TY - JOUR

T1 - The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation

AU - Haelewaters, Danny

AU - Quandt, C. Alisha

AU - Bartrop, Lachlan

AU - Cazabonne, Jonathan

AU - Crockatt, Martha E.

AU - Cunha, Susana P.

AU - De Lange, Ruben

AU - Dominici, Laura

AU - Douglas, Brian

AU - Drechsler-Santos, Elisandro Ricardo

AU - Heilmann-Clausen, Jacob

AU - Irga, Peter J.

AU - Jakob, Sigrid

AU - Lofgren, Lotus

AU - Martin, Thomas E.

AU - Muchane, Mary Nyawira

AU - Stallman, Jeffery K.

AU - Verbeken, Annemieke

AU - Walker, Allison K.

AU - Gonçalves, Susana C.

N1 - No embargo at publication

PY - 2024/3/22

Y1 - 2024/3/22

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Red List

KW - amateurs

KW - extinction risk

KW - fungal distribution

KW - iNaturalist

KW - mycology

KW - online databases

U2 - 10.1111/conl.13013

DO - 10.1111/conl.13013

M3 - Review article

VL - 17

SP - e13013

JO - Conservation Letters

JF - Conservation Letters

SN - 1755-263X

IS - 3

ER -