Harnessing Community Science and Open Research-based Data to Track Distributions of Invasive Species in Japan

Abstract

At the forefront of invasive alien species (IAS) control, information gaps about the latest IAS distribution can hinder the required actions of local governments. In Japan, many prefectural governments still lack a list of invasive species despite the request stipulated in the Invasive Alien Species Management Action Plan enacted in 2015. Here, we examined to what extent open research-based data deposited by museums and herbaria (ORD) and community science data deposited by volunteers (CSD) can fill the gaps. We focused on 145 plant and 38 insect invasive species, and updated their distribution maps using ORD and CSD. We found complementarity as well as common limitations between ORD and CSD. While taxonomic biases were weaker in ORD, CSD had better prefectural coverage. In addition, some important taxa have rarely been captured by CSD or ORD. Mixed strategies of facilitating community science, supporting local museums, and taxon-specific monitoring by experts are necessary.