Beyond maps: a review of the applications of biological records

Biological records are one of the most important sources of data for a large number of research areas. For example, their application has made valuable contributions to climate change ecology, where they are used to monitor species range shifts; to conservation ecology, where they are used to assess species' Red List status; and to biogeography, where they are used to highlight hotspots of biodiversity. A major benefit of biological records is the large spatial extent of the coverage combined with the fine spatial precision of the data: this combination is essential for any ecologist hoping to address large-scale questions about biodiversity and environmental change. Because most biological records are collected by a vast pool of volunteer recorders, studies utilizing biological records have the advantage of large-scale long-term data that it would otherwise be unfeasibly expensive to collect. We review the application of biological records by focussing on four key areas of biodiversity research: biogeography, trend assessments, climate change ecology, and conservation biology. We showcase the diversity of insights that biological records have delivered, which in turn illustrates the contribution of the voluntary recording community to our understanding of biodiversity science.