Citizen Science Improves the Known and Potential Distribution of a Strong Wetland Invader: Implications for Niche Modeling and Invasion Management.

Invasive alien species are one of the main causes of biodiversity loss and ecosystem alteration. Obtaining up-to-date occurrence records and accurate invasion risk maps has become crucial to develop timely and effective management strategies. Unfortunately, gathering and validating distribution data can be labor-intensive and time-consuming, with different data sources unavoidably leading to biases in the results. In this study, we evaluated the performance of a tailored citizen science project compared with other data sources, in mapping the current and potential distribution of Iris pseudacorus, a strong invasive alien plant in Argentina. To do so, we used geographic information systems and ecological niche modeling with Maxent, and compared data from: i) a citizen science tailored project; ii) the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF); and iii) an exhaustive professional data collection (i.e. field samplings across Argentina, literature and collections review). Results suggest that the citizen science tailored project provided a larger and more diversified amount of data compared to the other sources. All data-sources showed good performance in the ecological niche models, however, data from the tailored citizen science project predicted a greater suitable area, including regions not yet reported. This allowed us to better identify critical and vulnerable areas, where management and prevention strategies are necessary. Professional data provided more reports in non-urban areas, whereas citizen science based data sources (i.e. GBIF and the citizen science project conducted in this study) reported more sites in urban areas, which indicates that different data-sources are complementary and there is a big potential in combining methods. We encourage the use of tailored citizen science campaigns to gather a more diverse amount of data, generating better knowledge about aquatic invasive species and helping decision-making in ecosystem management.

Importance of native vegetation for detection and management of rice stink bug (Tibraca limbativentris).

Tibraca limbativentris (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is a major pest in Neotropical rice agroecosystems. In autumn-winter, this pest takes refuge in rice stubble and in native vegetation, which allows it to re-colonize the crop during the rice growing season. However, it is still unknown whether this vegetation is a pest sink or is actually a natural trap that contributes to pest population biocontrol. Here we present information on the insect's alternative host plants, a preliminary outline of the relationship between plant phylogeny and insect abundance, and the impact that winter natural enemies have in pest population. Also, we include a proposed methodology for pest density analysis in winter hosts. Our results show significant differences in the abundance/density that T. limbativentris reaches in the 12 host plant species present in our study areas, with a plant-use pattern significantly related to the phylogenetic clade of Poales. Stink bug winter populations mainly comprised diapause adults, and 40% of insect digestive tracts had content. Survival of T. limbativentris was 56.92% in winter hosts. About mortality, 10% was due to undetermined causes and 33.08% due to entomopathogenic fungi, showing a natural regulation of the pest population. Our results suggest that native vegetation impacts winter survival of T. limbativentris. Although these plants offer shelter, they offer a greater contribution to Integrated Pest Management: the natural regulation of winter pest populations through entomopathogenic attack. Further studies on T. limbativentris population dynamics and the preservation of native areas near rice fields will be required for the development of best control practices.