Identifying population time-series data published in non-English languages for the Living Planet Index

"The Living Planet Index (LPI) is one of the most important biodiversity indicators summarising changes in global vertebrate populations (www.livingplanetindex.org). However, the dataset used to develop the LPI suffers from geographic and taxonomic biases. By collaborating with the team at the Zoological Society of London (who develops the LPI), this project aims to test whether a) literature searches in languages other than English can improve coverage for countries where English is not widely spoken and b) trends published in non-English-language literature differ from those published in English-language literature. Skills in major non-English languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, etc) are preferable, but support can be provided for those students who don’t understand those languages. This is part of an ARC-funded project, transcending language barriers to environmental sciences (translate: https://translatesciences.com/)."

Supervisor: Dr Tatsuya Amano