Citizen science: a new approach to advance ecology, education, and conservation

Citizen science has a long history in the ecological sciences and has made substantial contributions to science, education, and society. Developments in information technology during the last few decades have created new opportunities for citizen science to engage ever larger audiences of volunteers to help address some of ecology’s most pressing issues, such as global environmental change. Using online tools, volunteers can find projects that match their interests and learn the skills and protocols required to develop questions, collect data, submit data, and help process and analyze data online. Citizen science has become increasingly important for its ability to engage large numbers of volunteers to generate observations at scales or resolutions unattainable by individual researchers. As a coupled natural and human approach, citizen science can also help researchers access local knowledge and implement conservation projects that might be impossible otherwise. In Japan, however, the value of citizen science to science and society is still underappreciated. Here we present case studies of citizen science in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and describe how citizen science is used to tackle key questions in ecology and conservation, including spatial and macro-ecology, management of threatened and invasive species, and monitoring of biodiversity. We also discuss the importance of data quality, volunteer recruitment, program evaluation, and the integration of science and human systems in citizen science projects. Finally, we outline some of the primary challenges facing citizen science and its future.

[1]  C. Findlay,et al.  The Rauischholzhausen Agenda for Road Ecology , 2007 .

[2]  E. Svendsen,et al.  Urban Ecological Stewardship: Understanding the Structure, Function and Network of Community-based Urban Land Management , 2008 .

[3]  Andrea Wiggins,et al.  Investing in citizen science can improve natural resource management and environmental protection , 2015 .

[4]  I. Washitani,et al.  Predicting the rate of range expansion of an invasive alien bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) using a stochastic spatio-temporal model. , 2010 .

[5]  David N. Bonter,et al.  Citizen Science as an Ecological Research Tool: Challenges and Benefits , 2010 .

[6]  R. Primack,et al.  The effects of climate change on the phenology of winter birds in Yokohama, Japan , 2011, Ecological Research.

[7]  Andrew F. Bennett,et al.  Identifying priority areas for conservation action in agricultural landscapes , 2004 .

[8]  H. Sauermann,et al.  Crowd science user contribution patterns and their implications , 2015, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[9]  David N. Bonter,et al.  Invasive birds in a novel landscape: habitat associations and effects on established species , 2009 .

[10]  Steve Kelling,et al.  Data-intensive science applied to broad-scale citizen science. , 2012, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[11]  R. Freckleton,et al.  Links between plant species’ spatial and temporal responses to a warming climate , 2014, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[12]  Jeremy D. Wilson,et al.  Bird Conservation and Agriculture , 2009 .

[13]  Jake L. Snaddon,et al.  Biodiversity technologies: tools as change agents , 2013, Biology Letters.

[14]  M. Haklay.  Citizen Science and Volunteered Geographic Information: Overview and Typology of Participation , 2013 .

[15]  Richard B. Primack,et al.  Phylogenetic patterns of species loss in Thoreau's woods are driven by climate change , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[16]  Kathleen L Wolf,et al.  What is urban environmental stewardship? Constructing a practitioner-derived framework , 2012 .

[17]  I. Washitani,et al.  Invasion Status and Potential Ecological Impacts of an Invasive Alien Bumblebee, Bombus terrestris L. (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Naturalized in Southern Hokkaido, Japan , 2004 .

[18]  Elizabeth R. Ellwood,et al.  Effects of Climate Change on Spring Arrival Times of Birds in Thoreau's Concord from 1851 to 2007 , 2010 .

[19]  Effects of the emerald ash borer invasion on four species of birds , 2013, Biological Invasions.

[20]  R. Primack,et al.  Uncovering, Collecting, and Analyzing Records to Investigate the Ecological Impacts of Climate Change: A Template from Thoreau's Concord , 2012 .

[21]  Patricia Y. Leonard,et al.  Growing the Base for Citizen Science , 2012 .

[22]  Y. Aono,et al.  Phenological data series of cherry tree flowering in Kyoto, Japan, and its application to reconstruction of springtime temperatures since the 9th century , 2008 .

[23]  M. Ueta,et al.  Identifying priority areas for national-level conservation to achieve Aichi Target 11: A case study of using terrestrial birds breeding in Japan , 2015 .

[24]  H. Slavkin,et al.  Challenges and potential in tissue engineering. , 2006, Periodontology 2000.

[25]  David L. Thomson,et al.  UK birds are laying eggs earlier , 1997, Nature.

[26]  David Easley,et al.  Incentives, Gamification, and Game Theory: An Economic Approach to Badge Design , 2016, EC.

[27]  R. Bonney,et al.  Next Steps for Citizen Science , 2014, Science.

[28]  David N. Bonter,et al.  From Backyard Observations to Continent-Wide Trends: Lessons from the First Twenty-Two Years of Project Feederwatch , 2017 .

[29]  I. Washitani,et al.  Using monitoring data gathered by volunteers to predict the potential distribution of the invasive alien bumblebee Bombus terrestris , 2009 .

[30]  Eileen Scanlon,et al.  iSpot Mobile A Natural History Participatory Science Application , 2012, mLearn.

[31]  T. Sparks,et al.  The Responses of Species to Climate Over Two Centuries: An Analysis of the Marsham Phenological Record, 1736-1947 , 1995 .

[32]  Charles M. Francis,et al.  The influence of climate on the timing and rate of spring bird migration , 2004, Oecologia.

[33]  R. Primack,et al.  The impact of climate change on cherry trees and other species in Japan , 2009 .

[34]  Heidi Anne Ficken.  Designing for community , 1995 .

[35]  M. D. Schwartz,et al.  From Caprio's lilacs to the USA National Phenology Network , 2012 .

[36]  R. Primack,et al.  Favorable Climate Change Response Explains Non-Native Species' Success in Thoreau's Woods , 2010, PloS one.

[37]  I. D. Margary.  The marsham phenological record in Norfolk, 1736–1925, and some others , 2007 .

[38]  M. Silman,et al.  Keep collecting: accurate species distribution modelling requires more collections than previously thought , 2011 .

[39]  P. M. Kelly,et al.  Effects on climate , 1980, Nature.

[40]  C. Parmesan,et al.  Poleward shifts in geographical ranges of butterfly species associated with regional warming , 1999, Nature.

[41]  Celia A. Evans,et al.  The Neighborhood Nestwatch Program: Participant Outcomes of a Citizen‐Science Ecological Research Project , 2005 .

[42]  Steve Kelling,et al.  Crowdsourcing Meets Ecology: Hemisphere-Wide Spatiotemporal Species Distribution Models , 2014, AI Mag..

[43]  D. Winkler,et al.  Climate change has affected the breeding date of tree swallows throughout North America , 1999, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[44]  Tatsuya Amano,et al.  Ecological and life-history traits related to range contractions among breeding birds in Japan , 2007 .

[45]  Patrick J. Guertin,et al.  Standardized phenology monitoring methods to track plant and animal activity for science and resource management applications , 2014, International Journal of Biometeorology.

[46]  W. Koenig,et al.  Seed-crop size and eruptions of North American boreal seed-eating birds , 2001 .

[47]  Patrick J. Guertin,et al.  Organizing phenological data resources to inform natural resource conservation , 2014 .

[48]  Arco J. van Strien,et al.  Wild Bird Indicators: Using Composite Population Trends of Birds as Measures of Environmental Health , 2010 .

[49]  J. Dickinson,et al.  Citizen Science: A Tool for Integrating Studies of Human and Natural Systems , 2014 .

[50]  Jennifer Shirk,et al.  The Invisible Prevalence of Citizen Science in Global Research: Migratory Birds and Climate Change , 2014, PloS one.

[51]  W. Sutherland,et al.  A framework for monitoring the status of populations: An example from wader populations in the East Asian–Australasian flyway , 2010 .

[52]  Ryo Sakurai,et al.  Factors influencing public participation in conservation activities in urban areas: A case study in Yokohama, Japan , 2015 .

[53]  Eileen Scanlon,et al.  Informal Participation in Science in the UK: Identification, Location and Mobility with iSpot , 2014, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[54]  Thomas G. Dietterich,et al.  The eBird enterprise: An integrated approach to development and application of citizen science , 2014 .

[55]  Doug Clow,et al.  iSpot analysed: participatory learning and reputation , 2011, LAK.

[56]  Stephen R. Baillie,et al.  Population declines and range contractions among lowland farmland birds in Britain , 1995 .

[57]  J. Silvertown.  A new dawn for citizen science. , 2009, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[58]  R. Preston McAfee,et al.  Incentivizing high-quality user-generated content , 2011, WWW.

[59]  George Kingsley Zipf,et al.  Human behavior and the principle of least effort , 1949 .

[60]  R. Bonney,et al.  Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research , 2012 .

[61]  J. K. Hill,et al.  Rapid responses of British butterflies to opposing forces of climate and habitat change , 2001, Nature.

[62]  W. Hochachka,et al.  Density-dependent decline of host abundance resulting from a new infectious disease. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[63]  Wesley M. Hochachka,et al.  Seasonal and latitudinal trends in clutch size : Thermal constraints during laying and incubation , 2005 .

[64]  A. Wals,et al.  Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education , 2014, Science.

[65]  Andrew Elliott,et al.  Handbook of the Birds of the World, Volume 3: Hoatzin to Auks , 1996 .

[66]  T. Brereton,et al.  United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme annual report 2007 , 2010 .

[67]  I. Washitani.  Invasive Alien Species Problems in Japan: an Introductory Ecological Essay , 2004 .

[68]  Waterbirds in the UK , 2011 .

[69]  D. Noble,et al.  Birds of Conservation Concern 3 The population status of birds in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man , 2009 .

[70]  Candie C. Wilderman,et al.  Public Participation in Scientific Research: a Framework for Deliberate Design , 2012 .

[71]  H. Higuchi,et al.  Habitat management of little terns in Japan’s highly developed landscape , 2009 .

[72]  Ailene K. Ettinger,et al.  Global change and local solutions: Tapping the unrealized potential of citizen science for biodiversity research , 2015 .

[73]  Parviez R. Hosseini,et al.  Seasonality and wildlife disease: how seasonal birth, aggregation and variation in immunity affect the dynamics of Mycoplasma gallisepticum in house finches , 2004, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[74]  Tatsuya Amano,et al.  Does land‐use change affect biodiversity dynamics at a macroecological scale? A case study of birds over the past 20 years in Japan , 2009 .

[75]  J. Greenwood.  Citizens, Science, and Environmental Policy , 2012 .

[76]  S. Henderson,et al.  Citizen science takes root , 2013 .

[77]  J. Dickinson,et al.  Socially Networked Citizen Science and the Crowd-Sourcing of Pro-Environmental Collective Actions , 2014 .

[78]  Wesley M. Hochachka,et al.  Seasonal dynamics of mycoplasmal conjunctivitis in eastern North American house finches , 2004 .

[79]  Richard B Primack,et al.  Global warming and flowering times in Thoreau's Concord: a community perspective. , 2008, Ecology.

[80]  Galo Canizares.  A History , 2018, Thresholds.

[81]  W. Sutherland,et al.  A 250-year index of first flowering dates and its response to temperature changes , 2010, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[82]  Rick Bonney,et al.  The history of public participation in ecological research , 2012 .

[83]  Katharine L. Gerst,et al.  Phenology research for natural resource management in the United States , 2014, International Journal of Biometeorology.

[84]  J. L. Gittleman,et al.  The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection , 2014, Science.

[85]  M. Ueta,et al.  Landscape Heterogeneity–Biodiversity Relationship: Effect of Range Size , 2014, PloS one.

[86]  H. Reeve,et al.  Can evolutionary design of social networks make it easier to be 'green'? , 2013, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[87]  M. Krasny,et al.  Civic ecology: a pathway for Earth Stewardship in cities , 2012 .

[88]  Nedjeljko Frančula.  Public Participation in Scientific Research , 2016 .

[89]  Candie C. Wilderman,et al.  Public Participation in Scientific Research: Defining the Field and Assessing Its Potential for Informal Science Education. A CAISE Inquiry Group Report. , 2009 .

[90]  Molly Schauffler,et al.  Participatory science and education: bringing both views into focus , 2012 .

[91]  R. Bonney,et al.  Citizen Science as a Tool for Conservation in Residential Ecosystems , 2007 .

[92]  Kazuo Koyama,et al.  Population Trends of Common Wintering Waterfowl in Japan: Participatory Monitoring Data from 1996 to 2009 , 2010 .

[93]  Stephen T. Buckland,et al.  Trends in the abundance of farmland birds: a quantitative comparison of smoothed Common Birds Census indices , 1998 .

[94]  I. Washitani,et al.  Displacement of Japanese native bumblebees by the recently introduced Bombus terrestris (L.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) , 2008, Journal of Insect Conservation.

[95]  Y. Aono,et al.  Phenological data series of cherry tree flowering in Kyoto, Japan, and its application to reconstruction of springtime temperatures since the 9th century , 2008 .