183
Young volunteers at Siyeh Pass,
in the state of Montana, record their
sightings of mountain goats for the
high country citizen science project
in the Glacier National Park.ORGANISMS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT
University of Georgia, uses an
app, the Marine Debris Tracker,
to record sightings of debris in
the ocean. Understanding patterns
of trash buildup in the world’s seas
helps scientists to track how
it is transported by currents and
where to concentrate removal efforts
for maximum effect.
The advent of new technology
has led to a proliferation of citizen
science projects. Online recording
systems allow people to log
sightings of anything from stag
beetles to wildflowers or migrating
birds. In the UK, for example, the
Greenspace Information for Greater
London (GiGL) website, created by
the National Biodiversity Network,
allows people to submit records
online or by phone, adding to a
database used by scientists working
to conserve species and habitats.Limitations and potential
Some ecology research projects
are beyond the reach of untrained
amateurs because they require
too high a degree of skill, or
technology that is too complex
or expensive. People unfamiliar
with scientific methods may alsointroduce bias into recordings,
such as by the omission of a
species that cannot be identified.
Most simple citizen science
tasks, though, require no training,
and some other, more complex,
procedures can be tackled after
basic tuition. People are often
attracted to citizen science precisely
because they gain new skills in the
process. Increasing pressure on
Earth’s natural environments and
resources creates an ever greater
need for data that records presence,
absence, and change in species,
their habitats, and the wider
ecosystems. Projects such as
Zooniverse, the world’s largest
citizen science platform, help
fill this need, accumulating data
from around 1.7 million volunteers
worldwide. Such projects will be an
invaluable resource for conservation
organizations, research institutions,
nongovernment agencies, and
governments for years to come. ■The more data, the more
representative the
results are of reality.Volunteer networks are
able to collect vast
quantities of data, often
from widespread areas.Scientific study often relies on the collection
of large quantities of data.The citizen’s network depends
on volunteers.Painting the
complete pictureCitizen scientists are now
the biggest global providers
of data on the occurrence of
living organisms. Data is
easier than ever to submit
and artificial intelligence (AI)
algorithms can process data
in minutes where once it
would have taken weeks. For
example, if a person records
sightings of birds coming to
a garden feeder and sends a
report from a phone to Cornell
University’s eBird website, the
information is compared with
previous data on factors such
as population numbers and
migration routes. More than
390,000 people have submitted
millions of bird sightings to
eBird from nearly 5 million
locations around the world.
This data is fed into the Global
Biodiversity Information
Facility (GBIF, coordinated in
Denmark), which collects
information on plants, animals,
fungi, and bacteria. GBIF now
contains more than 1 billion
observations, and the number
is growing daily.US_178-183_Citizen_science.indd 183 12/11/18 6:25 PM