AUTHOR=Kotani Ayumi , Shin Nagai , Tei Shunsuke , Makarov Andrey , Gavrilyeva Tuyara 

TITLE=Seasonality in Human Interest in Berry Plants Detection by Google Trends

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Forests and Global Change

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2021.688835

DOI=10.3389/ffgc.2021.688835

ISSN=2624-893X

ABSTRACT=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 public interest in berries in boreal 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 assessed the potential for detecting ecological factors from the social data, in which physical phenomena and socio-cultural aspects are fundamentally superimposed, and discuss its applicability to forest studies.