Powdery Mildew Citizen Science Survey, UK, 2013-2015
University of Reading
Description
The distribution and identity of powdery mildew species samples sent to the University of Reading for the citizen science survey run between 2013 and 2016
Geographic Description
The samples cover the UK. It is likely that there is a bias to samples in the Berkshire and Liverpool area as major contributors reside in these areas. The majority of records in this dataset are collated with exact GPS locations.
Purpose
The data was collected as part of a PhD project principally aiming to develop more efficient techniques for identification of the hundreds of different powdery mildew species. In order to include sufficiently diverse samples within the study a citizen science project was developed for sample collection and mapping of current UK species distribution.
Data quality
The dataset has been checked using the NBN Record Cleaner.
Methods
Samples of this fungal plant disease were collected with their host plants randomly by members of the public. Samples were sent by post to the project convenor at the University of Reading, funded by the Royal Horticultural Society, who identified the different powdery mildew species.
Powdery mildews are traditionally identified using a combination of their appearance and the identification of their host plant. Some plants have only one known powdery mildew so identification of the host allows an immediate tentative identification of the pathogen, while others have several known mildew pathogens. Using a light microscope morphological features of the mildew must be found and the mildew can then be identified using a key and by comparison with published images. In many cases these features can be difficult to distinguish between species or can only be found at a certain stage of the life cycle of the fungus. Molecular DNA extraction and sequencing then completes the process as sequences are matched to a database of known powdery mildews.
Citation
University of Reading ([Insert download year]). Powdery Mildew Citizen Science Survey, UK, 2013-2015. Occurrence dataset on the NBN Atlas
Rights
CC-BY
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Digitised records
Looking up... the number of records that can be accessed through the NBN Atlas. This resource was last checked for updated data on 07 Jun 2022. The most recent data was published on 07 Jun 2022.
Click to view records for the Powdery Mildew Citizen Science Survey, UK, 2013-2015 resource.