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
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK.
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium.
iScience. 2023 Dec 3;27(1):108623. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108623. eCollection 2024 Jan 19.
Invasive alien species (IAS) adversely impact biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and socio-economics. Citizen science can be an effective tool for IAS surveillance, management, and research, providing large datasets over wide spatial extents and long time periods, with public participants generating knowledge that supports action. We demonstrate how citizen science has contributed knowledge across the biological invasion process, especially for early detection and distribution mapping. However, we recommend that citizen science could be used more for assessing impacts and evaluating the success of IAS management. Citizen science does have limitations, and we explore solutions to two key challenges: ensuring data accuracy and dealing with uneven spatial coverage of potential recorders (which limits the dataset's "fit for purpose"). Greater co-development of citizen science with public stakeholders will help us better realize its potential across the biological invasion process and across ecosystems globally while meeting the needs of participants, local communities, scientists, and decision-makers.
外来入侵物种（IAS）对生物多样性、生态系统功能和社会经济产生不利影响。公民科学可以成为外来入侵物种监测、管理和研究的有效工具，在广泛的空间范围和较长的时间段内提供大量数据集，公众参与者生成支持行动的知识。我们展示了公民科学如何在生物入侵过程中贡献知识，特别是在早期检测和分布绘图方面。然而，我们建议公民科学可以更多地用于评估影响和评估外来入侵物种管理的成效。公民科学确实存在局限性，我们探索了应对两个关键挑战的解决方案：确保数据准确性以及处理潜在记录者空间覆盖不均的问题（这限制了数据集的“适用性”）。公民科学与公共利益相关者的更大程度的共同发展将有助于我们在生物入侵过程和全球生态系统中更好地实现其潜力，同时满足参与者、当地社区、科学家和决策者的需求。
