Marine Citizen Science

Question 1

What is citizen science?

Answer 1

Involvement of non-professional scientists in the systematic collection, analysis or interpretation of scientific data, and testing of natural phenomena.

• Recording observations
• Analysing/interpreting data
• Collecting data in the field
• Participating/assisting in experiments
• Sharing expertise ‘lay-expertise’
• Contributing to the writing of manuscripts
• Shaping the project
• Setting the questions together

Question 2

How much has the amount of citizen science studies risen by in recent years?

Answer 2

Huge rise in citizen science studies, in formalized projects and initiatives. SCOPUS rise from 500 to 6000 publications a year from 2015 to 2017.

Huge rise in the term citizen science use

Question 3

What reasons are given for the huge rise in the use of the term citizen science?

Answer 3

Reasons

• Mobile phones – allow capture of data
• More leisure time
• More highly educated
• Live longer and are healthier in old age
• Greater hunger for access to scientific data
• The emergence of open science movement
• Scientific journals are becoming increasingly open access
• Citizen science

Question 4

Where did the term ‘Citizen Science’ come from?

Answer 4

• Rick Bonney, Cornell University
• Alan Irwin, UK sociologist

Term citizen science arrives independently from Rick Bonney in America. Members of the public collect scientific data.

Alan Irwin in the UK – encompasses a range of activities, members of public enter into dialogue with the scientific community.

Question 5

Models of PPSR

Answer 5

(Shirk et al., 2012)

• Contractual projects: where communities ask professional researchers to conduct a specific scientific investigation and report on the results
• Contributory: designed by scientists, and members of the public primarily contribute data
• Collaborative: designed by scientists and members of the public contribute data but may help in the design, analysis or dissemination
• Co-created: designed by scientists and members of the public working together; at least some public participants are actively involved in most steps of the process

New terminology and jargon to match this new discipline

Different types of PPSR Public Participation in Scientific Research

There classification is based on how involved the publics in the project

All models are equally valid, depends on context and aims.

Shouldn’t always believe it is beneficial to involve the public from the very start

A good paper from 2012, where they define and explain different

• Collegial contributions: non-credentialed individuals conduct research independently

Question 6

Why are citizen science projects set up?

Answer 6

Citizen science projects set up either (HOPEFULLY BOTH) because there is a data gap in the data or for the interest of the public.

There are many drivers for establishing a Citizen Science project. Projects must balance inputs from scientific interests and public interests, but each project negotiates that balance differently (as represented by input arrows of different

sizes).

Question 7

What activities and outputs do citizen science projects involve.

Answer 7

• ACTIVITIES - Develop infastructure and manage project implamentation
• OUTPUTS - Observations and experiences

Question 8

What are the outcomes of citizen science projects?

Answer 8

1. Science: research findings, publications
2. Social-ecological systems: Action, legislation, relationships
3. Individuals: Skills, knowledge, identity

Projects also exhibit different outcomes for science, individuals (researchers or volunteers), and social-ecological

systems, which may relate to the particular balance of inputs. Note feedback arrows: certain outcomes may reinforce certain interests—and therefore particular design emphases—as initiatives evolve over time.

Question 9

What are the impacts of citizen science projects?

Answer 9

Conservation

resilience

sustainability

apparently

Question 10

What citizen science principles are there?

Answer 10

Ten Principles of Citizen Science created by the European citizen science association

The second is ‘citizen science projects should have a genuine scientific outcome’

• for example, answering a research question, or informing conservation action, management decisions or environmental policy
• Many projects are focused on the engagement and education element; Certain authors do not consider these CS in the strictest sense.
• And there is value in defining it in such a way and
  
  • A distinction of other engagement activities that do not have scientific outcomes,
  • Allow citizen science to be legitimized,
  • Give an understanding of what science is to the general public
  • Value of distinguishing science engagement activities aimed at people not ready for a full scientific study investigation

Question 11

State two online multidisciplinary uses of citizen science,

Answer 11

Citizen Science solving problems in Biochemistry: Cooper et al. Nature 466, 756-760 (2010)

Foldit

Citizen Science classifying galaxies: Lintott et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 389, 1179–1189 (2008)

Zooniverse

Question 12

Foldit

Answer 12

Knowing the structure of a protein is key to understanding how it works and to targeting it with drugs. The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively and collaboratively to fold the best proteins in 3D puzzle games.

Question 13

Zooniverse

Answer 13

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research. This research is made possible by volunteers — more than a million people around the world who come together to assist professional researchers. Our goal is to enable research that would not be possible, or practical, otherwise. Zooniverse research results in new discoveries, datasets useful to the wider research community, and many publications.

The major challenge of 21st century research is dealing with the flood of information we can now collect about the world around us. Computers can help, but in many fields the human ability for pattern recognition — and our ability to be surprised — makes us superior. With the help of Zooniverse volunteers, researchers can analyze their information more quickly and accurately than would otherwise be possible, saving time and resources, advancing the ability of computers to do the same tasks, and leading to faster progress and understanding of the world, getting to exciting results more quickly.

Our projects combine contributions from many individual volunteers, relying on a version of the ‘wisdom of crowds’ to produce reliable and accurate data. By having many people look at the data we often can also estimate how likely we are to make an error. The product of Zooniverse projects is often exactly what’s needed to make progress in many fields of research.

Question 14

What are the similarities between citizen science and crowdsourcing?

Answer 14

There are citizen science projects that aren’t crowd sourcing and there are crowdsourcing projects that are not citizen science – but there is a big overlap.

Question 15

Giev an example of crowdsourcing

Answer 15

The Google program reCaptcha is an embeddable widget that attempts to prevent computer robots from automatically creating accounts on websites by forcing human users to transcribe a series of letters and numbers. You may have participated in reCaptcha yourself when creating a new account for a website where the reCaptcha widget is embedded into the registration process.

The crowd that transcribes text using reCaptcha widgets contributes to the improvement of a computer algorithm to do the same thing. However, the user never receives any kind of feedback, interaction with a scientist, nor educational experience as a result of interacting with the reCaptcha widget. In fact, most times, the user’s goal has nothing to do with the reCaptcha widget; rather, they are trying to get to some sort of account or program that lives beyond the widget.

Because there isn’t any research collaboration between a scientist and the public nor are there any opportunities to engage in further learning through the widget, reCaptcha is a crowdsourcing project but not a citizen science project. It’s also a great example of how many people across the globe are participating in a crowdsourcing project, often without even realizing it.

Question 16

Give two examples of impactful citizen science projects.

Answer 16

• LaDeau et al., Nature, 447 (2007), p. 710-713. Volunteer data shows the impact of West Nile virus on declining populations of 7 species of bird in the US.
• Zuckerberg et al., 2010. Journal of Animal Ecology
  Vol 80, 403-413, Climatic constraints on wintering bird distributions are modified by urbanization and weather.

Question 17

Why can nature conservational and biodiversity projects can be the most impactful?

Answer 17

Nature conservational and biodiversity projects can be the most impactful as these questions cannot be answered by scientists.

These projects have been so

• The task required of the volunteer was relatively straightforward
• Tapping into entire communities of naturalists, passionate and highly skilled already

Ecology /environmental Citizen Science

• Citizen science is particularly amenable to ecology or environmental surveying type projects
• An existing wealth of lay-expertise /taxonomic skill
• Naturalists have been recording for centuries
• Accessible
• Can be closest to public’s own agendas
• Community-based monitoring; community-based management

Talk here about spatial and temporal scales

Nature / conservation / biodiversity – geographic spatial or temporal scales

Question 18

Why an urgency for Marine Citizen Science in particular?

Answer 18

• Vastness and Scale of our marine ecosystems as a proportion of planet earth,
• The fact that marine ecosystems are disproportionally impacted by climate change. 80 % of anthropogenically derived energy that has gone into the atmosphere has been absorbed over the last 5 decades by the oceans.
• Unprecedented species and habitat loss in the marine environment.
• Policy becoming more complex with large datasets required to assess many impacts on ecosystems over long timescales
• Funding is limited, so new cost-effective ways of obtaining & processing data are needed
• Citizen science has the potential to add to the marine evidence base, but need assessment of utility

Question 19

Why is a focus on marine citizen science timey?

Answer 19

A focus on marine citizen science is timely.

• Our governments have commitment to achieve biodiversity targets set by CBD (1992) and Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020
• Shortfalls in evidence for many of our environmental policies
• Capacity issues, for example in monitoring for MFSD purposes
• Additionally we still a changing landscape of marine management

Question 20

What steps must scientists take towards the goal of having more healthy seas?

Answer 20

If our goal is biologically diverse, productive, healthy seas (marine strategy framework directive)

Then we must address two key areas (as marine scientists and policy makers)

1. Supporting the furtherance of scientific knowledge about marine ecosystem processes, impacts, species
2. And secondly ensure our legislative and policy instruments are fit for purpose, and doing what they set out to achieve

Question 21

If our goal is biologically diverse, productive, healthy seas (marine strategy framework directive)

Then we must address two key areas (as marine scientists and policy makers)

1.Supporting the furtherance of scientific knowledge about marine ecosystem processes, impacts, species

Answer 21

1. Evaluate efficacy of policy and conservation measures
2. address marine evidence gaps
3. Produce a database of native and invasive species

Question 22

If our goal is biologically diverse, productive, healthy seas (marine strategy framework directive)

Then we must address two key areas (as marine scientists and policy makers)

2.And secondly ensure our legislative and policy instruments are fit for purpose, and doing what they set out to achieve

Answer 22

1. Participation and dialogue
2. Increase marine advocacy
3. Policy support and compliance
4. Democratic input to policy creation

Question 23

Disproportionally small number of citizen science are marine

Answer 23

The proportion of sampled citizen science projects collecting data in terrestrial, freshwater or marine environments relative to area coverage on Earth.

From Theobald et al. / Biological Conservation 181 (2015) 236–244

Question 24

Challenges for marine citizen science:

Answer 24

• The vast majority of the marine environment is inaccessible to most people
• The lacking tradition of amateur naturalists
• Taxonomic hurdles
• ‘Open system: propagule exchange
• The scale of marine environment drives a sense of powerless
• Data quality

Other challenges in citizen science in general.

• Lack of CS acknowledgement
• Lack of clarity of aims of the project
• Perceived inaccessibility – vast majority of people perceive the marine enviroment as remote – nothing they can do can combat the threats

Question 25

How has marine science overcome some of the challenges?

Answer 25

• Can get people involved in intertidal projects
• Bring in amateur Scooba divers
• Small boat yacht owners can take small scale data
• Ships of opportunity – cross oceans, ferry owners
• Most people view the marine environment
• Less niche knowledge base in naturalists than the terrestrial enviroment – moth specialist

Question 26

What are some problems in citizen science caused by policy complexity?

Answer 26

• Normative process
• Hard to map CS data contributions
• Marine problems are in part due to individual behaviour
• Centralised policies should address this
• Justification for an enhanced marine citizenship
• Marine problems are partially rooted in individual behavioural choices
• Centralised policies do not address all the causes, because they do not address public behaviour
• A transition towards greater public mobilisation to collectively address environmental problems

Question 27

The 2nd pathway is the support for marine policy achieved through

Answer 27

The 2nd pathway is the support for marine policy achieved through raising awareness of the threats and challenges to the marine environment,

garnering support, increasing individual sense of stewardship and responsibility

And creating advocates for change.

Citizen science, therefore, can be an avenue for the implementation of policy at the level of the individual.

Question 28

What do members of the public have to do to become proactive in marine issues?

3 basic reasons

Answer 28

• Understand the scale of threats at local and global levels
• Understanding own role in creation of, and stemming of, marine impacts
• Having the motivation to undertake behavioural change

Question 29

For citizens to become proactive with respect to marine issues, they need to have

(4)

Answer 29

i. an awareness of the scale and challenge associated with the threats to the marine environment at local and global levels (Gelcich et al., 2014; Jefferson et al., 2014; Potts et al., 2016)
ii. genuine concern for these issues
iii. an appreciation of the extent to which their own behaviours, and the behaviours of those around them, can stem the progression of these threats (see Gelcich et al., 2014).
iv. a motivation to change their behaviour, and to facilitate change in others, to lessen impact on the marine environment (see Kollmuss and Agyeman, 2002 ; Toomey and Domroese, 2013)

Question 30

What is capturing our coast?

Answer 30

“A unique interdisciplinary research project that explores the extent to which members of the public can contribute meaningfully to marine evidence gaps and address ecological hypotheses.”

Question 31

In capturing our coast how many people were mobilised?

Answer 31

2800 face to face training

4000 involved

Question 32

Capturing our coast - shifting species ranges

Answer 32

Teach volunteers to survey for 8 species each - greater trust in volunteers getting it right

Create a critical mass of data

Criteria for species:

• Known climate change indicators
• Invasive species
• Common, keystone species whose abundance has disproportionate ecological effects
• Rare, patchily-occurring species

Question 33

Species Package Surveys

Answer 33

To generate a baseline quantitative dataset of intertidal species around the UK coastline. One use of the data is to test the abundant centre hypothesis, investigating the relationship between species abundance and its position in its thermal range

Question 34

Sargassum muticum

Latitudinal trends and differences across UK regional seas

Answer 34

• Abundance of S. muticum in midshore pools
• Macroalgal biodiversity in pools with/without S. muticum
• Diversity & abundance of associated epibiota
• Not present on the East coats
• Members of the public could participate in examining the epiphytes and epifauna in areas with and without the alga

Question 35

Spermwatch

Answer 35

• Spermwatch – cues which cause the species to spawn
• Record the presence of sperm puddles alongside data logger and other environmental cues
• Have not found a single environmental cue.
• Requires large scale sampling efforts, to compare cross habitats

Question 36

Describe the study of spemwatch in detail

Answer 36

Under the Capturing Our Coast umbrella, “Spermwatch”, a short term campaign, was launched to better understand the spawning behaviour of the lugworm A. marina. The reasons behind the discrepancies in the spawning of A. marina are unknown and therefore formed the basis behind this study. Specific aims of this study were to assess the timing of spawning in multiple A. marina populations across a latitudinal gradient and attempt to link any potential differences to environmental cues. A further aim was to ascertain the presence of reproductive resilience in A. marina and determine if this resilience is caused by environmental factors.

In 2016 and 2017, volunteers were asked to survey beaches between October and December and count the number of lugworm casts they encounter in a certain time period (2016 method: count casts for 10 min), or along a 50m transect (2017 method). Volunteers were asked to keep an eye out for sperm puddles during the survey and in general along the beach as well. Volunteers noted the date, location of survey, time of low tide, weather conditions and the time of survey.

KEY FINDINGS

A. marina was found to spawn in Autumn. Interestingly, our surveys showed lugworms spawning earlier in the East (Newcastle and Portsmouth; late October) than in the West (Bangor and Plymouth; early-mid November). Unfortunately, we have so far found no clear trends linking timing of sperm puddle production to any environmental variables. Our data on cast number per m2 has also shown no clear trends.

Question 37

What ways can participants contribute to capturing our coast?

Answer 37

Independent surveys of 8 species

Manipulative experiments

Campaigns

Coastal Usage App

Online ‘zooniverse’ processing of images

Question 38

Give an estimate of the financial gains of citizen science

Answer 38

–£50 million in 2011 in UK (Defra, 2011. The natural choice; securing the value of nature)

•Ecosystems being monitored that would otherwise not

–Interconnected 5 challenges of: climate change, overexploitation, invasive species, land use change, and pollution

–Requires ‘big data’, and large time and spatial scales to resolve

• Government desire to be more inclusive is met
• Support / drive proactive changes to policy and legislation
• Can provide an early warning /detection system

Question 39

Citizen science - benefits to the participants

Answer 39

• Scientific and environmental literacy
• Increasing scientific and environmental democracy
• Social capital :
• enhanced power and benefits (economic, collective) through better interactions and networks between individuals and groups
• volunteer engagement, agency connection, leadership building, problem-solving and identification of resources
• Skills and confidence building; social networks
• Physical and mental wellbeing

Question 40

Challenges for citizen science

Answer 40

•Lack of robustness of data

–Leading to lack of confidence in the data, and take-up by policy makers

–Data validation / quality evaluation should be embedded

–Realistic and tractable tasks

–Appropriate levels of training and support

• Recruitment, retention and engagement
• Is it really cost-effective?
• Inclusivity - The average participant in citizen science, Male middle class white educated’ How to overcome reaching diverse communities

Question 41

One year NERC funded project to scope out a national framework for supporting public engagement with Environmental Research in the UK

Answer 41

• ● Create a change in how people of all abilities and backgrounds engage with environmental issues through research

● Change the way environmental researchers engage people in their work at all stages to become a part of their everyday process

● Promote collaboration and shared learning across communities from local groups and individuals to practitioners, communicators and membership organisations, to traditional scientific institutions and policy bodies

• •Awarded March 2019

•NERC Community for Engaging Environments £1.3 million

Question 42

2. What will be different about NERC public engagement in three years time?

Answer 42

2. What will be different about NERC public engagement in three years time?

Diverse communities feel they have a stake in environmental science research and have the capacity to tell stories about how environmental science connects to their everyday lives

NERC research community regularly engages diverse communities in their research, supported by the NC4EE and self-sustaining local communities of practice

Diverse communities and NERC researchers value each other and regularly team up to explore and debate contemporary issues in environmental science through listening, storytelling and citizen science

NERC leads the UKRI open science agenda with robust models for funding, reporting, and evaluating public engagement

We intend to work closely with NERC to fulfil this legacy

Question 43

3. How will nerc achieve these legacies…

Answer 43

At Stage-1, we learnt

That whilst some members of the public are engaged in environmental science, compared to the overall population, many are – what the British Science Association term – inactive or disinterested, meaning that at least 60% of the population are engaged but not in science

That the NERC research community face multiple barriers to undertaking public engagement

We have developed a people-centred programme that draws on tried and tested approaches of community organizing and listening, communities of practice, storytelling and citizen science to:

lower the barriers to engagement on both sides to unite diverse communities and NERC research community

Question 44

nerc

So, why do we need this approach now?

Answer 44

The scale and uncertainty surrounding environmental problems means people can feel powerless to act, and they may not be equipped to act

The financially poorest communities are often most adversely impacted by environmental issues

Yet, we know one-off engagement approaches are still prevalent, see Boaty McBoatface

Lack of trust between between publics and policy and business is leading to frustration, anger and apathy that can mean meaningful debate is lacking

A NERC/ComRes report suggests that 75% of the public would be interested to hear more about environmental science and that university scientists are the most trusted

NERC researchers therefore must engage with diverse communities so that society can genuinely benefit from environmental science research

Question 45

Our audiences NERC

Answer 45

5. So who are the diverse communities and NERC research community that we want to unite:

Diverse communities are beyond the ‘usual suspects’ of people already engaged in science

To access this group, we will work with leaders from a range of community settings

We’re partnering with Saeed, Citizens UK and others to do this

NERC research community are those in universities and research centres including ECRs, mid to late career researchers, support staff, and senior management.

More widely

Our activities are supported by and make connections to the policy community, business community, NGOs and voluntary organisations and the public engagement community

Question 46

Establishing the NERC Community for Engaging Environments

Answer 46

8. Establishing the NERC Community for Engaging Environments

Building on successes at Stage-1

NERC researchers can become affiliates of, offers a research-community-facing brand and recognition for NERC’s impact at scale

Hub

Website, social media and communications

New and existing annual conferences and events for networking and sharing

Engagement mechanism with policy, community, public engagement practitioners

Network of local CoPs

Bringing people together, as well as connecting with CoPs already in existence, for collective learning, sharing resources, mentoring, raising the profile of public engagement

Important focus for storytelling and listening training

Seed-funded projects

5 seed-funded projects to encourage innovative activities led by ECRs and civil society organisations

Two-way secondments with NERC to develop strategy and promote, support and include PE in funding

Question 47

10. Listening, storytelling and co-created citizen science

Answer 47

Listening: researchers and communities meet face-to-face initially on a 1-2-1 basis. Building relationship by understanding people’s story, motivations, hopes, fears. NERC researchers learn who is interested in their research and how people talk about the environment, environmental science and contemporary issues. Members of local CoPs trained to capture stories to understand concerns and priorities around environment ready for the national call to action

Leaders amplify and share the conversations they’ve had with researchers

Hands-on co-created citizen science based upon listening activities: communities and professional researchers partner in science project. To raise awareness and understanding of environmental science methods and evidence, as well as offer inspirational case studies for NERC scientists

Dr Jane Delany completed three year citizen science project, involving Earthwatch, which trained 3000 members of the public nationwide, and contributed data to the state of our marine ecosystems. Earthwatch worked with both projects at Stage-1 and lead national and global citizen science initiatives

Question 48

12. So why are Citizens UK interested and how have people benefitted from Stage-1?

Answer 48

Citizens UK organises communities to act together

Founded the Living Wage campaign

Worked with ENCOMPASS at Stage-1

We are finding more people are talking about these issues or related issues, and in working alongside scientists we recognise many of the issues discussed have an environmental aspect, often politicians talk about things like HS2, but people talk about litter and air pollution. They are affected by environmental issues and are therefore interested in environmental science, from their perspective.

CUK is interested because our member institutions are affected. For example, the problems associated with the school run, and are increasingly affected by decisions made where they are not at the table.

During Stage-1 the Birmingham CAZ - where politicians expected anger around the imposition of a charge for residents and congregations what occurred, through community organising with environmental scientists, was a recognition that from a position of powerlessness by understanding the environmental issues they were able to derive some advantage from the CAZ - by being at the table and being supported by an environmental scientist they were able to get a two-way dialogue on mitigating measures and on future developments around the links between child poverty, air quality, access to green space and transport.

Question 49

Summary

Answer 49

• The recent explosion in citizen science projects globally is as a result of advancing technologies allowing greater reach and accessibility, and changing features of society that demand greater access to knowledge/have more leisure time/live longer
• Lessons have been learnt in how best to structure citizen science projects appropriately that can overcome the criticisms of e.g. poor quality data or lack of concrete goals
• Marine citizen science poses particular challenges, but has the potential to address extensive evidence gaps, and to contribute to the evolution of a ‘marine citizenship’
• Opportunities to use citizen science to achieve positive outcomes for science, for the global marine environment and for society are going unrealized, and we have reached the developmental point in the field of marine citizen science when the significant effort, skill and goodwill of volunteers must be deployed to these ends.