The book features contributions that report original research in the theoretical, technological, and social aspects of geoinformation methods, as applied to supporting citizen science. Specifically, ...the book focuses on the technological aspects of the field and their application toward the recruitment of volunteers and the collection, management, and analysis of geotagged information to support volunteer involvement in scientific projects. Internationally renowned research groups share research in three areas: First, the key methods of geoinformatics within citizen science initiatives to support scientists in discovering new knowledge in specific application domains or in performing relevant activities, such as reliable geodata filtering, management, analysis, synthesis, sharing, and visualization; second, the critical aspects of citizen science initiatives that call for emerging or novel approaches of geoinformatics to acquire and handle geoinformation; and third, novel geoinformatics research that could serve in support of citizen science.
Tick-borne diseases are increasing in North America. Knowledge of which tick species and associated human pathogens are present locally can inform the public and medical community about the ...acarological risk for tick bites and tick-borne infections. Citizen science (also called community-based monitoring, volunteer monitoring, or participatory science) is emerging as a potential approach to complement traditional tick record data gathering where all aspects of the work is done by researchers or public health professionals. One key question is how citizen science can best be used to generate high-quality data to fill knowledge gaps that are difficult to address using traditional data gathering approaches. Citizen science is particularly useful to generate information on human–tick encounters and may also contribute to geographical tick records to help define species distributions across large areas. Previous citizen science projects have utilized three distinct tick record data gathering methods including submission of: 1) physical tick specimens for identification by professional entomologists, 2) digital images of ticks for identification by professional entomologists, and 3) data where the tick species and life stage were identified by the citizen scientist. We explore the benefits and drawbacks of citizen science, relative to the traditional scientific approach, to generate data on tick records, with special emphasis on data quality for species identification and tick encounter locations. We recognize the value of citizen science to tick research but caution that the generated information must be interpreted cautiously with data quality limitations firmly in mind to avoid misleading conclusions.
Many citizen science projects are place-based - built on in-person participation and motivated by local conservation. When done thoughtfully, this approach to citizen science can transform humans and ...their environment. Despite such possibilities, many projects struggle to meet decision-maker needs, generate useful data to inform decisions, and improve social-ecological resilience. Here, we define leveraging the ‘power of place’ in citizen science, and posit that doing this improves conservation decision making, increases participation, and improves community resilience. First, we explore ‘place’ and identify five place dimensions: social-ecological, narrative and name-based, knowledge-based, emotional and affective, and performative. We then thematically analyze 134 case studies drawn from CitSci.org (n=39), The Stewardship Network New England (TSN-NE; n=39), and Earthwatch (n=56) regarding: (1) use of place dimensions in materials (as one indication of leveraging the power of place), (2) intent for use of data in decision-making, and (3) evidence of such use. We find that 89% of projects intend for data to be used, 46% demonstrate no evidence of use, and 54% provide some evidence of use. Moreover, projects used in decision making leverage more (t=−4.8, df=117; p<0.001) place dimensions (x̅=3.0; s=1.4) than those not used in decision making (x̅=1.8; s=1.2). Further, a Principal Components Analysis identifies three related components (aesthetic, narrative and name-based, and social-ecological). Given these findings, we present a framework for leveraging place in citizen science projects and platforms, and recommend approaches to better impart intended outcomes. We discuss place in citizen science related to relevance, participation, resilience, and scalability and conclude that effective decision making as a means towards more resilient and sustainable communities can be strengthened by leveraging the power of place in citizen science.
•We thematically analyzed 134 case studies from three project sources.•We assessed intent for use in decision-making, evidence of use, and place dimensions.•Not all projects intending to inform decisions demonstrated evidence of use in decisions.•Projects used in decision making leverage more place dimensions than those not used.•Increased use of place, place-based networks, openness of data, and metadata would improve effectiveness, collaboration, and efficiency.
We are currently in the midst of Earth's sixth extinction event, and measuring biodiversity trends in space and time is essential for prioritizing limited resources for conservation. At the same ...time, the scope of the necessary biodiversity monitoring is overwhelming funding for professional scientific monitoring. In response, scientists are increasingly using citizen science data to monitor biodiversity. But citizen science data are 'noisy', with redundancies and gaps arising from unstructured human behaviours in space and time. We ask whether the information content of these data can be maximized for the express purpose of trend estimation. We develop and execute a novel framework which assigns every citizen science sampling event a marginal value, derived from the importance of an observation to our understanding of overall population trends. We then make this framework predictive, estimating the expected marginal value of future biodiversity observations. We find that past observations are useful in forecasting where high-value observations will occur in the future. Interestingly, we find high value in both 'hotspots', which are frequently sampled locations, and 'coldspots', which are areas far from recent sampling, suggesting that an optimal sampling regime balances 'hotspot' sampling with a spread across the landscape.
This open access book discusses how the involvement of citizens into scientific endeavors is expected to contribute to solve the big challenges of our time, such as climate change and the loss of ...biodiversity, growing inequalities within and between societies, and the sustainability turn. The field of citizen science has been growing in recent decades. Many different stakeholders from scientists to citizens and from policy makers to environmental organisations have been involved in its practice. In addition, many scientists also study citizen science as a research approach and as a way for science and society to interact and collaborate. This book provides a representation of the practices as well as scientific and societal outcomes in different disciplines. It reflects the contribution of citizen science to societal development, education, or innovation and provides and overview of the field of actors as well as on tools and guidelines. It serves as an introduction for anyone who wants to get involved in and learn more about the science of citizen science.
Citizen science offers significant innovation potential in science, society and policy. To foster environmental and conservation goals, citizen science can (i) generate new knowledge, (ii) enhance ...awareness raising and facilitate in-depth learning as well as (iii) enable civic participation. Here, we investigate how these aims are realised in citizen science projects and assess needs and challenges for advancing citizen science and stimulating future initiatives. To this end, we conducted a quantitative, web-based survey with 143 experts from the environmental and educational sector in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Our findings show that citizen science project managers pursue goals related to all three areas of potential impact. Interestingly, enabling civic participation was considered slightly less important in relation to generating new knowledge and creating learning opportunities. Different areas of necessary action emerge from our analysis. To fully realize the potential of citizen science for generating knowledge, priority should be given to enhance capacities to more effectively share research results with the scientific community through publication, also in scientific journals. Systematic evaluation is needed to gain a better understanding of citizen science learning outcomes, for which criteria need to be developed. Fostering project formats that allow participants to get involved in the whole research process – from posing the study question to implementing results – could enhance the transformative aspect of citizen science at a societal level. Important structural aspects that need to be addressed include adjustments in funding schemes, facilitation of communication between citizens and academia-based scientists, and offers for training, guidance and networking.
•Citizen science can foster environmental goals in three ways.•We surveyed 143 experts from the environmental and educational sectors.•Capacities for peer-reviewed publishing of citizen science findings need enhancement.•Structures for networking and guidance are highly relevant for citizen science.•Systematic evaluation is needed to assess citizen science learning outcomes.
This study contributes to an understanding of citizen science using the lens of collaborative scientific communication and methods as a key part of theoretically driven citizen science projects. ...Findings of this study demonstrate application of diverse research methodologies to understand various aspects of individuals’ participation in science projects, including incentives for engagement and motivation. Research questions addressed by citizen science studies revealed seven broad areas of scholarly interest: natural science, behavior, social justice, technology, education, research design, and health. Citizen science research was predominantly led by questions associated with natural and behavioral sciences, including environmentalism and conservation, climate and climate change, environmental monitoring, and the motivations of individuals to become citizen scientists. Applied citizen science research demonstrated a relatively higher preference for survey and mixed method approaches.
Abstract
Citizen science is fundamentally shifting the future of biodiversity research. But although citizen science observations are contributing an increasingly large proportion of biodiversity ...data, they only feature in a relatively small percentage of research papers on biodiversity. We provide our perspective on three frontiers of citizen science research, areas that we feel to date have had minimal scientific exploration but that we believe deserve greater attention as they present substantial opportunities for the future of biodiversity research: sampling the undersampled, capitalizing on citizen science's unique ability to sample poorly sampled taxa and regions of the world, reducing taxonomic and spatial biases in global biodiversity data sets; estimating abundance and density in space and time, develop techniques to derive taxon-specific densities from presence or absence and presence-only data; and capitalizing on secondary data collection, moving beyond data on the occurrence of single species and gain further understanding of ecological interactions among species or habitats. The contribution of citizen science to understanding the important biodiversity questions of our time should be more fully realized.
Microplastic and microfiber pollution has been documented in all major ocean basins. Microfibers are one of the most common microparticle pollutants along shorelines. Over 9 million tons of fibers ...are produced annually; 60% are synthetic and ∼25% are non-synthetic. Non-synthetic and semi-synthetic microfibers are infrequently documented and not typically included in marine environment impact analyses, resulting in underestimation of a potentially pervasive and harmful pollutant. We present the most extensive worldwide microparticle distribution dataset using 1-liter grab samples (n = 1393). Our citizen scientist driven study shows a global microparticle average of 11.8 ± 24.0 particles L−1 (mean ± SD), approximately three orders of magnitude higher than global model predictions. Open ocean samples showed consistently higher densities than coastal samples, with the highest concentrations found in the polar oceans (n = 51), confirming previous empirical and theoretical studies. Particles were predominantly microfibers (91%) and 0.1–1.5 mm in length (77%), a smaller size than those captured in the majority of surface studies. Using μFT-IR we determined the material types of 113 pieces; 57% were classified as synthetic, 12% as semi-synthetic, and 31% as non-synthetic. Samples were taken globally, including from coastal environments and understudied ocean regions. Some of these sites are emerging as areas of concentrated floating plastic and anthropogenic debris, influenced by distant waste mismanagement and/or deposition of airborne particles. Incorporation of smaller-sized microfibers in oceanographic models, which has been lacking, will help us to better understand the movement and transformation of synthetic, semi-synthetic and non-synthetic microparticles in regional seas and ocean basins.
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•Global marine study shows approximately three orders of magnitude higher microparticle concentrations than model solutions.•Most extensive global coastal and open ocean grab sampling effort to date (n = 1393).•Predominantly microfibers (91%) between 100 μm- 1.5 mm in length (77%).•Material characterization of 113 pieces determined 57% as synthetic, 12% as semi-synthetic and 31% as non-synthetic.
This study increases understanding of global microplastic distribution in understudied regions and highlights the prevalence of synthetic and non-synthetic microfiber pollution.
The article presents a scientometric analysis of publications on citizen science, i.e., conducted with the participation of non-professional scientists, posted on the portal of the journal Nature, in ...order to identify the main directions and thematic trends in the field of citizen science over the last 5 years. The article identifies the key thematic clusters to which the reviewed publications belong, and analyses the thematic trends in each of the presented clusters. The search was carried out in English among the publications posted on the portal in the period from 2019 to 2023. The result is presented using computer visualisation and a table of key topics of the reviewed publications; in the future it is planned to expand the study and build a thematic map and scheme of key trends both abroad and in Russia. The analysis shows that the key topics in which volunteer researchers have been involved over the last 5 years have been environmental protection and conservation, publications on biodiversity and climate change, and data analysis in ecology. The authors note a widespread and growing interest in finding scientific volunteers to conduct research, as well as the growing role of volunteer researchers. The participation of non-professional scientists encourages a shift towards interdisciplinary research and promotes the use of different research methodologies. There are trends in the transformation of the role of volunteer researchers from the status of ordinary field researchers to full-fledged participants in research work.
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