Seasonality in Human Interest in Berry Plants Detection by Google Trends

The phenology of berry-producing plants, particularly their harvest season, is of human interest and also reflects the ecosystem’s response to the changing environment. We investigated the seasonal dynamics of human interest in berries growing in boreal, subarctic and Arctic ecosystems, mainly in Ru...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Main Authors: Ayumi Kotani, Nagai Shin, Shunsuke Tei, Andrey Makarov, Tuyara Gavrilyeva
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Subjects:
Google Trends
public interest
harvest season
phenology
wild berry
social sensing
info
envir
Arctic
Canada
Subarctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2021.688835
https://doaj.org/article/ce1d38afa72b468f89ca821be2fc042f
Description
Summary:The phenology of berry-producing plants, particularly their harvest season, is of human interest and also reflects the ecosystem’s response to the changing environment. We investigated the seasonal dynamics of human interest in berries growing in boreal, subarctic and Arctic ecosystems, mainly in Russia, based on internet search data via Google Trends. There is a typical and culture-specific pattern of seasonal variations in search volume concerning berries across Russia, Finland, and Canada. Generally, the seasonal peak of search corresponds to the common berry harvest season across these countries. We discussed the potential and limitation for detecting ecological factors from the internet search data, in which physical phenomena and socio-cultural aspects are fundamentally superimposed, and its applicability to phenological studies.

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