{
  "abstract": "Citizen-science records increasingly inform biodiversity research and conservation planning, yet how much of a large forest they actually cover is rarely measured. We analyzed 1,700 research-grade iNaturalist records from the Hyrcanian Forest, northern Iran (2015–2025), on a 10 × 10 km grid, comparing observed coverage with null models. Annual records rose from 48 to 386, but occupied only 43.7% of forest cells, 41% fewer than an even spread would give, and 56% of cells had no record. Fifteen observers (top 10%) provided 69% of records. In a presence–background model with clus-ter-robust errors, only elevation was independently associated with record presence (odds ratio 0.92 per 100 m); distances to roads and settlements were not. Because steep terrain limits where people can walk and record, similar eleva-tion-related gaps may occur in other mountain forests, where record counts could overstate coverage. Models using such records should adjust for elevation bias.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Saman Ghasemian Sorboni"
    },
    {
      "name": "Motahareh Taghipour"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4yt3zfejb5vt8.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.32942/x2zx10",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "4yt3zfejb5vt8",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15716/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Biodiversity"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Citizen science"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Community-based monitoring"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Ecological informatics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Elevation gradient"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Forest Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Forest monitoring"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Mountain forests"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Sampling bias"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Spatial coverage"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Species Distribution Modeling (SDM)"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/object/15716/download/27228/",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4yt3zfejb5vt8.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:17:41Z",
      "native_id": "15716",
      "source": "ecoevorxiv",
      "url": "https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15716/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "source:ecoevorxiv",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "How Much of the Forest Do Citizen Scientists Actually Record? A Decade of iNaturalist Sampling in the Hyrcanian Forests",
  "title_text": "How Much of the Forest Do Citizen Scientists Actually Record? A Decade of iNaturalist Sampling in the Hyrcanian Forests",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T12:20:56Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/4yt3zfejb5vt8",
  "venue": "EcoEvoRxiv",
  "versions": []
}