Abstract
Citizen Science has traditionally been applied in biodiversity monitoring, as the approach holds the potential for conducting large-scale data collections. However, involving citizens in more than data collection is still in its infancy. In this paper, we present the results of an ongoing citizen science project that expands the partnership between citizens and researchers by involving citizens in several parts of the scientific process. In the project, citizens first conduct sampling in the field, followed by analysis of their samples in our university laboratory. Finally, participants are interpreting the results of the laboratory analyses in collaboration with the researcher. The project aims to evaluate the presence of marine animals by monitoring the DNA left behind by the organisms in the environment (eDNA), using samples from the years 2017 and 2018. We found that citizens can carry out eDNA surveillance with an average success rate of 72% (where the success rate is defined as passing both the negative and positive control test) and that their data is of similar quality as a trained researcher and concur with known species distributions. Engaging and training citizen scientists in advanced laboratory analysis, such as the monitoring of eDNA in water samples, has promising applications for large-scale national monitoring of marine species that can be used in governmental mapping and monitoring efforts.
Highlights
Citizen Science (CS) approaches in biodiversity research offer the potential for large-scale and long-term data collection, which can contribute to population monitoring, species distribution mapping, and conservation policies, as well as including an educational benefit for the volunteers
A novel non-invasive way of evaluating species diversity in different biomes that is reliant on relatively large datasets and exhaustive sampling is monitoring by environmental DNA (Beng and Corlett 2020; Goldberg et al 2016; Thomsen and Willerslev 2015) that involves detection of genetic material shed by living organisms to their surrounding habitat
In 2017, the environmental DNA (eDNA) samples were collected from July to September, and in 2018, the samples were collected from August to December. eDNA sampling was conducted by filtering water using a Sterivex Filter Unit (Merck Millipore) following past protocols (Agersnap et al, 2017; Spens et al, 2017) with the addition of 96% ethanol to filters for preservation (Appendix A in Supplemental File 2)
Summary
Citizen Science (CS) approaches in biodiversity research offer the potential for large-scale and long-term data collection, which can contribute to population monitoring, species distribution mapping, and conservation policies, as well as including an educational benefit for the volunteers. A novel non-invasive way of evaluating species diversity in different biomes that is reliant on relatively large datasets and exhaustive sampling is monitoring by environmental DNA (eDNA) (Beng and Corlett 2020; Goldberg et al 2016; Thomsen and Willerslev 2015) that involves detection of genetic material shed by living organisms to their surrounding habitat. Monitoring of eDNA can be done either by detection of single species using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (i.e., qPCR) (Agersnap et al 2017; Biggs et al 2015) or by a metabarcoding approach targeting a broader diversity within a limited taxonomical group, e.g., bony fishes (Thomsen et al 2016; Sigsgaard et al 2017). It can be argued to be more precise when carried out by trained laboratorial staff, we opted for a citizen-involved laboratory approach as it gives a unique and exciting hands-on experience, that increases awareness of monitoring biodiversity
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