Data Reliability in a Citizen Science Protocol for Monitoring Stingless Bees Flight Activity

Although the quality of citizen science (CS) data is often a concern, evidence for high-quality CS data increases in the scientific literature. This study aimed to assess the data reliability of a structured CS protocol for monitoring stingless bees’ flight activity. We tested (1) data accuracy for...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInsects (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 12; no. 9; p. 766
Main Authors Leocadio, Jailson N., Ghilardi-Lopes, Natalia P., Koffler, Sheina, Barbiéri, Celso, Francoy, Tiago M., Albertini, Bruno, Saraiva, Antonio M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 27.08.2021
MDPI
Subjects
Accuracy
Beekeeping
Bees
biodiversity monitoring
Data collection
data quality
Dispersion
Entrances
Flight activity
Meliponini
Metadata
Monitoring
Perception
Plant reproduction
Pollen
Principal components analysis
protocol validation
Quality assessment
Quality control
Reliability analysis
Reliability engineering
Science
Scientists
Structural reliability
Video
volunteer participation
Brazil
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Although the quality of citizen science (CS) data is often a concern, evidence for high-quality CS data increases in the scientific literature. This study aimed to assess the data reliability of a structured CS protocol for monitoring stingless bees’ flight activity. We tested (1) data accuracy for replication among volunteers and for expert validation and (2) precision, comparing dispersion between citizen scientists and expert data. Two distinct activity dimensions were considered: (a) perception of flight activity and (b) flight activity counts (entrances, exits, and pollen load). No significant differences were found among groups regarding entrances and exits. However, replicator citizen scientists presented a higher chance of perceiving pollen than original data collectors and experts, likely a false positive. For those videos in which there was an agreement about pollen presence, the effective pollen counts were similar (with higher dispersion for citizen scientists), indicating the reliability of CS-collected data. The quality of the videos, a potential source of variance, did not influence the results. Increasing practical training could be an alternative to improve pollen data quality. Our study shows that CS provides reliable data for monitoring bee activity and highlights the relevance of a multi-dimensional approach for assessing CS data quality.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:2075-4450
2075-4450
DOI:10.3390/insects12090766