[Coordinated distributed experiments 2.0 (CDE 2.0): A novelty methodology of ecological field investigation]

The global field experiment network is rapidly growing in ecological research in recent years. Some specific methods have emerged, such as the Coordinated Distributed Experiments (CDE), Distributed Collaborative Experiments (DCE), and field observational network of British Biological Records Centre (BRC). However, problems including too small scale, short duration and biased data are criticized in these methods. Construction of the protocol of field experiment network should follow several principles: controlled experiment prior to observation, quantity prior to quality of data, and scale prior to operation. Here, I advocated the application of citizen science to the obtaining of the data in large field, at multi-scale, and with a long duration. Environmental factors could be considered as covariant to test the dataset provided by citizen participants. Furthermore, the same dataset, as posterior probability, could be compared with the priori data set provided by ecologists to test the validity of data. This methodology, with the corresponding statistical model, would overcome the shortcoming of qualitative bias of data in citizen science. The application of priori probability, logistical relation between priori and posteriori probability, and possibility of discovering new causality of evolutionary process in ecological experimental data were discussed. Compared with CDE, CED, and BRC, this method improved the match between statistical norm and sampling quantity in large spatial and temporal scales. This new method would help discover the general theory of ecology researches and it could be termed "Coordinated Distributed Experiments 2.0" (CDE 2.0).