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AIMS Environmental Science

2014, Volume 1, Issue 1: 38-44. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2014.1.38
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Research article

Understanding plant invasions: An example of working with citizen scientists to collect environmental data

  • Program in Science Learning, Departments of Human Ecology and Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA
  • Received: 19 December 2013 Accepted: 21 February 2014 Published: 21 February 2014

  • Citizen science programs are useful tools for collecting important environmental science data. To ensure data quality, however, it must be shown that data collected by volunteers can produce reliable results. We engaged 143 volunteers over four years to map and estimate abundance of invasive plants in New York and New Jersey parklands. We found that off trail abundance of only a few of our targeted invasive species were positively correlated with on trail abundance. Our results support that citizen science programs can be a useful and sometimes a much needed addition to environmental science protocols.

    Citation: Rebecca Jordan, Wesley R. Brooks, Amanda Sorensen, Joan Ehrenfeld (deceased). Understanding plant invasions: An example of working with citizen scientists to collect environmental data[J]. AIMS Environmental Science, 2014, 1(1): 38-44. doi: 10.3934/environsci.2014.1.38

    Related Papers:

  • Citizen science programs are useful tools for collecting important environmental science data. To ensure data quality, however, it must be shown that data collected by volunteers can produce reliable results. We engaged 143 volunteers over four years to map and estimate abundance of invasive plants in New York and New Jersey parklands. We found that off trail abundance of only a few of our targeted invasive species were positively correlated with on trail abundance. Our results support that citizen science programs can be a useful and sometimes a much needed addition to environmental science protocols.


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  • © 2014 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
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