Citizen science is a vital partnership for invasive alien species management and research

Pocock, Michael J.O.; Adriaens, Tim; Bertolino, Sandro; Eschen, René; Essl, Franz; Hulme, Philip E.; Jeschke, Jonathan M.; Roy, Helen E.; Teixeira, Heliana; de Groot, Maarten

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108623

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 147 publications

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“…Frequent errors are another drawback of CSD (Aceves-Bueno et al 2017). We strictly filtered the Biome data to record new distributions and only adopted records deemed naturalized judging from photographs (we note that records of cultivated/captive individuals can be valuable for informing the risk of naturalization (Pocock et al 2024)). After the manual validation, the number of the plant and insect species with new distributions was reduced from 73 to 49 and 16 to 12 for the plants and insects, respectively (Figure 2A).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing Community Science and Open Research-based Data to Track Distributions of Invasive Species in Japan

Sakai,

Atsumi,

Genroku

et al. 2024

Preprint

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At the forefront of invasive alien species (IAS) control, information gaps about the latest IAS distribution can hinder the required actions of local governments. In Japan, many prefectural governments still lack a list of invasive species despite the request stipulated in the Invasive Alien Species Management Action Plan enacted in 2015. Here, we examined to what extent open research-based data deposited by museums and herbaria (ORD) and community science data deposited by volunteers (CSD) can fill the gaps. We focused on 145 plant and 38 insect invasive species, and updated their distribution maps using ORD and CSD. We found complementarity as well as common limitations between ORD and CSD. While taxonomic biases were weaker in ORD, CSD had better prefectural coverage. In addition, some important taxa have rarely been captured by CSD or ORD. Mixed strategies of facilitating community science, supporting local museums, and taxon-specific monitoring by experts are necessary.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Harnessing Community Science and Open Research-based Data to Track Distributions of Invasive Species in Japan

Sakai,

Atsumi,

Genroku

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Technology also offers solutions to tackle one of the biggest critiques of citizen science: data quality [95][96][97]. Manually verifying the increasing amounts of records is time-consuming, error-prone, difficult to reproduce and limited to known geographical areas and taxonomic groups.…”

Section: Technology As An Enabler-opening Up New Research Avenuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has also been exploration of the potential to implement chatbots in citizen science projects or on social media. Project participants or social media users can be prompted to provide more information or to look for other species, such as host plants or things like habitat and environmental conditions [ 97 , 101 ].…”

Section: Technology As An Enabler—opening Up New Research Avenuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By changing the types of tasks and necessary skills, technologies can engage participants with diverse backgrounds, promoting inclusivity and widening societal engagement [ 51 ]. The development and inclusion of affordable technology in citizen science may help fill geographical data gaps, which is a major limiting factor of current biodiversity databases and large-scale predictions of biodiversity trends [ 97 ]. It could also help increase the reach of citizen science in the global south and make citizen science more inclusive [ 107 , 108 ].…”

Section: Technology As a Transformer—rethinking Science And Collabora...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emerging technologies in citizen science and potential for insect monitoring

Sheard,

Adriaens,

Bowler

et al. 2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Emerging technologies are increasingly employed in environmental citizen science projects. This integration offers benefits and opportunities for scientists and participants alike. Citizen science can support large-scale, long-term monitoring of species occurrences, behaviour and interactions. At the same time, technologies can foster participant engagement, regardless of pre-existing taxonomic expertise or experience, and permit new types of data to be collected. Yet, technologies may also create challenges by potentially increasing financial costs, necessitating technological expertise or demanding training of participants. Technology could also reduce people's direct involvement and engagement with nature. In this perspective, we discuss how current technologies have spurred an increase in citizen science projects and how the implementation of emerging technologies in citizen science may enhance scientific impact and public engagement. We show how technology can act as (i) a facilitator of current citizen science and monitoring efforts, (ii) an enabler of new research opportunities, and (iii) a transformer of science, policy and public participation, but could also become (iv) an inhibitor of participation, equity and scientific rigour. Technology is developing fast and promises to provide many exciting opportunities for citizen science and insect monitoring, but while we seize these opportunities, we must remain vigilant against potential risks. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Towards a toolkit for global insect biodiversity monitoring’.

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“…These efforts have also influenced public policy (Fritz et al, 2019;Roger et al, 2023) and raised awareness among both the public and policymakers (Danielsen et al, 2014). With the widespread adoption of internet-enabled smartphones and the development of user-friendly applications to record biodiversity, members of the public, working in a nonprofessional and unpaid capacity, have been documenting the location of species worldwide (Deacon et al, 2023;Pocock et al, 2024;. These records are often accompanied by photographic and video documentation, providing valuable secondary information (Klinger et al, 2023;Pernat et al, 2024).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The implications of estimating rarity in Brazilian reptiles from GBIF data based on contributions from citizen science versus research institutions

Forti,

da Silva,

Ferreira

et al. 2024

Integrative Conservation

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Understanding the distribution of rare species is important for conservation prioritisation. Traditionally, museums and other research institutions have served as depositories for specimens and biodiversity information. However, estimating abundance from these sources is challenging due to spatiotemporally biased collection methods. For instance, large‐bodied reptiles that are found near research institutions or in popular, easily accessible sites tend to be overrepresented in collections compared to smaller species found in remote areas. Recently, a substantial number of observations have been amassed through citizen (or community) science initiatives, which are invaluable for monitoring purposes. Given the unstructured nature of this sampling, these datasets are often affected by biases, such as taxonomic, spatial and temporal preferences. Therefore, analysing data from these two sources can lead to different abundance estimates. This study compiled data on Brazilian reptile species from the Global Information Biodiversity Facility (GBIF). It employed a community‐ecology approach to analyse data from research institutions and citizen science initiatives, separately and collectively, to assess taxonomic and spatial species coverage and predict species rarity. Using a 1‐degree hexagonal grid, we analysed the spatial distribution of reptile communities and calculated rarity indices for 754 reptile species. Our findings reveal that 87 species were exclusively recorded in the citizen science subset, while 212 were recorded only by research institutions. The number of observations per species in the citizen science data followed a Gambin distribution, which aligns with the expected pattern of abundance in natural communities, unlike the data from research institutions. This suggests that citizen science data may be a more accurate source for estimating species abundance and rarity. The discrepancies in rarity classifications between the datasets were likely due to differences in sample size and potentially other sampling parameters. Nevertheless, combining data collected by both research institutions and citizen science initiatives can help to fill knowledge gaps in reptile species occurrence, thus enhancing the foundation for conservation efforts on a national scale.

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Citizen science is a vital partnership for invasive alien species management and research

Cited by 13 publications

References 147 publications

Harnessing Community Science and Open Research-based Data to Track Distributions of Invasive Species in Japan

Harnessing Community Science and Open Research-based Data to Track Distributions of Invasive Species in Japan

Emerging technologies in citizen science and potential for insect monitoring

The implications of estimating rarity in Brazilian reptiles from GBIF data based on contributions from citizen science versus research institutions

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