A golden opportunity: Invasive golden oyster mushrooms as a case study for engaging the public in fungal biodiversity monitoring and conservation

Invasive mushrooms are hardly studied, but invasive species are an intuitive phenomenon that can facilitate collaboration between biologists and the public. People often respond to invasions by increasing their stewardship of local land and biodiversity. Engaging the public about the dynamics of invasions can also spark highly focused campaigns to increase biodiversity monitoring, often facilitating the adoption of conservation practices to minimize or even prevent additional invasions. Golden oyster mushrooms (GOM; Pleurotus citrinopileatus) are the first example of a widely cultivated and edible fungus which has escaped cultivation and become invasive. Rapidly spreading in North America, it also poses a threat in Europe. GOM has captured popular attention and been extensively featured in the press. As a result, the public is now more aware both that fungi, particularly cultivated mushrooms, can aggressively invade and impact native fungi and that native fungal biodiversity is crucial, vulnerable, and in need of conservation. In the wake of our publication on GOM’s negative ecological impacts, we put out an open call inviting diverse stakeholders that interact with GOM – such as hobbyists, businessowners, foragers, and biodiversity advocates – to share their perspectives on invasive mushrooms and their management moving forward. We have built relationships through our stakeholder conversations and have a broad understanding about the willingness to halt distributing or growing GOM. Our key insights are that stakeholder perspectives on GOM are responsive to scientific evidence, even if it opposes their previously held beliefs. We present GOM as a case study demonstrating the success of applying science communication theory to biodiversity research, public outreach, and stakeholder engagement to achieve the following: 1) break down barriers between academia and the public, 2) build public trust in science, 3) highlight the importance of fungal biodiversity to public audiences, and 4) engage a passionate global community of amateur and professional mycologists in invasive species monitoring and biodiversity conservation. We are now collaborating internationally with European mycologists and stakeholders to prevent GOM’s potential spread in Europe, mirroring the social approach we used with North American publics.