In the context of the global biodiversity crisis, biodiversity conservation is of the utmost importance for all habitats, from the most natural to those most heavily modified by humans, such as agroecosystems. As the general public widely recognizes biodiversity loss, agroecosystems could be ideal environments for citizen science, increasing biodiversity knowledge of these areas and raising public awareness. We examined the interest of five agroecosystem BioBlitzes – short biodiversity inventories – that took place as part of a European agroecological research project. Our aim was to understand how BioBlitzes contribute to wider biodiversity knowledge referenced on the GBIF platform and to explore participant expectations and outcomes. Our results show that the five BioBlitzes generated 3,033 biodiversity records representing 681 species, and that 87% of the recorded species provided a higher relative contribution than existing GBIF records, particularly for under-sampled invertebrate taxa. Participants mostly expected to gain biodiversity knowledge (60%), and the aspect they finally liked the most was the conviviality of the BioBlitzes (46%). They also reported that they mainly learned about sampling methods (25%) and increased their knowledge of specific taxa (29%). Overall, BioBlitzes in agroecosystems seem to be promising tools in a context of agroecology transition, combining hands-on learning and biodiversity assessments. We encourage the organization of more BioBlitzes in agroecosystems, which could lead to enhanced stewardship of biodiversity in these systems.

In the context of the global biodiversity crisis, biodiversity conservation is of the utmost importance for all habitats, from the most natural to those most heavily modified by humans, such as agroecosystems. As the general public widely recognizes biodiversity loss, agroecosystems could be ideal environments for citizen science, increasing biodiversity knowledge of these areas and raising public awareness. We examined the interest of five agroecosystem BioBlitzes – short biodiversity inventories – that took place as part of a European agroecological research project. Our aim was to understand how BioBlitzes contribute to wider biodiversity knowledge referenced on the GBIF platform and to explore participant expectations and outcomes. Our results show that the five BioBlitzes generated 3,033 biodiversity records representing 681 species, and that 87% of the recorded species provided a higher relative contribution than existing GBIF records, particularly for under-sampled invertebrate taxa. Participants mostly expected to gain biodiversity knowledge (60%), and the aspect they finally liked the most was the conviviality of the BioBlitzes (46%). They also reported that they mainly learned about sampling methods (25%) and increased their knowledge of specific taxa (29%). Overall, BioBlitzes in agroecosystems seem to be promising tools in a context of agroecology transition, combining hands-on learning and biodiversity assessments. We encourage the organization of more BioBlitzes in agroecosystems, which could lead to enhanced stewardship of biodiversity in these systems.