8. Citizen science case studies: insect monitoring
Parallel session | Chairperson: Martin Brocklehurst | Monday, 07 September 2020 | 15:30-16:30
15:30-15:45 | 8.1 Global Mosquito Alert: building a worldwide network to leverage citizen science in the fight against mosquito-borne disease
Author/s: John Palmer, Anne Bowser, Jessie Oliver, Martin Brocklehurst and Russanne Low
Presenter: Anne Bowser15:45-16:00 | 8.2 Melanogaster: Catch the Fly! (MCTF) the first European network of citizen science in adaptation genomics
Author/s: Roberto Torres, Miriam Merenciano, María Bogaerts-Márquez and Josefa González
Presenter: Roberto TorresSummary:
Melanogaster: Catch the Fly!" (MCTF) is the first European network of citizen science in adaptation genomics. In MCTF, high school teachers and students from rural areas of Spain, participate collecting and classifying Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). The collections are send to the Evolutionary and Functional Genomics Laboratory (IBE, CSIC-UPF) in order to study how organisms adapt to the environment. To promote the interest of the public in Evolutionary Biology and the importance of their contributions to scientific research, prior to collecting samples, participants learn about Biology and Genetics concepts as well as the importance of generating knowledge through basic research. We provide the schools with educational materials that help teachers convey the importance of the scientific questions behind the citizen science project. All Spanish schools that are part of MCTF will continue their collaboration with scientists for a five-year period. They will also act as role models for other schools in Europe, as we want to extend MCTF to the countries that are part of the European Drosophila Population Genomics Consortium, and beyond. MCTF, promotes a deep engagement of the participants and their communities, because it allows them to directly contribute to research in Evolutionary biology. MCTF also allows the public to be part of science advances, no matters how far away they are from a research center or University.
16:00-16:15 | 8.3 Media presence of ‘Mückenatlas’ affects citizens to catch mosquitoes for science
Author/s: Nadja Pernat, Helge Kampen, Emu-Felicitas Miyashita-Ostermann, Jonathan M. Jeschke and Doreen Werner
Presenter: Nadja PernatSummary:
In 2012, the ‘Mückenatlas’ was launched to research the distribution of invasive and native mosquitoes in Germany together with citizens who are called upon to catch mosquitoes for science. Although more than 25,000 participants have now sent in more than 138,000 mosquitoes, their motivation for doing so is still unclear. Here we present how the news coverage of the ‘Mückenatlas’ affects the number of submissions, both in terms of time and space. We demonstrate that the effort and time the project staff puts into proactive media work and in maintaining media relations present a crucial success factor for the project.
16:15-16:30 | 8.4 Speed talk: Insekt(en)Mobil(en) - Country specifics to the German adaptation of a Danish citizen science insect monitoring programme'
Author/s: Susanne Hecker, Cecilie Skræp Svenningsen, Anders P. Tøttrup, Nicole M. van Dam, Juliana Da Silva Menger, Joachim Denzler, Matthias Körschens, Volker Grescho, Anett Richter, Jonas Colling Larsen, Diana Bowler, Guadalupe Andraca, Robert Dunn and Aletta Bonn
Presenters: Susanne Hecker, Anders P. TøttrupSummary:
InsectMobile is a citizen science insect monitoring project, designed by the Natural History Museum Denmark and Unviersity of Copenhagen, using car nets and engaging volunteers in sampling insects in various land use types. Running between 2017 and 2020 in Denmark it has been adopted as a scoping study in Germany since 2018 by the German Centre for Integrated Biodiversity Research and research partners. You will learn about our sampling design and respective analysis from DNA metabarcoding to automated image analysis as well as preliminary results.