The engagement of citizens in marine sciences is a crucial element in the effort to increase societal awareness of environmental issues and science in general. Through its potential for large observer numbers it also has been advocated as a monitoring tool to collect large amounts of scientific data, providing opportunities for large scale and sustained observations over a long term. Citizen science is however also riddled with challenges that sometimes can hamper its potential and balances have to be struck between its function as a communication and/or a monitoring tool providing sound data. The challenges may largely vary between projects and their objectives, and measures can be taken to confront these. This session aims to explore different strategies that projects have developed to master these challenges and provide examples of success. We hope to showcase pathways that might guide others to master these challenges.
Lead Organizer: Fiona Tomas Nash, IMEDEA (fionamedes@gmail.com)
Co-organizers:
Iris Hendriks, IMEDEA (iris@imedea.uib-csic.es)
Hilmar Hinz, IMEDEA (hhinz@imedea.uib-csic.es)
Presentations
08:30 AM
Citizen science supports the conservation of Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages (5681)
Primary Presenter: Laura Figuerola-Ferrando, University of Barcelona (lfiguerola@ub.edu)
Coralligenous assemblages are among the most threatened coastal ecosystems in the Mediterranean, with marine heatwaves being one of the most worrying stressors causing mass mortality events in this key habitat. Hence, obtaining information on their conservation status and distribution is crucial for implementing effective conservation measures. Citizen science is a promising tool to provide this information on broad spatial and temporal scales while raising awareness of ocean conservation issues. Although the data quality of citizen-scientists has often been questioned, the design of volunteer training and the data validation by experts have allowed to overcome these initial concerns ensuring its reliability. This presentation shows how using two of the largest citizen science expert-validated datasets from Observadores del Mar and Reef Check Med can enhance our understanding of the conservation status and distribution of Mediterranean coralligenous species over time. Firstly, our study successfully validated the implementation of training programs for volunteers on assessing the conservation status of coralligenous key species. This highlights the importance of training and expert-validation in long-term citizen science projects. Secondly, this work combined species occurrences datasets from both, science and citizen science, with environmental information using Species Distribution Models, providing valuable insights into the main factors driving coralligenous species distribution. Overall, our results reinforce the role of marine citizen science as a leading pillar in the conservation and management strategies to face the ongoing environmental crisis.
08:45 AM
Linking citizens and students to increase our understanding of seagrass ecology in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico (5165)
Primary Presenter: Jane Caffrey, University of West Florida (jcaffrey@uwf.edu)
In the Pensacola Bay System located in northwest Florida, seagrasses are a dominant habitat in shallow waters. Many species use seagrass beds as a nursery area, for foraging and as a refuge. Significant losses of seagrass habitats occurred in the 1950s to 1970s. Since 2010, seagrass coverage has increased slightly. Since 2017 the University of West Florida (UWF), Escambia and Santa Rosa County Sea Grant Extension have worked together to enlist citizens and UWF students to monitor seagrass beds. Each month during the growing season (May-Sept), local citizens identify seagrass species and use quadrats to estimate coverage of seagrass and macroalgae at different locations in the Pensacola Bay system. They also collect water samples which are analyzed at UWF by students who measure salinity and total suspended solids (TSS). Students also measure water quality and collect water samples for dissolved nutrients and chlorophyll a from these locations two or three times during the growing season. Students have also developed individual research projects such as examining porewater nutrients or epiphyte coverage in seagrass beds. Their projects benefit from the data from the volunteer program which provides context for their studies. The goals of this program are to develop an active community of citizen scientists, train students, develop long term monitoring of seagrass habitats in the Pensacola Bay system and use this data to increase our understanding of factors impacting seagrasses in this rapidly growing region.
09:00 AM
The Coastal Lakes Observing Network (CLONet): a combined citizen – university – state monitoring and research program (6637)
Primary Presenter: Jason Adolf, Monmouth University (jadolf@monmouth.edu)
Coastal lakes of New Jersey (USA) are found directly adjacent to, and often hydraulically connected with, the Atlantic Ocean in highly populated and developed watersheds. Historically, the water quality of these relatively small lakes is ‘degraded’ due to factors including stormwater and sediment-rich runoff. Since the occurrence of dangerous cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms (HABs) in some of these lakes in 2019, we have tracked annual trends in water quality and HAB abundance through the Coastal Lakes Observing Network (CLONet), a combined Monmouth University, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and citizen monitoring program. Citizen data are collected by community members who are trained and equipped by CLONet personnel. An independent but parallel university- and state-run time series allows examination of relationships between citizen / lab data and informs best use of citizen data in a monitoring context. Here, our four-year combined citizen – lab dataset on water quality, HABs, and watershed properties is used to identify general challenges and project-specific solutions to incorporating citizen monitoring, as well as examining findings arising from the project such as the relationship between rainfall and water quality that is an important driver in this largely urban system.
09:15 AM
DNA DIVERS: PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH TO UPSCALE MARINE BIODIVERSITY MONITORING USING DNA PROBES AND SCUBA (6802)
Primary Presenter: Erika Neave, Liverpool John Moores University (e.f.neave@ljmu.ac.uk)
Openness and in particular, co-created research, challenges traditional scientific practice, institutions and power-relations. Co-creation allows stakeholders to have an equitable stake in the research and is more likely to lead to evidence-based policymaking when policymakers are involved. Our authorship team is comprised of academic researchers, industry partners, marine managers, policymakers and citizen scientists. DNA Divers is a citizen science project engaging with volunteer scuba divers to collect environmental DNA (eDNA), producing molecular data of coastal UK fish communities. We established partnerships with Seasearch, which has an extensive volunteer network who have been performing traditional visual surveys of the UK coastline for over 30 years, and have successfully generated data used in special areas of conservation (SACs) reporting. DNA Diver volunteers sampled eDNA using a novel low-fuss sampling strategy; by deploying ‘metaprobes’, 3-D printed hollow spherical probes filled with gauze designed to collect trace DNA. Concurrently, they made Seasearch observations and we now have the first ever (to our knowledge) data overlapping molecular eDNA with Seasearch visual census reports. Co-creation of this project with multiple stakeholders has paved a foundation for the future of marine biodiversity monitoring in the UK.
09:30 AM
MYPOND: A CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT TO EXPLORE THE HIDDEN BIODIVERSITY OF GARDEN PONDS (5145)
Primary Presenter: Zsofia Horvath, Centre for Ecological Research (hhzsofia@gmail.com)
Globally increasing urbanization results in rapid environmental changes, including the disappearance and fragmentation of natural habitats. At the same time, urban citizens create green spaces and aquatic habitats for recreational purposes in gardens and city parks. The resulting anthropogenic aquatic habitats such as urban ponds are increasingly considered valuable for biodiversity. While there is an increasing need for better understanding the functioning of urban pond networks, this cannot be complete without the explicit consideration of the numerous garden ponds in the landscape. So far, they remained largely excluded from studies either due to difficulties in obtaining access or due to limitations by their overall small sizes which curtailed their assessment via satellite-based imagery. Here, we present a novel approach in the form of a citizen science program where we aimed to assess garden ponds and their biodiversity with the help of pond owners in Hungary. In 2021-22, we collected data as part of an online survey from over 800 garden ponds across the country, followed by an eDNA-based sampling campaign covering over 300 garden ponds. Our data revealed a high engagement level of citizens and an overall high heterogeneity in pond morphology and management. With appropriate evidence-based suggestions, this could contribute to sustaining aquatic biodiversity in an urbanizing world.
09:45 AM
Science communication and community engagement fuel the restoration of Sydney’s underwater forests and meadows (7549)
Primary Presenter: Adriana Verges, UNSW Sydney (a.verges@unsw.edu.au)
Seaweeds and seagrasses dominate the shallow underwater coastlines of cooler coastlines. These dense and highly productive habitats provide shelter, food and home for thousands of other species. Despite their importance, these underwater habitats are declining at fast rates, and a lack of public awareness underpins a general lack of protection. ‘Operation Crayweed’ and ‘Operation Posidonia’ are two projects based in Sydney (Australia) that combine science, storytelling and community engagement to restore seaweed and seagrass species and raise awareness about the importance of these marine habitats. ‘Crayweed’ (Phyllospora comosa) is a large seaweed that disappeared from the Sydney metropolitan coastline over 30 years ago as a result of sewage pollution. Operation Crayweed has developed a method to reintroduce self-sustaining populations of crayweed and has successfully reversed local extinction for the species. This good-news restoration success story was then used to engage local communities via short films, podcasts, art-meets-science projects and community plantings. ‘Posidonia’ (Posidonia australis) is a slow-growing seagrass that is declining rapidly in eastern Australia, where it is classified as endangered. Boat moorings that scour the seafloor and remove marine vegetation are one of its major threats. Operation Posidonia enlists local communities to collect seagrass shoots that become naturally detached following storms. These shoots are then planted in old boat mooring scars in a way that avoids damaging existing meadows while also engaging communities and increasing stewardship. High levels of hands-on engagement from the public in both Operation Crayweed and Operation Posidonia, in combination with high media interest, have led to rising levels of philanthropic and government funding for both restoration projects. These solutions-focused projects demonstrate the effectiveness of combining science, communication and community engagement to shift perceptions around the importance of underwater ecosystems and our capacity to drive positive change.
SS058 Citizen Science in Aquatic Ecology: Bridging the Gap Between Science and Society While Assuring Sound Data for Science and Conservation
Description
Time: 8:30 AM
Date: 6/6/2023
Room: Sala Santa Catalina