An increase in the number of citizen science programs has prompted an examination of their ability to provide data of sufficient quality. We tested the ability of volunteers relative to professionals in identifying invasive plant species, mapping their distributions, and estimating their abundance within plots. We generally found that volunteers perform almost as well as professionals in some areas, but that we should be cautious about data quality in both groups. We analyzed predictors of volunteer success (age, education, experience, science literacy, attitudes) in training-related skills, but these proved to be poor predictors of performance and could not be used as effective eligibility criteria. However, volunteer success with species identification increased with their self-identified comfort level. Based on our case study results, we offer lessons learned and their application to other programs and provide recommendations for future research in this area.

Citizen science can make major contributions to informal science education by targeting participants' attitudes and knowledge about science while changing human behavior towards the environment. We examined how training associated with an invasive species citizen science program affected participants in these areas. We found no changes in science literacy or overall attitudes between tests administered just before and after a one-day training program, matching results from other studies. However, we found improvements in science literacy and knowledge using context-specific measures and in self-reported intention to engage in pro-environmental activities. While we noted modest change in knowledge and attitudes, we found comparison and interpretation of these data difficult in the absence of other studies using similar measures. We suggest that alternative survey instruments are needed and should be calibrated appropriately to the pre-existing attitudes, behavior, and levels of knowledge in these relatively sophisticated target groups.

While the results from this community-based program are preliminary, the number and nature of prescription opioid overdose deaths in Wilkes County changed during the intervention. Further evaluation is required to understand the localized effect of the intervention and its potential for replication in other areas.

Limited resources make it difficult to effectively document, monitor, and control invasive species across large areas, resulting in large gaps in our knowledge of current and future invasion patterns. We surveyed 128 citizen science program coordinators and interviewed 15 of them to evaluate their potential role in filling these gaps. Many programs collect data on invasive species and are willing to contribute these data to public databases. Although resources for education and monitoring are readily available, groups generally lack tools to manage and analyze data. Potential users of these data also retain concerns over data quality. We discuss how to address these concerns about citizen scientist data and programs while preserving the advantages they afford.A unified yet flexible national citizen science program aimed at tracking invasive species location, abundance, and control efforts could be designed using centralized data sharing and management tools. Such a system could meet the needs of multiple stakeholders while allowing efficiencies of scale, greater standardization of methods, and improved data quality testing and sharing. Finally, we present a prototype for such a system (see www.citsci.org).

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Nowhere in the U.S. is Huanglongbing (HLB) under adequate control due to the lack of effective tools to reduce spread of the vector, Diaphorina citri (Asian citrus psyllid), and transmission of the associated pathogen, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, in the absence of disease resistance in commercial citrus varieties. In Florida, Asian citrus psyllid was well established by the time of HLB discovery and growers did not remove trees to eliminate inoculum, so there was no chance of controlling the epidemic. Based on the Florida experience, Texas proactively controlled the vector by implementing area-wide management and disease spread was slower than in Florida, however, they also did not remove infected trees. California controlled both ACP and tree inoculum and have delayed the development of an epidemic in the Central Valley. This situation is aided by topographic isolation from the Los Angeles basin where ACP and HLB are endemic and a climate distinctly different from other citrus growing regions in the U.S.

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Citrus rootstock cultivars varying in tolerance to fibrous root rot were evaluated for their ability to regenerate roots in the presence of potentially damaging populations of Phytophthora nicotianae. In chlamydosporeinfested soils in the greenhouse, tolerance to root rot generally was exhibited as more rapid growth of undisturbed and pruned roots of the rootstocks trifoliate orange and Swingle citrumelo compared with Carrizo citrange, sour orange, Ridge Pineapple sweet orange, and Cleopatra mandarin. The capacity for regeneration of Volkamer lemon roots in the presence of P. nicotianae varied with experiments and was associated with differences in greenhouse temperature conditions. In a field trial with damaging populations of P. nicotianae, growth rates of regenerating