Background
Invasive species are defined as non-native species that invade ecosystems and propagate to a point where harm is induced on native species. Types and abundance of harm caused to native ecosystems can vary greatly depending on various biotic and abiotic factors. Although the amount of accredited research devoted to aquatic invasive species (AIS) doesn’t reach far beyond the past few decades, the natural history of invasive species surely does (Pysek, 2010). A great deal of the somewhat new research topic of invasive species deals with AIS’s impacts related to ecology and biodiversity, with many more recent research endeavors focused on the anthropocentric impacts such as property damage and the creation of barriers to use. As the amount of significantly harmful invasions increases, potentially due to various global changes, a need research and management focused on the control invasive species has increased significantly (Pysek, 2010).
The state of Florida is dealing with one particularly impactful AIS known as Hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata). This species has various life characteristics such as propagation and regeneration techniques that raise very difficult management issues. Originally brought to the states via the aquarium flora trade, Hydrilla quickly made …show more content…
Tweddle et al. outlines various strategies relating to the scheme of a CS project in terms of various tradeoffs. In many cases, having high data quality requires more concentrated and fewer numbers of participants due to the logistics of training. Additionally, a high level of visitor participation will increase the costs of validation, monitoring, and storage of data (Tweddle et al., 2012). For the current project, there will be an emphasis on data quantity, due to the relative simplicity of data