Biodiversity communication in the digital era through the Emoji tree of life

Stefano Mammola; Mattia Falaschi; Gentile Francesco Ficetola

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108569

Biodiversity communication in the digital era through the Emoji tree of life

iScience. 2023 Dec 11;26(12):108569. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108569. eCollection 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Stefano Mammola^{1

2

3}, Mattia Falaschi⁴, Gentile Francesco Ficetola^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), Water Research Institute, National Research Council (CNR-IRSA), Verbania Pallanza, Italy.
² Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research (LIBRe), Finnish Museum of Natural History (LUOMUS), University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
³ National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy.
⁵ University Grenoble Alpes, University Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine, 38000 Grenoble, France.

Abstract

Emojis enable direct expressions of ideas and emotions in digital communication, also contributing to discussions on biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, the ability of emojis to represent the Earth's tree of life remains unexplored. Here, we quantified the taxonomic comprehensiveness of currently available nature-related emojis and tested whether the expanding availability of emojis enables a better coverage of extant biodiversity. Currently available emojis encompass a broad range of animal species, while plants, fungi, and microorganisms are underrepresented. Within animals, vertebrates are significantly overrepresented compared to their actual richness, while arthropods are underrepresented. Notwithstanding these taxonomic disparities, animal taxa represented by emojis more than doubled from 2015 to 2022, allowing an improved representation of both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity, driven by the recent addition of cnidarians and annelids. Creating an inclusive emoji set is essential to ensure a fair representation of biodiversity in digital communication and showcase its importance for biosphere functioning.

Keywords: Animals; Biological classification; Internet; Linguistics; Phylogeny.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.24213183