Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists
Community science programs provide an opportunity to gather scientific data to inform conservation policy and management. This study examines the accuracy of community science identifications submitted to the North American Bumble Bee Watch program on a per species level and as compared to each spec...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PeerJ Inc.
2020-06-01
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| Series: | PeerJ |
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| Online Access: | https://peerj.com/articles/9412.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797424973998981120 |
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| author | Victoria J. MacPhail Shelby D. Gibson Richard Hatfield Sheila R. Colla |
| author_facet | Victoria J. MacPhail Shelby D. Gibson Richard Hatfield Sheila R. Colla |
| author_sort | Victoria J. MacPhail |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Community science programs provide an opportunity to gather scientific data to inform conservation policy and management. This study examines the accuracy of community science identifications submitted to the North American Bumble Bee Watch program on a per species level and as compared to each species’ conservation status, as well as users (members of the public) and experts (those with expertise in the field of bumble bee biology) perceived ease of species identification. Photos of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are submitted to the program by users and verified (species name corrected or assigned as necessary) by an expert. Over 22,000 records from over 4,900 users were used in the analyses. Accuracy was measured in two ways: percent agreement (percent of all records submitted correctly by users) and veracity (percent of all verified records submitted correctly by the users). Users generally perceived it harder to identify species than experts. User perceptions were not significantly different from the observed percent agreement or veracity, while expert perceptions were significantly different (overly optimistic) from the observed percent agreement but not the veracity. We compared user submitted names to final expert verified names and found that, for all species combined, the average percent agreement was 53.20% while the average veracity was 55.86%. There was a wide range in percent agreement values per species, although sample size and the role of chance did affect some species agreements. As the conservation status of species increased to higher levels of extinction risk, species were increasingly more likely to have a lower percent agreement but higher levels of veracity than species of least concern. For each species name submitted, the number of different species verified by experts varied from 1 to 32. Future research may investigate which factors relate to success in user identification through community science. These findings could play a role in informing the design of community science programs in the future, including for use in long-term and national-level monitoring of wild pollinators. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:09:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-424c5bd9e35540cc8c3fcb1a17525ae0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2167-8359 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T08:09:20Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | PeerJ Inc. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PeerJ |
| spelling | doaj.art-424c5bd9e35540cc8c3fcb1a17525ae02023-12-02T23:30:33ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592020-06-018e941210.7717/peerj.9412Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientistsVictoria J. MacPhail0Shelby D. Gibson1Richard Hatfield2Sheila R. Colla3Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Biology, York University, Toronto, ON, CanadaThe Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, USAFaculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, ON, CanadaCommunity science programs provide an opportunity to gather scientific data to inform conservation policy and management. This study examines the accuracy of community science identifications submitted to the North American Bumble Bee Watch program on a per species level and as compared to each species’ conservation status, as well as users (members of the public) and experts (those with expertise in the field of bumble bee biology) perceived ease of species identification. Photos of bumble bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Bombus) are submitted to the program by users and verified (species name corrected or assigned as necessary) by an expert. Over 22,000 records from over 4,900 users were used in the analyses. Accuracy was measured in two ways: percent agreement (percent of all records submitted correctly by users) and veracity (percent of all verified records submitted correctly by the users). Users generally perceived it harder to identify species than experts. User perceptions were not significantly different from the observed percent agreement or veracity, while expert perceptions were significantly different (overly optimistic) from the observed percent agreement but not the veracity. We compared user submitted names to final expert verified names and found that, for all species combined, the average percent agreement was 53.20% while the average veracity was 55.86%. There was a wide range in percent agreement values per species, although sample size and the role of chance did affect some species agreements. As the conservation status of species increased to higher levels of extinction risk, species were increasingly more likely to have a lower percent agreement but higher levels of veracity than species of least concern. For each species name submitted, the number of different species verified by experts varied from 1 to 32. Future research may investigate which factors relate to success in user identification through community science. These findings could play a role in informing the design of community science programs in the future, including for use in long-term and national-level monitoring of wild pollinators.https://peerj.com/articles/9412.pdfCitizen scienceCommunity scienceCitizen scientistBumble beesBombusIdentification |
| spellingShingle | Victoria J. MacPhail Shelby D. Gibson Richard Hatfield Sheila R. Colla Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists PeerJ Citizen science Community science Citizen scientist Bumble bees Bombus Identification |
| title | Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists |
| title_full | Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists |
| title_fullStr | Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists |
| title_full_unstemmed | Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists |
| title_short | Using Bumble Bee Watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee (Bombus spp.) identification by community scientists |
| title_sort | using bumble bee watch to investigate the accuracy and perception of bumble bee bombus spp identification by community scientists |
| topic | Citizen science Community science Citizen scientist Bumble bees Bombus Identification |
| url | https://peerj.com/articles/9412.pdf |
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