PSB 68 (1) 2022
Filling in the Gaps: Targeted Plant Collection by Undergraduates and Citizen Scientists to Better Understand Plant Distribution Abstract Research experiences benefit undergraduates and citizen scientists alike, and new resources allow for new research opportunities. With the expansion of online databases, current understanding of plant distributions is better than it has ever been. Database resources also show gaps in species distribution and allow rapid identification of areas that are under-collected. Targeted collecting of common but often overlooked plant species is an excellent way to engage undergraduates and citizen scientists. Here we provide an example of targeted plant collecting by undergraduates that resulted in 118 collections made over four days in Ouray County, Colorado. These collections resulted in 34 new country records not listed in the Flora of Colorado and 15 new county records not listed on SEINet.
Key words citizen science, Colorado, flora, species distribution, undergraduate
Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) and outreach to the public through citizen-science projects have become increasingly common (AAAS, 2011; Dolan, 2016). Applications like iNaturalist have millions of users around the globe, showing that there is a strong interest in participating in science (iNaturalist.org). Research can help form beneficial collaborations between amateurs and professionals, increase scientific communication and engagement, and help prepare the next generation of scientists. In the botanical sciences, a variety of methods has been used to engage high school students (Ragostra et al., 2020), undergraduates (Ward et al., 2014; Mitchell et al., 2017), and citizen scientists (Boho et al., 2020).
By Stephen R. Stern1,3, Nora S. Oviatt1,2,, and Grace E. Gardner1,2 Department of Biological Sciences, Colorado Mesa University, 1260 Kennedy Ave, Grand Junction, CO 81501, USA 2 Undergraduate students at Colorado Mesa University that conducted the study 3 Author for correspondence: sstern@coloradomesa.edu 24
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