The Ecology Book

180

C

itizen science is research

and observation carried

out by nonprofessional

individuals, teams, or networks

of volunteers, often in partnership

with professional scientists. It is

based on an appreciation that the

scientific community should be

responsive to the environmental

concerns of society as a whole, and

an understanding that citizens can

produce reliable scientific evidence

that leads to greater scientific

knowledge. The involvement of

ordinary people allows research

bodies to accomplish projects that

would be far too expensive or time-

consuming to run otherwise.

Early enthusiasts

While the term “citizen science”

is relatively new, dating from the

1980s, the concept and practice

of using the public to observe the

natural world and record data has

a long pedigree. In the 1870s,

small groups of ornithologists

in Germany and Scotland began

to collect reports on the fall

migration of birds, the Scottish

enthusiasts using lighthouses

around the coast as observation

posts. Then, in the early 1880s, the

idea of collective observation was

extended onto a national scale by

American ornithologist Wells

Cooke, who began a project to show

arrival dates for migratory North

American birds and provide

evidence for migration pathways.

Cooke’s project ran until World War

II, gathering 6 million data cards

on more than 800 bird species and

utilizing 3,000 volunteers at its

peak. In 2009, the North American

Bird Phenology Program began

to digitize the data from the cards,

which has provided valuable

evidence of changed bird migration

dates and routes resulting from

global climate change.

The world’s longest-running

citizen science survey is the

Christmas Bird Count (CBC), held

each year in the US. Christmas

“side hunts” of birds were a popular

pastime in many rural districts

of the US in the 19th century,

CITIZEN SCIENCE

IN CONTEXT

KEY FIGURES

Fred Urquhart (1911–2002),

Norah Urquhart (1918–2009)

BEFORE

1883 The Bird Migration

and Distribution recording

program starts in the US.

1966 The North American

Breeding Birds Survey,

conducted by volunteers,

begins in Maryland.

AFTER

2007 The Global Biodiversity

Information Facility (GBIF)

launches a global online portal

for collecting data on plants

and animals from citizen

scientists and professionals.

2010 The eBird online project,

created in the US in 2002 by

the Cornell Laboratory of

Ornithology for volunteers to

report real-time bird sightings,

becomes a global survey.

Migratory birds

in North America

use paths that can

be divided into four

north–south zones,

called flyways—Pacific,

Central, Mississippi,

and Atlantic. Citizen

scientists can play a

key role in recording

the birds as they stop

to feed or rest along

the way, during their

flights north in spring

and south in fall.

Pacific flyway

Central flyway

Mississippi flyway

Atlantic flyway

North American migration pathways

KEY

Butterflies—millions

upon millions ... carpeted

the ground in their

flaming myriads on this

Mexican mountainside.

Fred Urqhuart

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