Comparison of marine debris data collected by researchers and citizen scientists: Is citizen science data worth the effort?

Biological Conservation

Volumn 208, Issue , 2017, Pages 127-138

  van der Velde, Tonya ^a   Milton, David A ^a   Lawson, T J ^a   Wilcox, Chris ^a   Lansdell, Matt ^a   Davis, Geraldine ^b   Perkins, Genevieve ^c   Hardesty, Britta Denise ^a  

^a CSIRO   (Australia)

^b Envirodot International   (Australia)

^c CARLETON UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

Author keywords

Participatory research; Public engagement; Students; Training; Volunteers

Indexed keywords

ACADEMIC RESEARCH; ADULT; COMPARATIVE STUDY; EDUCATION; ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT; MARINE ENVIRONMENT; PARTICIPATORY APPROACH; RESEARCH PROGRAM; RESEARCH WORK; SOCIAL PARTICIPATION; STUDENT; TRAINING;

AUSTRALIA;

EID: 85006364679     PISSN: 00063207     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2016.05.025     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. Barrows, C.W., Hoines, J., Vamstad, M.S., Murphy-Mariscal, M., Lalumiere, K., Heintz, J., Using citizen scientists to assess climate change shifts in desert reptile communities. Biol. Conserv. 195 (2016), 82–88.
2. Bonter, D.N., Hochachka, W.M., Combined data of Project FeederWatch and the Christmas Bird Count indicate declines of chickadees and corvids: possible impacts of West Nile Virus. The 103rd Christmas Bird Count: 2002–2003. Am. Birds 57 (2003), 22–25.
3. Boudreau, S.A., Yan, N.D., Auditing the accuracy of a volunteer-based surveillance program for an aquatic invader Bythotrephes. Environ. Monit. Assess. 91 (2004), 17–26.
4. Cooper, D.B., Dickinson, J., Phillips, T., Bonney, R., Citizen science as a tool for conservation in residential ecosystems. Ecol. Soc., 12, 2007, 11.
5. Couvet, D., Jiguet, F., Levrel, H., Teyssedre, A., Enhancing citizen contributions to biodiversity science and public policy. Interdiscip. Sci. Rev. 33 (2008), 95–103.
6. Crall, A.W., Newman, G.J., Jarnevich, C.S., Stohlgren, T.J., Waller, D.M., Graham, J., Improving and integrating data on invasive species collected by citizen scientists. Biol. Invasions 12 (2010), 3419–3428.
7. Delaney, D.G., Sperling, C.D., Adams, C.S., Leung, B., Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implication for national monitoring networks. Biol. Invasions 10 (2008), 117–128.
8. Derraik, J.G.B., The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 44 (2002), 842–852.
9. Dickinson, J.L., Zuckerberg, B., Bonter, D.N., Citizen science as an ecological research tool: challenges and benefits. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Evol. Syst. 41 (2010), 149–172.
10. Eastman, L., Hidalgo-Ruz, V., Macaya Caquilpan, V., Nunez, P., Thiel, M., The potential for young citizen scientist projects: a case study of Chilean schoolchildren collecting data on marine litter. Integ. Coast. Zone Man. 14 (2014), 569–579.
11. Finn, P.C., Udy, N.S., Baltais, S.J., Price, K., Coles, L., Assessing the quality of seagrass data collected by community volunteers in Moreton Bay Marine Park. Australia. Environ. Conserv. 37 (2010), 83–89.
12. Fletcher, J., Not just a load of rubbish: impacts of participation in a marine debris citizen science program on primary and secondary school teachers. M. Sc. Thesis, 2013, Univ. West. Aust.
13. Fletcher, J., Salter, Z., Longnecker, N., Teachwild Final Evaluation Report. 2014, University of Western Australia.
14. Forrester, G., Baily, P., Conetta, D., Forrester, L., Kintzing, E., Jarecki, L., Comparing monitoring data collected by volunteers and professionals shows that citizen scientists can detect long term change on coral reefs. J. Nat. Conserv. 24 (2015), 1–9.
15. Forte, L.S., Paulsen, K., O'Laughlin, K., Assessing the performance of volunteers in monitoring streams. Freshw. Biol. 46 (2001), 109–123.
16. Foster-Smith, J., Evans, S.M., The value of marine ecological data collected by volunteers. Biol. Conserv. 113 (2003), 199–213.
17. Gall, S.C., Thompson, R.C., The impact of debris on marine life. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 92 (2015), 170–179.
18. Gallaway, A.W.E., Tudor, M., Vander Haegen, W., The reliability of citizen science: a case study of Oregon white oak stand surveys. Wildl. Soc. Bull. 34 (2006), 1425–1429.
19. Gillett, D.J., Pondella, D.J., Freiwald, J., Schiff, K.C., Caselle, J.E., Shuman, C., Comparing volunteer and professionally collected monitoring data from the rocky subtidal reefs of Southern California, USA. Environ. Monit. Assess. 184 (2012), 3239–3257.
20. Good, T.P., June, A., Etnier, A., Broadhurst, G., Derelict fishing nets in Puget Sound and the Northwest Straits: patterns and threats to marine fauna. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 60 (2010), 39–50.
21. Greenwood, J.J.D., Citizens, science and bird conservation. J. Ornithol. 148 (2007), S77–S124.
22. Hardesty, B.D., Lawson, T.J., van der Velde, T., Lansdell, M., Perkins, G., Wilcox, C., Estimating Quantities and Sources of Marine Debris at a Continental Scale, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (Provisionally Accepted). 2016.
23. Hidalgo-Ruz, V., Thiel, M., Distribution and abundance of small plastic debris on beaches in the SE Pacific (Chile): a study supported by a citizen science project. Mar. Environ. Res. 87–88 (2013), 12–18.
24. Hong, S., Lee, J., Kang, D., Choi, H.W., Ko, S.H., Quantities, composition, and sources of beach debris in Korea from the results of nationwide monitoring. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 84 (2014), 27–34.
25. Hunter, J., Alabri, A., van Ingen, C., Assessing the quality and trustworthiness of citizen science data. Concurrency and Computation—Practice Exper. 25 (2013), 454–466.
26. Irwin, A., Constructing the scientific citizen: science and democracy in the biosciences. Public Underst. Sci. 10 (2001), 1–18.
27. Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R., Law, K.L., Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347:6223 (2015), 768–771.
28. Kobori, H., Dickinson, J.L., Washitani, I., Sakurai, R., Amano, T., Komatsu, N., Kitamura, W., Takagawa, S., Koyama, K., Ogawara, T., Miller-Rushing, A.J., Citizen science: a new approach to advance ecology, education, and conservation. Ecol. Res. 31 (2016), 1–19.
29. Law, K.L., Morét-Ferguson, S., Maximenko, N.A., Proskurowski, G., Peacock, E.E., Hafner, J., Reddy, C.M., Plastic accumulation in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre. Science 329 (2010), 1185–1188.
30. Lawless, J.G., Rock, B.N., Student-scientist partnerships and data quality. J. Sci. Educ. Technol. 7 (1998), 5–13.
31. Lovell, S., Hamer, M., Stotow, R., Herbert, D., An assessment of the use of volunteers for terrestrial invertebrate biodiversity surveys. Biodivers. Conserv. 18 (2009), 3295–3307.
32. Miller-Rushing, A., Primack, R., Bonney, R., The history of public participation in ecological research. Front. Ecol. Environ. 10 (2012), 286–290.
33. Niven, D.K., Sauer, J.R., Butcher, G.S., Link, W.A., Christmas Bird Count provides insights into population change in land birds that breed in the boreal forest. Am. Birds 58 (2004), 10–20.
34. Ocean Conservancy, http://www.oceanconservancy.org/our-work/international-coastal-cleanup/, 2016.
35. Plastics Europe, Plastics — the Facts 2013: an Analysis of European Latest Plastics Production, Demand, and Waste Data. 38, 2013, Plastics Europe, Brussels, Belgium.
36. Roth, W.M., Lee, S., Scientific literacy as collective praxis. Public Underst. Sci. 11 (2002), 33–56.
37. Roy, H.E., Pocock, M.J.O., Preston, C.D., Roy, D.B., Savage, J., Tweddle, J.C., Robinson, L.D., Understanding Citizen Science & Environmental Monitoring. 2012, NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and Natural History Museum, 1–170.
38. Sauer, J.R., Use of North American Breeding Bird Survey data to estimate population changes for bird conservation regions. J. Wildl. Manag. 67 (2003), 372–389.
39. Schuyler, Q., Townsend, K., Wilcox, C., Hardesty, B.D., Marshall, J., Marine debris through a turtle-eyed view. BMC Ecol., 14, 2014, 14.
40. Silvertown, J., A new dawn for citizen science. Trends Ecol. Evol. 24 (2009), 467–471.
41. Smith, S.D.A., Edgar, R.J., Documenting the density of subtidal marine debris across multiple marine and coastal habitats. PLoS One, 9, 2014, e94593, 10.1371/journal.pone.0094593.
42. Sutherland, W., Clout, M., Cote, I., Daszak, P., Depledge, M., Fellman, L., Fleishman, E., Garthwaite, R., Gibbons, D., De Lurio, J., Impey, A., Lickorish, F., Lindenmayer, D., Madgwick, J., Margerison, C., Maynard, T., Peck, L., Pretty, J., Prior, S., Redford, K., Scharlemann, J., Spalding, M., Watkinson, A., A horizon scan of global conservation issues for 2010. Trends Ecol. Evol. 25 (2010), 1–7.
43. Theobald, E.J., Ettinger, A.K., Burgess, H.K., DeBey, L.B., Schmidt, N.R., Froehlich, H.E., Wagner, C., HilleRisLambers, J., Tewksbury, J., Harsch, M.A., Parrish, J.K., Global change and local solutions: tapping the unrealized potential of citizen science for biodiversity research. Biol. Conserv. 181 (2015), 236–244.
44. Tregidgo, D.J., West, S.E., Ashmore, M.R., Can citizen science produce good science? Testing the OPAL Air Survey methodology, using lichens as indicators of nitrogenous pollution. Environ. Pollut. 182 (2013), 448–451.
45. Trumbull, D.J., Bonney, R., Bascom, D., Cabral, A., Thinking scientifically during participation in a citizen-science project. Sci. Educ. 84 (2000), 265–275.
46. Tulloch, A.I.T., Possingham, H.P., Joseph, L.N., Szabo, J., Martin, T.G., Realizing the full potential of citizen science monitoring programs. Biol. Conserv. 165 (2013), 128–138.
47. Vandenbosch, R., Effects of ENSO and PDO events on seabird populations as revealed by Christmas Bird Count data. Waterbirds 23 (2000), 416–422.
48. Wilcox, C., Heathcote, G., Goldberg, J., Gunn, R., Peel, D., Hardesty, B.D., Understanding the sources, drivers and impacts of abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear in northern Australia. Conserv. Biol. 29 (2015), 198–206.