Tropical montane cloud forests (TMCF) are recognized for their capacity to maintain high dry‐season baseflow and a host of other ecosystem services. Substantial areas of TMCF have been converted to pasture and crops such as coffee, while in other areas TCMF are recovering. However, little is known about the effects of this complex dynamic on catchment hydrology. We investigated the effect of land use on rainfall‐runoff response in five neighbouring headwater micro‐catchments in central Veracruz, Mexico, dominated by either mature TMCF (MF), young (20 year‐old) and intermediate (40 year‐old) naturally regenerating TMCF (YF and IF, respectively), shaded coffee (SC), and an intensively grazed pasture (IP). We used a 4‐year record of high‐resolution rainfall and streamflow (10 min) data collected from 2015 to 2019. These data were analysed via comparison of hydrologic metrics that summarize streamflow responses at various time scales and magnitudes. Results showed no statistical difference in the regulation capacity of high flows in the micro‐catchment with 20 years of natural regeneration, compared to the MF. In terms of baseflow sustenance, our results support the hypothesis that MF and IF better promote this hydrologic service than the other land uses. SC exhibited a high capacity to modulate peak flows comparable to that of MF, and an intermediate capacity to sustain baseflow, suggesting that the integrated functioning of this micro‐catchment was largely preserved. Finally, 40 years of intense pasture management was found to have degraded the soil hydraulic properties of IP; mainly, reducing its infiltration capacity, causing a fivefold greater peak flow response and a lower baseflow compared to MF.

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In recent years, citizen science has emerged as a way to collect data for scientific efforts (Follett and Strezov 2015) across disciplines as diverse as evolution (e.g., Evolution MegaLab; Worthington et al. 2012), astronomy (e.g., GalaxyZoo; Fortson et al. 2012), ornithology (e.g., eBird; Sullivan et al. 2014), plant phenology (e.g., Project BudBurst; Wolkovich and Cleland 2011), and water surveillance (e.g., Global Water Watch; Deutsch and Ruiz-Córdova 2015). In addition to the broad objective of providing data for scientific research efforts, citizen science projects often include goals of environmental education, community engagement, and citizen empowerment. A common denominator among citizen science projects, as opposed to traditional scientific monitoring, is the volunteer base committed to collecting data. Choosing citizen science over traditional monitoring may involve tradeoffs between lower costs of citizen science data collection and loss of data accuracy. Although the literature on citizen science data collection methods is rich (e.g., Hochachka et al. 2012), less is known about the reliability or accuracy of hydrologic citizen science data and its application for policy makers.

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