Evaluating the ability of citizen scientists to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species.

Steven Falk,Andrew Salisbury,James Bennett,Dave Kilbey,Barbara Smith,Helen Bostock,Gemma Foster,Judith Conroy,Richard Comont,Chung-Ping Lin

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0218614

Steven Falk, Andrew Salisbury + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218614

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Abstract

Citizen science is an increasingly popular way of engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data. Despite this, data quality remains a concern and there is little published evidence about the accuracy of records generated by citizen scientists. Here we compare data generated by two British citizen science projects, Blooms for Bees and BeeWatch, to determine the ability of volunteer recorders to identify bumblebee (Bombus) species. We assessed recorders’ identification ability in two ways–as recorder accuracy (the proportion of expert-verified records correctly identified by recorders) and recorder success (the proportion of recorder-submitted identifications confirmed correct by verifiers). Recorder identification ability was low (<50% accuracy; <60% success), despite access to project specific bumblebee identification materials. Identification ability varied significantly depending on bumblebee species, with recorders most able to correctly identify species with distinct appearances. Blooms for Bees recorders (largely recruited from the gardening community) were markedly less able to identify bumblebees than BeeWatch recorders (largely individuals with a more specific interest in bumblebees). Within both projects, recorders demonstrated an improvement in identification ability over time. Here we demonstrate and quantify the essential role of expert verification within citizen science projects, and highlight where resources could be strengthened to improve recorder ability.

Highlights

Citizen science is an increasingly popular tool for engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data, especially within the field of ecology [1]
Records submitted to the Blooms for Bees project claimed sightings of 23 bumblebee species, and verification reduced this number to 15 confirmed species, plus the B. lucorum/ terrestris aggregate taxa
Because citizen science recorders join projects on an ongoing basis, for a largely self-determined amount of time, this lack of projectwide improvement over time does not indicate that individuals did not learn from their involvement. Within both projects, we found that recorders improved their identification success as they submitted more records, and that this rate decreased gradually over time as Citizen science and bumblebee (Bombus) species identification identification ability improved to a plateau

Summary

Introduction

Citizen science is an increasingly popular tool for engaging volunteers in the collection of scientific data, especially within the field of ecology [1]. In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number, size and scope of citizen science initiatives, in Europe and North America [2,3]. This is partly a result of rapid technological developments including online recording, project apps and digital photography, which have facilitated improved data verification and validation [4,5,6,7]. The funder did not provide support in the form of salary to any of the authors, or have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

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