Invasive Species Mapping

The Geomatics lab uses local collections of invasice species, such as termites or tegus, and databases generated from collaborative mapping projects, such as iNaturalist or eBird, to collaborate with other departments at the FLREC in mapping and modeling the spread of invasive species. For example, it estimates through agent-based simulation models how fast an invasive termite species naturally disperses from a newly infested area, which provides a means for regulatory agencies to anticipate possible areas of infestation around newly infested locations. It also evaluates the data quality of observations in citizen science projects and analyzes how natural events, such as pandemics or hurricanes, affect user contributions to such platforms.

Selected publications:

• Hochmair, H.H., Scheffrahn, R.H., Basille, M., and Boone, M. (2020). Evaluating the data quality of iNaturalist termite records. PLoS ONE, 15(5), e0226534
• Scheffrahn, R.H., Chase, J.A., Mangold, J.R., and Hochmair, H.H. (2018). Relative occurrence of the family Kalotermitidae (Isoptera) under different termite sampling methods. Sociobiology, 65(1), 88-100
• Scheffrahn, R.H., Hochmair, H.H., Tonini, F., Krecek, J., Su, N.-Y., Fitzgerald, P., Hendricken, K., Chase, J.A., Mangold, J., and Olynik, J. (2016). Proliferation of the invasive termite Coptotermes gestroi (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae) on Grand Cayman and overall termite diversity on the Cayman Islands. Florida Entomologist, 99(3), 496-504