Mosquito Alert shares open data from citizen scientists through GBIF

Mosquito Alert, a pioneering citizen science project coordinated by three Barcelona-based research centres, has published a dataset containing more than 4,000 photo-based observations of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) gathered by citizen scientists through the Mosquito Alert app.

Mosquito Alert aims to monitor the spread of both the Asian tiger mosquito and a closely related species, the yellow-fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti). Together, these mosquitoes are responsible for the transmission of several disease-causing viruses that threaten human communities throughout the world, including Zika, dengue fever, and chikungunya.

The initial publication of the Mosquito Alert dataset increases the number of tiger mosquito records for Spain by more than 10,000%—two orders of magnitude. Occurrence records like these help fill a gap in the taxonomic coverage of GBIF-mediated data, which promises to improve the quality of scientific analyses and interventions conducted by both researchers and public health officials. Increases to data coverage will also enable researchers to build on a steadily growing body of research uses, both mosquito-related (below) and broader issues related to biodiversity and human health.

Mosquito Alert is a cooperative, not-for-profit project coordinated by different public research centres: the Center for Ecological Research and Forest Implementation (CREAF), the Blanes Centre for Advanced Studies (CEAB-CSIC) and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), with co-funding from the “la Caixa” Foundation.

The Mosquito Alert app enables citizens to record sightings of suspected tiger mosquitoes, yellow-fever mosquitoes, and their breeding sites by sharing a picture in this app. Once photos are shared, a team of expert entomologists can validate the observations and collect the GPS location along with other detailed information. Validation results are directly sent to participants, and verified records are published and mapped online so data contributors and users alike can find and export project observations dating back to 2014. While nearly all of the observations are from Spain, citizen scientists have contributed validated records from as far away as Fiji and Hong Kong.

The data hosted by GBIF Spain and shared through GBIF’s global index has been placed into the public domain under a fully open Creative Commons CC0 waiver, which frees them of any restrictions on usage. Photos associated with individual records readily available under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY), which permits their reuse simply on condition of crediting Mosquito Alert as the source. The project’s occurrence records for Ae. aegypti will likely be added in the future.

The information generated by the project complements an intensive scientific effort to help public health authorities control the spread of the Asian tiger mosquito in human communities.