Digital footprints of non-native species in the Iberian Peninsula: YouTube discourse on recent introductions

Le résumé fourni par la source

Non-native species (NNS) can have significant ecological and economic impacts worldwide, making timely monitoring and effective communication essential. We used YouTube metadata to examine how NNS with first records in the Iberian Peninsula between 2006 and 2025 are represented on the video-sharing platform and how this discourse is thematically framed. Using the YouTube Data API, we built a multilingual, Iberia-validated corpus from video titles and descriptions, classifying keywords and expressions into four broad themes: Invasion, Detection, eCommerce, and Threat. We combined descriptive analyses of thematic proportions with multinomial and generalised additive models to assess variation across taxonomic groups, invasion status, introduction period, and time since first record. Audience response was assessed using an engagement index derived from video metrics. After manual validation, the dataset comprised 1895 videos from 1002 channels covering 94 species. Thematic composition varied in relation to first-record year, with decreased trade-related content after first records and invasion and detection themes becoming more frequent. Video production was highly decentralised across channels, with insects achieving the highest popularity. Several species with limited video content nevertheless showed high per-video engagement, indicating that online visibility is not determined solely by upload volume. These results show that YouTube metadata can complement traditional monitoring by relating ecological risk to societal attention and revealing how NNS become socially visible and framed in public discourse. The multilingual lexicon and workflow developed here support conservation culturomics, targeted communication, and potential integration of digital discourse indicators into horizon-scanning frameworks in biodiversity-rich regions under high introduction pressure.

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