Identifying, reducing, and communicating uncertainty in community science: a focus on alien species

0562975 - BÚ 2023 RIV NL eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Probert, A. F. - Wegmann, D. - Volery, L. - Adriaens, T. - Bakiu, R. - Bertolino, S. - Essl, F. - Gervasini, E. - Groom, Q. - Latombe, G. - Marisavljevic, D. - Mumford, J. - Pergl, Jan - Preda, C. - Roy, H. E. - Scalera, R. - Teixeira, H. - Tricarico, E. - Vanderhoeven, S. - Bacher, S.
Identifying, reducing, and communicating uncertainty in community science: a focus on alien species.
Biological Invasions. Roč. 24, č. 11 (2022), s. 3395-3421. ISSN 1387-3547. E-ISSN 1573-1464
Grant CEP: GA TA ČR(CZ) SS02030018
GRANT EU: European Commission(XE) CA17122 - ALIEN-CSI
Institucionální podpora: RVO:67985939
Klíčová slova: biodiversity monitoring * citizen science * data quality * epistemic uncertainty * linguistic uncertainty * nNon-native species
Obor OECD: Biodiversity conservation
Impakt faktor: 2.9, rok: 2022
Způsob publikování: Open access
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02858-8

Community science (also often referred to as citizen science) provides a unique opportunity to address questions beyond the scope of other research methods whilst simultaneously engaging communities in the scientific process. This leads to broad educational benefits, empowers people, and can increase public awareness of societally relevant issues such as the biodiversity crisis. As such, community science has become a favourable framework for researching alien species where data on the presence, absence, abundance, phenology, and impact of species is important in informing management decisions. However, uncertainties arising at different stages can limit the interpretation of data and lead to projects failing to achieve their intended outcomes. Focusing on alien species centered community science projects, we identified key research questions and the relevant uncertainties that arise during the process of developing the study design, for example, when collecting the data and during the statistical analyses. Additionally, we assessed uncertainties from a linguistic perspective, and how the communication stages among project coordinators, participants and other stakeholders can alter the way in which information may be interpreted. We discuss existing methods for reducing uncertainty and suggest further solutions to improve data reliability. Further, we make suggestions to reduce the uncertainties that emerge at each project step and provide guidance and recommendations that can be readily applied in practice. Reducing uncertainties is essential and necessary to strengthen the scientific and community outcomes of community science, which is of particular importance to ensure the success of projects aimed at detecting novel alien species and monitoring their dynamics across space and time.
Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0335596