Citizens may boost primary biodiversity knowledge - insights from the Danish fungal Atlas

The Danish Fungal Atlas ran from 2009-13 and contributed with almost 250.000 records of fruit-body forming Basidiomycota (macrofungi) mainly submitted by volunteer citizen scientists. The data has been utilized in several research and conservation projects, but here we explore how the project contributed to the primary understanding of fungal biodiversity in Denmark. During the project, 197 species were recorded as new to Denmark, extending the national species list considerably. At least 15 of these appeared to be new to science. An even higher number of species previously recorded in Denmark, were however not reported in the project period, indicating a potential significant species turno…