Enhancing plant biosecurity with citizen science monitoring: comparing methodologies using reports of acute oak decline
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Baker, E
Jeger, MJ
Mumford, JD
Brown, N
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Monitoring of forest pests and diseases is resource-intensive, requiring individual woodlands and trees to be visited and assessed for symptoms. Climate change and increased global connectivity are amplifying the scale of the monitoring challenge, with the number of new plant biosecurity threats increasing each year. Citizen science can increase the scale of pest and disease surveys. However, it is argued that citizen science data can be biased and inaccurate. This study examines potential biases in citizen science data by focusing on the case study of acute oak decline (AOD), a disease syndrome impacting native oaks within the UK associated with the beetle Agrilus biguttatus. Analysis was performed using two contrasting citizen science data set sources: the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas, which is a repository for citizen science data sets, and Tree Alert, a targeted citizen science project that encouraged landowners and the public to report the occurrence of AOD. For both data sets, detection was more likely in locations with higher Coleoptera reports, suggesting that there are hubs of recorder activity. For the NBN data set, A. biguttatus was more likely to be found in areas where historic parks and gardens were present. For the Tree Alert data set, A. biguttatus was less likely to be found on open access land, indicating that the programme was successful in engaging private landowners. These results indicate that understanding sources of bias within reporting schemes is an important step in data analysis and that the inclusion of structured survey designs would enable the extent of biases to be documented.
Date Issued
2019-03-01
Date Acceptance
2018-11-13
Citation
Journal of Geographical Systems, 2019, 21 (1), pp.111-131
ISSN
1435-5930
Publisher
Springer
Start Page
111
End Page
131
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Geographical Systems
Volume
21
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2019 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10109-018-0285-2]
Sponsor
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000460946600006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
BB/L012308/1
Subjects
Social Sciences
Geography
Biosecurity
Distribution modelling
Citizen science
Reporter bias
ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH
AGRILUS-BIGUTTATUS
TREE DISEASE
UK
MICROBIOME
VALIDATION
CHALLENGES
SYMPTOMS
HISTORY
FORESTS
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2018-12-12