Using citizen science to bridge taxonomic discovery with education and outreach
Biological collections are uniquely poised to inform the stewardship of life on Earth in a time of cataclysmic biodiversity loss. Efforts to fully leverage collections are impeded by a lack of trained taxonomists and a lack of interest and engagement by the public. We provide a model of a crowd‐sourced data collection project that produces quality taxonomic data sets and empowers citizen scientists through real contributions to science. Entitled MicroPlants, the project is a collaboration between taxonomists, citizen science experts, and teachers and students from universities and K–12.
von Konrat M, Campbell T, Carter B, Greif M, Bryson M, Larraín J, Trouille L, Cohen S, Gaus E, Qazi A, Ribbens E, Livshultz T, Walker TJ, Suwa T, Peterson T, Rodriguez Y, Vaughn C, Yang C, Aburahmeh S, Carstensen B, de Lange P, Delavoi C, Strauss K, Drag J, Aguero B, Snyder C, Martinec J, Smith A. Using citizen science to bridge taxonomic discovery with education and outreach. Appl Plant Sci. 2018 Mar 9;6(2):e1023. doi: 10.1002/aps3.1023. PMID: 29732254; PMCID: PMC5851566.