Co-design of a citizen science study: unlocking the potential of eDNA for volunteer freshwater monitoring

Citizen science is increasingly being promoted as a means of gathering more data to help inform the management of ecosystems. Involving the participants in the design of data collection activities is a form of co-design often proposed by those calling for a translational ecology.
In addition, novel monitoring approaches have the potential to improve the quality of data collected by citizen scientists. We explored the potential of environmental DNA (eDNA) for vertebrate (mainly fish) species monitoring through a co-designed catchment monitoring strategy. 
Having been introduced to the potential of eDNA, citizen scientists designed and executed an eDNA-based survey of a small chalk stream catchment to explore questions of concern.
The eDNA monitoring approach provided data about fish and other vertebrate diversity in the catchment which would have otherwise required sampling approaches difficult for citizen scientists. These data give a preliminary answer to some of the citizen scientist..., Codesigned sampling programme with citizen scientists. Citizen scientists collected and prepared water samples for subsequent metabarcoding. , Text is .xml, tabular data is .csv.

公民科学（Citizen Science）正日益被推广为收集更多数据以支撑生态系统管理决策的重要手段。让参与者参与数据采集活动的设计，是呼吁发展转化生态学（Translational Ecology）的群体常倡导的一种协同设计模式。
此外，新型监测方法有望提升公民科学采集数据的质量。本研究通过协同设计的流域监测策略，探究了环境DNA（eDNA）在脊椎动物（以鱼类为主）物种监测中的应用潜力。
在了解到eDNA的应用潜力后，公民科学家们自主设计并实施了针对小型白垩溪流域的基于eDNA的调查，以探究其关注的相关问题。
该eDNA监测方法成功获取了该流域内鱼类及其他脊椎动物的多样性数据，这类数据若采用传统采样手段，公民科学家将难以独立完成。这些数据为部分公民科学家的关切议题提供了初步解答……本研究采用与公民科学家协同设计的采样方案，由公民科学家完成水样采集与预处理，以供后续的元条形码（metabarcoding）分析。本次研究的数据中，文本类文件格式为.xml，表格类数据格式为.csv。