公民科学有助于预测新兴传染病的风险

For Immediate Release

Ross Meentemeyer rkmeente@ncsu.edu 919.515.2372

d'lyn福特 dcford@ncsu.edu 919.515-4798.

Matteo Garbelotto 510.410.7058

Crowdsourced science helped predict the path of a deadly plant disease over a six-year period, demonstrating the contributions that trained citizen scientists can make in large-scale geographic tracking projects. That’s the conclusion of astudy of sudden oak death monitoring在加利福尼亚州，今天发表Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

“Sudden oak death is the Ebola of the plant world, the most serious disease threat to nonagricultural plants,” says lead author Ross Meentemeyer, director of theCenter for Geospatial Analyticsat North Carolina State University. The disease, which has killed millions of oak and tanoak trees in California and Oregon, can infect up to 60 landscape plant species and spread from nursery stock to residential landscapes.

从2008年开始，加州大学伯克利研究人员指数统一地扩大了他们突然的橡木死亡监测努力，凭借1,600名训练有素的志愿者从大都市和城市 - 荒地地区的树木收集叶样品。

“我们能够从海湾地区的后院获得数据，以及其他缺乏采样的位置，”Meentemeyer表示，他专注于地理信息系统分析。“该数据用于开发用于疾病的准确的计算机模型，表明培训培训和受过教育的公民科学家可以收集与专业人士那样可靠的数据。”

The crowdsource approach could be adopted for other large-scale research projects, from tracking wildlife populations to fighting human disease outbreaks.

Accurate predictions about sudden oak death’s spread allowed scientists to target treatments to the most vulnerable areas, says Matteo Garbelotto, a UC Berkeley extension specialist and adjunct professor who directs the Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory.

Follow-up evaluation showed that trained citizen scientists were as effective as experts in identifying and collecting diseased tree leaves, whether or not they reported having a professional background in science.

年度突发橡木死亡闪电师，包括在疾病的高峰期间占宣传，涉及高中生，房主，树专家，消防员，教师等志愿者。

“To answer many science questions, we need the efforts of a large number of people – and the general public can help,” says Sam Scheiner, National Science Foundation director for the NSF-NIH-USDA Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases Program, which funded the research. “This study shows that asking local residents to report on the location of outbreaks of sudden oak death can provide critical information. The result is a better understanding of the spread of this serious plant disease.”

该研究由NSF授予Deb-EF-0622677和EF-0622770，美国森林服务和戈登和贝蒂摩尔基金会资助。

额外的作者是博士后研究员Monica A. Dorning and Research专家John B.Vogler，与NC州地理空间分析中心和Douglas Schmidt，UC Berkeley森林病理学和Mycology实验室的研究科学家。

- 福特 -

Note: An abstract of the paper follows.

“公民科学有助于预测新兴传染病的风险”

Authors:Ross K. Meentemeyer, Monica A. Dorning, John B. Vogler, Douglas Schmidt and Matteo Garbelotto

Published:2015年5月1日, inFrontiers in Ecology and the Environment

Abstract：参与公民科学家正在成为收集生态数据的越来越流行的技术，同时还为研究的外展和公共支持途径创造了一个途径。在这里，我们展示了一个独特的机会，公民科学家在新兴传染病的空间预测中发挥了关键作用。年度公民科学计划称为“SOD（突然橡木死亡）Blitz”聘请并教育志愿者在季节性疾病表达峰值窗口中检测因果病原体。我们使用了这些数据 - 许多数据被从未取样的城市生态系统中收集 - 开发预测性疾病风险地图，并告知利益攸关方应优先考虑管理努力。我们发现，连续六年继续持续的SOD Blitz计划改善了我们对疾病动态的理解，并提高了我们预测模型的准确性。我们还发现，自我确定的非专业人士就像能够检测到疾病作为专业人士。我们的结果表明，利用长期市民科学预测城市生态系统中新兴传染病植物疾病的风险的实质性承诺。