Citizen Science in the Natural Sciences

Monitoring Groundwater Health Using Citizen Scientists in Semi-Arid Regional Australia

Citizen science (CS) around the world is undergoing a resurgence, potentially due to the utilization of new technologies and methods to capture information, such as data and photo entry via mobile phone apps. CS has been used in aquatic ecology for several decades, however the use of volunteers to collect data in groundwaters has rarely occurred. Groundwater research, particularly groundwater ecosystems, is unevenly distributed across the world, limiting our knowledge of these ecosystems and their functions. Here, we engaged six volunteer farmers in semi-arid region of north-western New South Wales, Australia to participate in an assessment of groundwater health using privately owned wells. Volunteers were supplied with sampling kits and instructions on sampling methods. Data retrieved indicated the health of the groundwater ecosystems, simultaneously providing information on water quality and groundwater biota present within the farm aquifers. Diverse stygofauna were collected from the trial, which reflected historical records of stygofauna within the same catchment indicating the viability of using citizen scientist for data collection. The citizen science project not only aided the collection of data and assessment of groundwater health, but also provided a tool for education, attracting media attention which furthered the education to a national audience. The amount of data still required to understand groundwater ecosystems, combined with the urgency to manage these environments, suggests that citizen scientists may complement the efforts of scientists around the globe to establish the impacts and consequences of human activities on this resource.

Open Citizen Science: fostering open knowledge with participation

Citizen Science or community science has been around for a long time. The scope of community involvement in Citizen Science initiatives ranges from short-term data collection to intensive engagement to delve into a research topic together with scientists and/or other volunteers. Although many volunteer researchers have academic training, it is not a prerequisite for participation in research projects. It is important to adhere to scientific standards, which include, above all, transparency with regard to the methodology of data collection and public discussion of the results, and open educational resources (OER). Hereby, Citizen Science is closely linked to Open Science. In our contribution, we will introduce two projects, both developed within the Wikimedia Fellowship Freies Wissen.

The top-down approach: ERGo! An Entomology Research Tool to raise awareness of biodiversity protection.

Inclusion in academia and pressing social problems such as climate change are fundamentally social justice issues. To facilitate early participation in the scientific process on the part of people holding underrepresented identities in science, we develop a Citizen Science initiative based on a low-cost open-source platform (ERGo!) to perform a technique for electrical recordings from insect eyes known as electroretinograms (ERGs) while presenting visual stimuli. Pasadena Unified School District High School students pilot ERG experiments to test the feasibility of this technique as a large-scale Citizen Science initiative. With ERGo!, future Citizen Scientists contribute data to cutting-edge research that monitors insect biodiversity, adaptation, and health in rapidly changing environments caused by monocultures, pesticides, and climate change.

The bottom-up approach: Open cultural data collection. A Citizen Science initiative for regional knowledge curation.

We catalogued the 18th century German magazine ‘Die Gartenlaube’ (in Wikisource) with bibliographic metadata in Wikidata in a project called ‘Die Datenlaube’. We develop collaborative approaches for linked open data methods to produce data sets about historical knowledge. The concept of ‘Open Citizen Science’ offers a methodological baseline for Open Science practises in fields of digital humanities. Scanned documents and structured open metadata revealed open access to historic collections. Through the Wikimedia platforms 'Die Datenlaube' creates possibilities to edit entries, to design own investigations, and to contribute to OER.

Based on the elaboration of the two rather different projects (natural and social sciences, involvement of pupils vs citizens, top-down vs bottom-up), we will discuss similarities and hence the challenges and lessons learned for using and developing Open Science elements in Citizen Science and mutual learning. Furthermore, we will conclude by focusing on the opportunities resulting from the integration of societal expectations in science and vice versa.

Collaborative Conservation by Botanical Gardens: Unique Opportunities for Local to Global Impacts

Conservation organizations with common missions can find strength and synergy in collaboration. Collaboration can also be challenging, especially finding the right partnerships or organizations to lead. Within the “ecosystem” of conservation organizations, botanical gardens have a unique array of resources and expertise which make them ideal candidates for leadership or partnership in collaborative conservation efforts. We will explore this idea by examining four conservation initiatives at Desert Botanical Garden (Phoenix, AZ, USA) that approach collaborative conservation on regional, state, and international scales. On a regional scale, Metro Phoenix EcoFlora and the Central Arizona Conservation Alliance lead landscape-level conservation by providing a structure for more than 60 official conservation partners, by generating data, and through public engagement needed in a rapidly developing region. On the state scale, Great Milkweed Grow Out is an initiative for pollinator conservation that provides expertise, materials, and opportunities for a wide range of partners across Arizona. Desert Botanical Garden’s endangered plant species conservation efforts provide expertise and resources through horticulture and seed preservation for threatened and endangered plants across the US and internationally. We will share the structure of each program where applicable, how they came to fruition, and their successes. Through each case study, we will highlight the ways positioning within a botanical garden has benefitted the program and success in collaboration. We will also highlight unique challenges. Botanical gardens provide unique opportunities, and they should not be overlooked when seeking a conservation partner or leader.

Thousands of examining eyes: credibility, authority and validity in biodiversity citizen science data production

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to contribute with knowledge about how valid research data in biodiversity citizen science are produced through information practices and how notions of credibility and authority emerge from these practices.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected through an empirical, interview-based study of the information practices of 15 participants active in the vicinity of the Swedish biodiversity citizen science information system Artportalen. Interview transcripts were analysed abductively and qualitatively through a coding scheme by working back and forth between theory and data. Values of credibility, authority and validity of research data were unfolded through a practice-oriented perspective to library and information studies by utilising the theoretical lens of boundary objects.

Findings

Notions of credibility, authority and validity emerge through participant activities of transforming species observations to data, supplementing reports with objects of trust, augmenting identification through authority outreach and assessing credibility via peer monitoring. Credibility, authority and validity of research data are shown to be co-constructed in a distributed fashion by the participants and the information system.

Originality/value

The article extends knowledge about information practices in emerging, heterogeneous scholarly settings by focussing on the complex co-construction of credibility, authority and validity in relation to data production.

The Role of Citizen Science in the Research and Management of Invasive Lionfish across the Western Atlantic

Managing invasive Indo-Pacific lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) in the Western Atlantic Ocean is beyond the capacity of natural resource organizations alone. In response, organizations have mobilized members of the public and citizen scientists to help. We used a structured survey to assess the activities and perceptions of 71 organizations that engage the public and citizen scientists in lionfish research and management throughout the invaded range of the Western Atlantic. Five case studies were also conducted that exemplified varied and multi-pronged approaches to engagement of the public and citizen scientists in lionfish control, monitoring, and knowledge-sharing. The public has been engaged to some extent in every approach, but organizations most frequently indicated engaging members of the public in raising awareness, promoting consumption, organized culling/removal, tournaments, and data collection. Sixty-five percent of organizations surveyed engaged the public in data collection, and data collection was ranked as the scientific research activity in which the public is most often involved. Most organizations indicated their data has contributed to scientific publications, management, and government agency research and/or policy. Collectively these findings demonstrate the conservation value of citizen scientists to assist organizational efforts to control, manage, and study a large-scale marine invasion.