Citizen science on a local scale: the Plants of Concern program

Kayri Havens; Pati Vitt; Susanne Masi

doi:10.1890/110258

Beyond the Noise: Open Source Soundscapes. A mixed methodology to analyze and plan small, quiet areas on the local scale, applying the soundscape approach, the citizen science paradigm, and open source technology

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America ◽

10.1121/1.4987777 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 141 (5) ◽

pp. 3622-3622 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Antonella Radicchi

Keyword(s):

Open Source ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Local Scale ◽

Mixed Methodology

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An EU-wide citizen science network to monitor hydrological conditions in intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams

10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-1790 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Eric Sauquet ◽

Ilja van Meerveld ◽

Cath Sefton ◽

Josep Fortesa ◽

Helena Ramos Ribeiro ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Current Flow ◽

Local Scale ◽

Ephemeral Streams ◽

Intermittent Streams ◽

Flow State ◽

Intermittent Rivers ◽

Flow Intermittence ◽

International Initiative

Studying Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (IRES) requires regular observations of streamflow. Unfortunately, intermittent streams are poorly monitored, particularly in temperate climates. To fill gaps in knowledge of the dynamics of intermittent streams, a pilot initiative within the SMIRES project (Datry et al., 2017, https://www.smires.eu/) was launched in April 2019. This initiative invited citizens to submit observations for a large number of European intermittent streams.The goal was collecting datasets that can be used in robust scientific inquiries:-&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; To identify IRES at the European scale. Everyone was encouraged to report the flow state for any stream in Europe at any time during 2019;-&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160;&#160; To investigate the dynamics of flow intermittence by repeating field observations along an IRES at least once each month and if possible at multiple locations.The CrowdWater app (https://crowdwater.ch/en/crowdwaterapp-en/) was used to collect the observations. Each contributor was asked to take a picture of the stream and to identify the current flow state of the stream as one of six classes, from &#8220;dry&#8221; to &#8220;flowing&#8221;. The citizen science network has collected, in eight months, more than 3500 observations in ~500 river reaches across 15 countries.In this presentation, we will discuss the benefits and the limitations of this citizen science effort (i.e., how these data complement the information provided by gauging stations, how and why the collected data were used by the main contributors, how participants can be engaged in the long-term etc.). We will compare the success of this international initiative to other regional or local scale initiatives.References:Datry, T., Singer, G., Sauquet, E., Jorda-Capdevilla, D., Von Schiller, D., Subbington, R., Magand, C., Pa&#345;il, P., Mili&#353;a, M., Acu&#241;a, V., Alves, M., Augeard, B., Brunke, M., Cid, N., Csabai, Z., England, J., Froebrich, J., Koundouri, P., Lamouroux, N., Mart&#237;, E., Morais, M., Munn&#233;, A., Mutz, M., Pesic, V., Previ&#353;i&#263;, A., Reynaud, A., Robinson, C., Sadler, J., Skoulikidis, N., Terrier, B., Tockner, K., Vesely, D., Zoppini, A (2017) Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams (SMIRES). Research Ideas and Outcomes 3: e21774. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e21774

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A continental measure of urbanness predicts avian response to local urbanization

10.32942/osf.io/ky2hu ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Corey Thomas Callaghan ◽

Richard E. Major ◽

William K. Cornwell ◽

Ailstair G. B. Poore ◽

John Wilshire ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Environmental Parameters ◽

Local Scale ◽

Systematic Sampling ◽

Small Scale ◽

Science Data ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Specific Variation ◽

Species Specific

Understanding species-specific relationships with their environment is essential for ecology, biogeography, and conservation biology. Moreover, understanding how these relationships change with spatial scale is critical to mitigating potential threats to biodiversity. But methods which measure inter-specific variation in responses to environmental parameters, generalizable across multiple spatial scales, are lacking. We used broad-scale citizen science data, over a continental scale, integrated with remotely-sensed products, to produce a measure of response to urbanization for a given species at a continental-scale. We then compared these responses to modelled responses to urbanization at a local-scale, based on systematic sampling within a series of small cities. For 49 species which had sufficient data for modelling, we found a significant relationship (R2 = 0.51) between continental-scale urbanness and local-scale urbanness. Our results suggest that continental-scale responses are representative of small-scale responses to urbanization. We also found that relatively few citizen science observations (~250) are necessary for reliable estimates of continental-scale urban scores to predict local-scale response to urbanization. Our method of producing species-specific urban scores is robust and can be generalized to other taxa and other environmental variables with relative ease.

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Drivers of bird-window collisions in southern South America: a two-scale assessment applying citizen science

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-54351-3 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Natalia Rebolo-Ifrán ◽

Agustina di Virgilio ◽

Sergio A. Lambertucci

Keyword(s):

Risk Factors ◽

South America ◽

Citizen Science ◽

Online Survey ◽

Local Scale ◽

Mitigation Strategies ◽

Conservation Problem ◽

Avian Biodiversity ◽

The Usa ◽

Citizen Science Project

AbstractBird-window collisions are one of the main causes of avian mortality worldwide, with estimations reaching up to almost one billion of dead individuals annually due to this cause in Canada and the USA alone. Although this is a growing conservation problem, most of the studies come from North America, evidencing the lack of knowledge and concern in countries with high biodiversity and growing population development. Our objectives were: (1) to estimate the current situation of bird-window collisions in Argentina, a country with around 10% of the world’s avian biodiversity, and, (2) to identify drivers of bird-window collisions at a national and local scale, focusing on a city surrounded by a protected area. We used a citizen science project called “Bird-Window Collisions in Argentina” that consisted of an online survey that collected data on collision metrics and risk factors. We found that more than half of participants reported at least one collision during the last year, suggesting this issue is common and widespread. In addition, our data show that the number of windows and the presence of vegetation reflected in windows are factors that strongly influence the risk of collision at national scale. On the other hand, the environment surrounding buildings affects the rate of bird-window collisions at local scale, being greater in buildings surrounded by tall vegetation than in buildings surrounded by a greater proportion of urbanization (human-made structures). We call for attention on a topic that has been poorly evaluated in South America. We also encourage future scientific studies to evaluate additional risk factors and mitigation strategies accordingly, to provide a better understanding of bird-window collisions particularly in a highly biodiverse region as South America.

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