Identifying, reducing, and communicating uncertainty in community science: a focus on alien species.

Community science (also often referred to as citizen science) provides a unique opportunity to address questions beyond the scope of other research methods whilst simultaneously engaging communities in the scientific process. This leads to broad educational benefits, empowers people, and can increase public awareness of societally relevant issues such as the biodiversity crisis. As such, community science has become a favourable framework for researching alien species where data on the presence, absence, abundance, phenology, and impact of species is important in informing management decisions. However, uncertainties arising at different stages can limit the interpretation of data and lead to projects failing to achieve their intended outcomes. Focusing on alien species centered community science projects, we identified key research questions and the relevant uncertainties that arise during the process of developing the study design, for example, when collecting the data and during the statistical analyses. Additionally, we assessed uncertainties from a linguistic perspective, and how the communication stages among project coordinators, participants and other stakeholders can alter the way in which information may be interpreted. We discuss existing methods for reducing uncertainty and suggest further solutions to improve data reliability. Further, we make suggestions to reduce the uncertainties that emerge at each project step and provide guidance and recommendations that can be readily applied in practice. Reducing uncertainties is essential and necessary to strengthen the scientific and community outcomes of community science, which is of particular importance to ensure the success of projects aimed at detecting novel alien species and monitoring their dynamics across space and time. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10530-022-02858-8.

Genetic Diversity of Orobanche cumana Populations in Serbia.

In this study, we report genetic characterization of Orobanche cumana, the causal agent of sunflower wilting in Serbia. The genetic diversity of this parasitic plant in Serbia was not studied before. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers and partial rbcL gene sequences analysis were used to characterize the O. cumana populations at the molecular level. While phylogenetic analyses of RAPD-PCR amplicons were performed using unweighted pair-group Method analyses, rbcL gene sequences were analyzed using neigbor joining method and minimum spanning tree. Molecular analyses of RAPD-PCR analysis revealed high genetic diversity of O. cumana populations which indicated high adaptive potential of this parasitic weed in Serbia. Further analyses of rbcL gene using minimum spanning tree revealed clear differences among diverse sections of Orobanche genus. Although this molecular marker lacked the resolution to display intrapopulation diversity it could be a useful tool for understanding the evolution of this parasitic plant. Our results suggested that O. cumana has great genetic potential which can lead to differentiation of more virulent races which is important for determining crop breeding strategies for their control.