatchers, we measured the degree of recreation specialization among birdwatchers along affective, cognitive, and behavioral dimensions. We also determined whether respondents had social connections (acquaintances, close friends, or relatives) who birdwatch. We then used logistic regression to determine which ethno-racial groups were more likely to have birdwatcher social connections, and multiple linear regression to investigate how our measures of recreation specialization varied by ethno-racial group. As expected, the ethno-racial composition of the birdwatchers we studied was significantly less diverse than that of the American public. Of the 29,380 respondents who reported their ethno-racial group, 5.2% were Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (including Native American, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, or multiracial), while 94.8% were non-Hispanic White. However, we observed no statistically significant ethno-racial patterns in overall degree of recreation specialization, even when controlling for social connection and demographic characteristics. Considering the three dimensions of specialization individually, we found that some ethno-racial predictors were statistically significant, but coefficients were too small to be practically significant. We conclude that while some ethno-racial groups are underrepresented among birdwatchers, there is insufficient evidence that they are also under-specialized.

Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism↗

USGS2020

Testing a continuous measure of recreation specialization among birdwatchers

Recreation specialization is a framework that can be used to explain the variation among outdoor recreationists’ preferences, attitudes, and behaviors. Recreation specialization has been operationalized using several approaches, including summative indices, cluster analysis, and self-classification categorical measures. Although these approaches measure the multiple dimensions of the framework, they may not reflect the relative contribution of the dimensions to individuals’ degree of engagement. We illustrate an approach that uses second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) factor scores as weights to determine a person’s degree of recreation specialization and compares the CFA-based results to those derived from cluster analysis. This approach permits the use of a broader set of statistical tests when compared to categorical specialization measures and provides information about the distribution of responses. Data were collected from an online survey of eBird registrants from the United States.

Human Dimensions of Wildlife↗

USGS2019

Rural-urban differences in hunting and birdwatching attitudes and participation

Outdoor recreation facilitates important connections to nature and wildlife but is perceived differently across population segments. As such, we expected that current and past socio-demographic characteristics of individuals would influence intention to participate in outdoor recreation. We solicited 5,000 U.S. residents. (n = 1,030, 23% response) to describe their perceptions of hunting and birdwatching. The influence of current and childhood community size (i.e., urban-rural residence gradient) was examined as a potentially important predictor of intention to participate in hunting and birdwatching within the context of theory of planned behavior. Hunting attitudes and personal behavior control were more positive when respondents maintained a residence in rural areas. Alternatively, birdwatching attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control did not differ with community size. Therefore, programs aimed at increasing participation in outdoor recreation should carefully consider the importance of socio-demographic variables in the context of their objectives, especially for recruiting urban hunters.

Human Dimensions of Wildlife↗