Fungal conservation is gaining momentum globally, but many challenges remain. To advance further, more data are needed on fungal diversity across space and time. Fundamental information regarding population sizes, trends, and geographic ranges is also critical to accurately assess the extinction risk of individual species. However, obtaining these data is particularly difficult for fungi due to their immense diversity, complex and problematic taxonomy, and cryptic nature. This paper explores how citizen science (CS) projects can be leveraged to advance fungal conservation efforts. We present several examples of past and ongoing CS-based projects to record and monitor fungal diversity. These include projects that are part of broad collecting schemes, those that provide participants with targeted sampling methods, and those whereby participants collect environmental samples from which fungi can be obtained. We also examine challenges and solutions for how such projects can capture fungal diversity, estimate species absences, broaden participation, improve data curation, and translate resulting data into actionable conservation measures. Finally, we close the paper with a call for professional mycologists to engage with amateurs and local communities, presenting a framework to determine whether a given project would likely benefit from participation by citizen scientists.
The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation / Haelewaters, D.; Quandt, C. A.; Bartrop, L.; Cazabonne, J.; Crockatt, M. E.; Cunha, S. P.; De Lange, R.; Dominici, L.; Douglas, B.; Drechsler-Santos, E. R.; Heilmann-Clausen, J.; Irga, P. J.; Jakob, S.; Lofgren, L.; Martin, T. E.; Muchane, M. N.; Stallman, J. K.; Verbeken, A.; Walker, A. K.; Goncalves, S. C.. - In: CONSERVATION LETTERS. - ISSN 1755-263X. - 17:3(2024). [10.1111/conl.13013]
The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation
Dominici L.;
2024
Abstract
Fungal conservation is gaining momentum globally, but many challenges remain. To advance further, more data are needed on fungal diversity across space and time. Fundamental information regarding population sizes, trends, and geographic ranges is also critical to accurately assess the extinction risk of individual species. However, obtaining these data is particularly difficult for fungi due to their immense diversity, complex and problematic taxonomy, and cryptic nature. This paper explores how citizen science (CS) projects can be leveraged to advance fungal conservation efforts. We present several examples of past and ongoing CS-based projects to record and monitor fungal diversity. These include projects that are part of broad collecting schemes, those that provide participants with targeted sampling methods, and those whereby participants collect environmental samples from which fungi can be obtained. We also examine challenges and solutions for how such projects can capture fungal diversity, estimate species absences, broaden participation, improve data curation, and translate resulting data into actionable conservation measures. Finally, we close the paper with a call for professional mycologists to engage with amateurs and local communities, presenting a framework to determine whether a given project would likely benefit from participation by citizen scientists.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
---|---|---|---|
Conservation Letters - 2024 - Haelewaters - The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation.pdf
accesso aperto
Descrizione: Manuscript
Tipologia:
2a Post-print versione editoriale / Version of Record
Licenza:
Creative commons
Dimensione
728.79 kB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
728.79 kB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
Pubblicazioni consigliate
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2992172