Citizen science has advanced science for hundreds of years, contributed to many peer-reviewed articles, and informed land management decisions and policies across the United States. Over the last 10 years, citizen science has grown immensely in the United States and many other countries. Here, we show how citizen science is a powerful tool for tackling many of the challenges faced in the field of conservation biology. We describe the two interwoven paths by which citizen science can improve conservation efforts, natural resource management, and environmental protection. The first path includes building scientific knowledge, while the other path involves informing policy and encouraging public action. We explore how citizen science is currently used and describe the investments needed to create a citizen science program. We find that:1. Citizen science already contributes substantially to many domains of science, including conservation, natural resource, and environmental science. Citizen science informs natural resource management, environmental protection, and policymaking and fosters public input and engagement. 2. Many types of projects can benefit from citizen science, but one must be careful to match the needs for science and public involvement with the right type of citizen science project and the right method of public participation. 3. Citizen science is a rigorous process of scientific discovery, indistinguishable from conventional science apart from the participation of volunteers. When properly designed, carried out, and evaluated, citizen science can provide sound science, efficiently generate high-quality data, and help solve problems.

The air pollution monitoring paradigm is rapidly changing due to recent advances in (1) the development of portable, lower-cost air pollution sensors reporting data in near-real time at a high-time resolution, (2) increased computational and visualization capabilities, and (3) wireless communication/infrastructure. It is possible that these advances can support traditional air quality monitoring by supplementing ambient air monitoring and enhancing compliance monitoring. Sensors are beginning to provide individuals and communities the tools needed to understand their environmental exposures with these data individual and community-based strategies can be developed to reduce pollution exposure as well as understand linkages to health indicators. Each of these areas as well as corresponding challenges (e.g., quality of data) and potential opportunities associated with development and implementation of air pollution sensors are discussed.

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