Evaluating tourist profiles and nature-based experiences in Biosphere Reserves using Flickr: Matches and mismatches between online social surveys and photo content analysis.

Monitoring visitor dynamics and their nature-based experiences is an important dimension in the conservation management of protected areas. In the current digital age, the content analysis of social media information is being increasingly used in such a context. However, research testing whether social media content analysis provides similar information to that obtained from stated preference methods is lacking. We aimed to identify differences in the classification of tourist profiles and nature-based experiences, both from online social surveys and photo content analysis. Our approach targeted Flickr's social media users visiting two Biosphere Reserves in Southern Europe: Doñana and Sierra Nevada. We manually classified the main content of Flickr photos considering different categories of tourist profiles and nature-based experiences. Concurrently, we distributed online surveys to Flickr users responsible for those photos and gathered their self-stated classification of tourist profiles and experiences. Finally, we compared the classification results from both content analysis and online surveys using multiple congruence metrics and tests. Overall, we found both matches and mismatches between the results from content analysis and online surveys depending on the categories of tourist profiles and their experiences. "Landscape and species" was the only category with consistent matches between content analysis and online surveys for both tourist profiles and nature-based experiences. We suggest that conclusions based on content analysis or online surveys alone can lead to incomplete information. Instead, the adoption of both content analysis and online surveys should provide complementary perspectives for the monitoring of nature's cultural capital.

Ecosystem services in European protected areas: Ambiguity in the views of scientists and managers?

Protected Areas are a key component of nature conservation. They can play an important role in counterbalancing the impacts of ecosystem degradation. For an optimal protection of a Protected Area it is essential to account for the variables underlying the major Ecosystem Services an area delivers, and the threats upon them. Here we show that the perception of these important variables differs markedly between scientists and managers of Protected Areas in mountains and transitional waters. Scientists emphasise variables of abiotic and biotic nature, whereas managers highlight socio-economic, cultural and anthropogenic variables. This indicates fundamental differences in perception. To be able to better protect an area it would be advisable to bring the perception of scientists and managers closer together. Intensified and harmonised communication across disciplinary and professional boundaries will be needed to implement and improve Ecosystem Service oriented management strategies in current and future Protected Areas.

Dataset of Passerine bird communities in a Mediterranean high mountain (Sierra Nevada, Spain).

In this data paper, a dataset of passerine bird communities is described in Sierra Nevada, a Mediterranean high mountain located in southern Spain. The dataset includes occurrence data from bird surveys conducted in four representative ecosystem types of Sierra Nevada from 2008 to 2015. For each visit, bird species numbers as well as distance to the transect line were recorded. A total of 27847 occurrence records were compiled with accompanying measurements on distance to the transect and animal counts. All records are of species in the order Passeriformes. Records of 16 different families and 44 genera were collected. Some of the taxa in the dataset are included in the European Red List. This dataset belongs to the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory (OBSNEV), a long-term research project designed to compile socio-ecological information on the major ecosystem types in order to identify the impacts of global change in this area.