Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Citizen Science
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1448512

Inconspicuous taxa in Citizen Science-based botanical research: actual contribution, limitations, and new opportunities for non-vascular cryptogams

Provisionally accepted
Carlos Cerrejón Carlos Cerrejón 1*Marion Noualhaguet Marion Noualhaguet 2Nicole Fenton Nicole Fenton 2Marc-Frédéric Indorf Marc-Frédéric Indorf 2Mariano Feldman Mariano Feldman 3
  • 1 University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
  • 2 Université du Québec en Abitibi Témiscamingue, Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada
  • 3 Forest Technology Center of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Catalonia, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Citizen science (CS) has gathered an impressive wealth of open biodiversity data over the last decade, with demonstrated significant scientific contributions in biology and conservation science. However, the contribution of CS in botanical research, and more particularly regarding inconspicuous taxonomic groups such as cryptogams remains largely unexplored. Here we assess the current status and contribution of CS in botanical research, with a special focus on non-vascular “cryptogams” (bryophytes, lichens, fungi, and algae). We conducted a literature review for the period 2012 to 2022 to synthesize the use of CS in botanical studies. We found an increasing trend in the use of CS for botanical research (average annual increase of ~40%), although highly biased towards vascular plants (246 papers). Cryptogams remained strongly underrepresented (58 papers), although receiving slightly growing attention since 2018. The inconspicuousness nature, high diversity, challenges with species identification, and low public perception of cryptogams not only restrict the contribution made by non-experts but raise concerns about the reliability and robustness of generated data. This is fueled by the scarcity of foundational methodological studies in cryptogams, which seems to undermine the scientific confidence in engaging volunteers for their research or using open data from CS platforms and tools. Despite this, our review showed a gradual adoption of CS approaches for cryptogam research, which is particularly led by mycologists. We highlight the versatility and potential of CS approaches for advancing cryptogam knowledge across various research subjects at spatial and temporal scales otherwise unfathomable by researchers, and provide insights on the opportunities of application and possible solutions to the discussed limitations. We hope our work motivates mycologists, phycologists, bryologists, and lichenologists to further embrace CS, and increase public awareness on these highly sensitive and ecologically important taxa.

    Keywords: algae, Bryophytes, Community science, Fungi, Lichens, Public Participation, vascular plants, Volunteers

    Received: 15 Jun 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cerrejón, Noualhaguet, Fenton, Indorf and Feldman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Carlos Cerrejón, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.