The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation

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  • Danny Haelewaters
    University of Colorado
  • C. Alisha Quandt
    University of Colorado
  • Lachlan Bartrop
    Université de Sherbrooke
  • Jonathan Cazabonne
    Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue
  • Martha E. Crockatt
    University of Oxford
  • Susana P. Cunha
    Universidade de Coimbra
  • Ruben De Lange
    Ghent University
  • Laura Dominici
    Land and Infrastructure Engineering
  • Brian Douglas
    Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
  • Elisandro Ricardo Drechsler-Santos
    Santa Catarina State University
  • Jacob Heilmann-Clausen
    University of Copenhagen
  • Peter J. Irga
    University of Technology, Sydney
  • Sigrid Jakob
    Fungal Diversity Survey
  • Lotus Lofgren
    Duke University
  • Thomas E. Martin
  • Mary Nyawira Muchane
    National Museums of Kenya
  • Jeffery K. Stallman
    Purdue University
  • Annemieke Verbeken
    Ghent University
  • Allison K. Walker
    Acadia University, Nova Scotia
  • Susana C. Gonçalves
    Universidade de Coimbra
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.

Keywords

  • Red List, amateurs, extinction risk, fungal distribution, iNaturalist, mycology, online databases
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)e13013
JournalConservation Letters
Volume17
Issue number3
Early online date22 Mar 2024
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 22 Mar 2024

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