The power of citizen science to advance fungal conservation
Fungi are incredibly diverse organisms with important ecological roles, but most remain poorly studied and unprotected. Citizen science projects, which engage the general public in scientific research, are proving to be powerful tools for collecting fungal data across large geographic areas and long time periods. By training volunteers to identify and document fungi, projects on platforms like iNaturalist have gathered millions of observations that help scientists understand where fungi live, how common they are, and which species need protection.