scholarly journals Caterpillars Count! A citizen science project for monitoring foliage arthropod abundance and phenology

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Survey Methodology ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Density Estimates ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Citizen Science Project ◽  
Impact Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
True Peak ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

ABSTRACTCaterpillars Count! is a citizen science project that allows participants to collect data on the seasonal timing, or phenology, of foliage arthropods that are important food resources for forest birds. This project has the potential to address questions about the impacts of climate change on birds over biogeographic scales. Here, we provide a description of the project’s two survey protocols, evaluate the impact of survey methodology on results, compare findings made by citizen scientist participants versus trained scientists, and identify the minimum levels of sampling frequency and intensity in order to accurately capture phenological dynamics. We find that beat sheet surveys and visual surveys yield similar relative and absolute density estimates of different arthropod groups, with beat sheet surveys recording a higher frequency of beetles and visual surveys recording a higher frequency of flies. Citizen scientists generated density estimates within 6% of estimates obtained by trained scientists regardless of survey method. However, patterns of phenology were more consistent between citizen scientists and trained scientists when using beat sheet surveys than visual surveys. By subsampling our survey data, we found that conducting 30 foliage surveys on a weekly basis led to 95% of peak caterpillar date estimates to fall within one week of the "true" peak. We demonstrate the utility of Caterpillars Count! for generating a valuable dataset for ecological research, and call for future studies to evaluate how training and resource materials impact data quality and participant learning gains.

scholarly journals Management of Pet Cats: The Impact of the Cat Tracker Citizen Science Project in South Australia

Animals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Roetman ◽  
Hayley Tindle ◽  
Carla Litchfield
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Rebound Effect ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Gps Tracking ◽  
Domestic Cats ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Citizen Science Project ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Level Of Importance

Domestic cats (Felis catus) are popular pets worldwide and play an important role in the lives of many of their owners; however, there is growing awareness of the potential negative impacts of cats. Accordingly, there is increasing interest in pet cat management, including changing the attitudes and behaviours of cat owners. The Cat Tracker citizen science project was conducted in South Australia to better understand domestic cats, their movement, and related community views. The project was deliberately designed to engage cat owners and assist them to make informed decisions about the management of their pet cats. The project collected data through an online social survey (n = 3192) and GPS tracking of pet cats (n = 428), conducted between February 2015 and September 2016. A public report was published in February 2017 and an evaluation survey (n = 410) was conducted between March and May 2017. This study evaluates the project and examines its impact on participant knowledge, attitude, and behaviour. We found that participation in the tracking activity had a statistically significant influence on participant-reported learning. For participant cat owners, we recorded statistically significant increases in the level of importance placed on containing cats (both during the day and at night). Participants reported that they changed their behaviour with existing pet cats and reported intentions to change behaviour with future pet cats. We discuss impacts beyond what we set out to measure, including impacts on project onlookers, profound impacts on participants, and how the rebound effect (which can generate negative impacts) may be avoided. We describe social science applied to citizen science and advocate for further research in this area to understand how projects can drive positive changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours.

scholarly journals Citizens, Scientists, and Enablers: A Tripartite Model for Citizen Science Projects

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
Rhian A. Salmon ◽  
Samuel Rammell ◽  
Myfanwy T. Emeny ◽  
Stephen Hartley
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Nature Of Science ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Tripartite Model ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Science Projects ◽  
Emerging Issues ◽  
Citizen Science Project

In this paper, we focus on different roles in citizen science projects, and their respective relationships. We propose a tripartite model that recognises not only citizens and scientists, but also an important third role, which we call the ‘enabler’. In doing so, we acknowledge that additional expertise and skillsets are often present in citizen science projects, but are frequently overlooked in associated literature. We interrogate this model by applying it to three case studies and explore how the success and sustainability of a citizen science project requires all roles to be acknowledged and interacting appropriately. In this era of ‘wicked problems’, the nature of science and science communication has become more complex. In order to address critical emerging issues, a greater number of stakeholders are engaging in multi-party partnerships and research is becoming increasingly interdisciplinary. Within this context, explicitly acknowledging the role and motivations of everyone involved can provide a framework for enhanced project transparency, delivery, evaluation and impact. By adapting our understanding of citizen science to better recognise the complexity of the organisational systems within which they operate, we propose an opportunity to strengthen the collaborative delivery of both valuable scientific research and public engagement.

Building Data Sets for Rainforest Deforestation Detection Through a Citizen Science Project

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Fernanda Beatriz Jordan Rojas Dallaqua ◽  
Fabio Augusto Faria ◽  
Alvaro Luiz Fazenda
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Citizen Science Project

scholarly journals The epistemic culture in an online citizen science project: Programs, antiprograms and epistemic subjects

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick Kasperowski ◽  
Thomas Hillman
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Large Sets ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Epistemic Culture ◽  
Classification Of Images ◽  
Citizen Science Project

In the past decade, some areas of science have begun turning to masses of online volunteers through open calls for generating and classifying very large sets of data. The purpose of this study is to investigate the epistemic culture of a large-scale online citizen science project, the Galaxy Zoo, that turns to volunteers for the classification of images of galaxies. For this task, we chose to apply the concepts of programs and antiprograms to examine the ‘essential tensions’ that arise in relation to the mobilizing values of a citizen science project and the epistemic subjects and cultures that are enacted by its volunteers. Our premise is that these tensions reveal central features of the epistemic subjects and distributed cognition of epistemic cultures in these large-scale citizen science projects.

Student participation in a coastal water quality citizen science project and its contribution to the conceptual and procedural learning of chemistry

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Luís Araújo ◽  
Carla Morais ◽  
João Paiva
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Coastal Water ◽  
Student Participation ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Science Project ◽  
Coastal Water Quality ◽  
Chemistry Learning ◽  
Citizen Science Project

The active participation of citizens in scientific research, through citizen science, has been proven successful. However, knowledge on the potential of citizen science within formal chemistry learning, at the conceptual...

Somewhere over the Rainbow

2019 ◽  
pp. 186-190
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mee
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Science ◽  
Extraterrestrial Intelligence ◽  
Telescope Array ◽  
Science Project ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
Radio Signals ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Citizen Science Project

Frank Drake devised the Drake equation to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy with the aim of gathering support for SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). The earliest attempts to detect radio signals from extraterrestrials date back to the 1960s. Paul Allen has funded the Allen Telescope, Array which is dedicated to searching for such signals. When complete it will include 350 radio dishes. The citizen science project SETI@Home allows anyone with a home PC to participate in analysing the data amassed by the SETI project.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document