Has the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (<i>Plethodon cinereus</i>) Declined in Ontario?

Amphibians are known to be declining around the world. Although often only reported for frogs, declines among salamanders are also known to be occurring. In Ontario, for example, citizen science monitoring indicates the Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) has not been found in the last 20 years in many areas where it was historically known to occur. To test whether this decline is real or the result of lack of recent observations, we conducted targeted surveys in 25 grid squares with no recent records of the species and confirmed the presence of the Eastern Red-backed Salamander in 84% of these squares. It made up 90% (183 of 202) of all six species of salamanders encountered and was also the first salamander species detected in 90% of the squares. The median number of cover objects needed to detect a species was 34 (range 1–145) for Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, 129.5 (range 34–204) for Blue-spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma laterale), and 154 (range 6–187) for Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum), and these detection rates differed significantly (H = 9.46, P < 0.01). Our study suggests that Eastern Red-backed Salamanders have not declined. We caution researchers using citizen science data that a lack of sightings of a “cryptic species” does not mean a species has declined.

Download Full-text

Clouds around the World: How a Simple Citizen Science Data Challenge Became a Worldwide Success

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society ◽

10.1175/bams-d-19-0295.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 101 (7) ◽

pp. E1201-E1213 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Marilé Colón Robles ◽

Helen M. Amos ◽

J. Brant Dodson ◽

Jeffrey Bouwman ◽

Tina Rogerson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Drake Passage ◽

Saharan Dust ◽

Science Program ◽

Global Learning ◽

Science Data ◽

The Public ◽

The World ◽

Globe Program ◽

Dust Events

Abstract Citizen science is often recognized for its potential to directly engage the public in science, and is uniquely positioned to support and extend participants’ learning in science. In March 2018, the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program, NASA’s largest and longest-lasting citizen science program about Earth, organized a month-long event that asked people around the world to contribute daily cloud observations and photographs of the sky (15 March–15 April 2018). What was considered a simple engagement activity turned into an unprecedented worldwide event that garnered major public interest and media recognition, collecting over 55,000 observations from 99 different countries, in more than 15,000 locations, on every continent including Antarctica. The event was called the “Spring Cloud Challenge” and was created to 1) engage the general public in the scientific process and promote the use of the GLOBE Observer app, 2) collect ground-based visual observations of varying cloud types during boreal spring, and 3) increase the number and locations of ground-based visual cloud observations collocated with cloud-observing satellites. The event resulted in roughly 3 times more observations than during the historic and highly publicized 2017 North American total solar eclipse. The dataset also includes observations over the Drake Passage in Antarctica and reports from intense Saharan dust events. This article describes how the challenge was crafted, outreach to volunteer scientists around the world, details of the data collected, and impact of the data.

Download Full-text

Using iNaturalist to Contribute Your Nature Observations to Science

EDIS ◽

10.32473/edis-uw458-2019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 (4) ◽

pp. 5

Author(s):

Matthew Earl Boone ◽

Mathieu Basille

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Online Community ◽

Science Data ◽

Online Data ◽

Wildlife Ecology ◽

Biodiversity Research ◽

The World ◽

The Rich ◽

Online Data Base ◽

Community Projects

iNaturalist is one of the most popular citizen science data portals in the world. Citizens can submit pictures of biological observations to an online data base to be reviewed by the rich online community and used for important biodiversity research around the world. Users can use the iNaturalist ap to plan community projects and bioblitzes and learn more about species identification and biodiversity. In this 5-page fact sheet, authors Matthew Earl Boone and Mathieu Basille explain how observations are vetted and used and give a step by step guide to get started! Published by the UF/IFAS Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw458

Download Full-text

The Use of Citizen Science to Achieve Multivariate Management Goals on Public Lands

Diversity ◽

10.3390/d13070293 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 293

Author(s):

Sara Souther ◽

Vincent Randall ◽

Nanebah Lyndon

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Land Management ◽

Ecological Integrity ◽

Public Land ◽

Suitable Habitat ◽

Science Data ◽

Public Land Management ◽

Federal Land ◽

Botanical Research ◽

Federal Land Management

Federal land management agencies in the US are tasked with maintaining the ecological integrity of over 2 million km2 of land for myriad public uses. Citizen science, operating at the nexus of science, education, and outreach, offers unique benefits to address socio-ecological questions and problems, and thus may offer novel opportunities to support the complex mission of public land managers. Here, we use a case study of an iNaturalist program, the Tribal Nations Botanical Research Collaborative (TNBRC), to examine the use of citizen science programs in public land management. The TNBRC collected 2030 observations of 34 plant species across the project area, while offering learning opportunities for participants. Using occurrence data, we examined observational trends through time and identified five species with 50 or fewer digital observations to investigate as species of possible conservation concern. We compared predictive outcomes of habitat suitability models built using citizen science data and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data. Models exhibited high agreement, identifying the same underlying predictors of species occurrence and, 95% of the time, identifying the same pixels as suitable habitat. Actions such as staff training on data use and interpretation could enhance integration of citizen science in Federal land management.

Download Full-text

Abundant Citizen Science Data Reveal That the Peacock Butterfly Aglais io Recently Became Bivoltine in Belgium

Insects ◽

10.3390/insects12080683 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (8) ◽

pp. 683

Author(s):

Marc Herremans ◽

Karin Gielen ◽

Jos Van Kerckhoven ◽

Pieter Vanormelingen ◽

Wim Veraghtert ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Western Europe ◽

Environmental Changes ◽

Early Summer ◽

Science Data ◽

The Public ◽

Online Portal ◽

Spring Generation ◽

Reproductive Cycles ◽

New Generation

The peacock butterfly is abundant and widespread in Europe. It is generally believed to be univoltine (one generation per year): adults born in summer overwinter and reappear again in spring to reproduce. However, recent flight patterns in western Europe mostly show three peaks during the year: a first one in spring (overwintering butterflies), a second one in early summer (offspring of the spring generation), and a third one in autumn. It was thus far unclear whether this autumn flight peak was a second new generation or consisted of butterflies flying again in autumn after a summer rest (aestivation). The life cycle of one of Europe’s most common butterflies is therefore still surprisingly inadequately understood. We used hundreds of thousands of observations and thousands of pictures submitted by naturalists from the public to the online portal observation.orgin Belgium and analyzed relations between flight patterns, condition (wear), reproductive cycles, peak abundances, and phenology to clarify the current life history. We demonstrate that peacocks have shifted towards two new generations per year in recent decades. Mass citizen science data in online portals has become increasingly important in tracking the response of biodiversity to rapid environmental changes such as climate change.

Download Full-text

Explaining Spatial Variation in the Recording Effort of Citizen Science Data across Multiple Taxa

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0147796 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. e0147796 ◽

Cited By ~ 36

Author(s):

Louise Mair ◽

Alejandro Ruete

Keyword(s):

Spatial Variation ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Science Data

Download Full-text

A Conceptual Probabilistic Framework for Annotation Aggregation of Citizen Science Data

Mathematics ◽

10.3390/math9080875 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 875

Author(s):

Jesus Cerquides ◽

Mehmet Oğuz Mülâyim ◽

Jerónimo Hernández-González ◽

Amudha Ravi Shankar ◽

Jose Luis Fernandez-Marquez

Keyword(s):

Data Quality ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Graphical Model ◽

Real Life ◽

Scientific Journals ◽

Probabilistic Framework ◽

Science Data ◽

Label Aggregation ◽

Evaluation Of Data ◽

Model Formalism

Over the last decade, hundreds of thousands of volunteers have contributed to science by collecting or analyzing data. This public participation in science, also known as citizen science, has contributed to significant discoveries and led to publications in major scientific journals. However, little attention has been paid to data quality issues. In this work we argue that being able to determine the accuracy of data obtained by crowdsourcing is a fundamental question and we point out that, for many real-life scenarios, mathematical tools and processes for the evaluation of data quality are missing. We propose a probabilistic methodology for the evaluation of the accuracy of labeling data obtained by crowdsourcing in citizen science. The methodology builds on an abstract probabilistic graphical model formalism, which is shown to generalize some already existing label aggregation models. We show how to make practical use of the methodology through a comparison of data obtained from different citizen science communities analyzing the earthquake that took place in Albania in 2019.

Download Full-text

Using citizen science data to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals: a bottom-up analysis

Sustainability Science ◽

10.1007/s11625-021-01001-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Laura Ballerini ◽

Sylvia I. Bergh

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Sustainable Development Goals ◽

Comparative Case Study ◽

Science Data ◽

The Sustainable Development ◽

Case Study Analysis ◽

Wide Range ◽

Development Goals

AbstractOfficial data are not sufficient for monitoring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): they do not reach remote locations or marginalized populations and can be manipulated by governments. Citizen science data (CSD), defined as data that citizens voluntarily gather by employing a wide range of technologies and methodologies, could help to tackle these problems and ultimately improve SDG monitoring. However, the link between CSD and the SDGs is still understudied. This article aims to develop an empirical understanding of the CSD-SDG link by focusing on the perspective of projects which employ CSD. Specifically, the article presents primary and secondary qualitative data collected on 30 of these projects and an explorative comparative case study analysis. It finds that projects which use CSD recognize that the SDGs can provide a valuable framework and legitimacy, as well as attract funding, visibility, and partnerships. But, at the same time, the article reveals that these projects also encounter several barriers with respect to the SDGs: a widespread lack of knowledge of the goals, combined with frustration and political resistance towards the UN, may deter these projects from contributing their data to the SDG monitoring apparatus.

Download Full-text