Engaging the broader community in biodiversity research: the concept of the COMBER pilot project for divers in ViBRANT

Arvanitidis, Christos; Faulwetter, Sarah; Chatzigeorgiou, Georgios; Penev, Lyubomir; Bánki, Olaf; Dailianis, Thanos; Pafilis, Evangelos; Kouratoras, Michail; Chatzinikolaou, Eva; Fanini, Lucia; Vasileiadou, Katerina; Pavloudi, Christina; Vavilis, Panagiotis; Koulouri, Panayota; Dounas, C.

doi:10.3897/zookeys.150.2149

Cited by 15 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Published citizen science projects on water quality were less frequent and commonly focused on freshwater ecosystems, although studies of coastal marine ecosystems were reported (Arvanitidis et al 2011). Freshwater studies are facilitated by their common presence in most population centers.…”

Section: Characterization Of the Publications From The Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science participation in research in the environmental sciences: key factors related to projects’ success and longevity

Cunha

Marques

Resende

et al. 2017

An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc.

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The potential impacts of citizen science initiatives are increasing across the globe, albeit in an imbalanced manner. In general, there is a strong element of trial and error in most projects, and the comparison of best practices and project structure between different initiatives remains difficult. In Brazil, the participation of volunteers in environmental research is limited. Identifying the factors related to citizen science projects' success and longevity within a global perspective can contribute for consolidating such practices in the country. In this study, we explore past and present projects, including a case study in Brazil, to identify the spatial and temporal trends of citizen science programs as well as their best practices and challenges. We performed a bibliographic search using Google Scholar and considered results from 2005-2014. Although these results are subjective due to the Google Scholar's algorithm and ranking criteria, we highlighted factors to compare projects across geographical and disciplinary areas and identified key matches between project proponents and participants, project goals and local priorities, participant profiles and engagement, scientific methods and funding. This approach is a useful starting point for future citizen science projects, allowing for a systematic analysis of potential inconsistencies and shortcomings in this emerging field.

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Section: Characterization Of the Publications From The Databasementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science participation in research in the environmental sciences: key factors related to projects’ success and longevity

Cunha

Marques

Resende

et al. 2017

An. Acad. Bras. Ciênc.

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show abstract

“…However, data assembled by non-experts should go through quality control before being used in scientific analyses or reposited to global biodiversity databases (Arvanitidis et al 2011, Thiel et al 2014). The list of organisms included in the present CS protocol include conspicuous species that are relatively easy to correctly identify.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past experience from CS projects showed that it is relatively easy to design a CS approach and address volunteers but hard to ensure continuous production and flow of useful and reliable data (Arvanitidis et al 2011). In retrospect, a key aspect in the design of this pilot project was the collection of data that are: (a) relatively easy to acquire and report, based on the overall, underlying principle "keep it as simple as possible", and (b) reliable and fail-proof.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Notable Mediterranean examples of Citizen Science (CS) initiatives focusing on marine biodiversity concern the study and monitoring of vulnerable species (Goffredo et al 2004, Bramanti et al 2011), gelatinous plankton aggregations (Boero et al 2013, Boero et al 2009), fish assemblages (Arvanitidis et al 2011, Azzurro et al 2012, Bulleri and Benedetti-Cecchi 2014), non-indigenous species (Zenetos et al 2013, Bodilis et al 2013), or a combination of several diversity features (e.g. Seawatchers).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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CIGESMED for divers: Establishing a citizen science initiative for the mapping and monitoring of coralligenous assemblages in the Mediterranean Sea

Gerovasileiou¹,

Dailianis²,

Panteri³

et al. 2016

BDJ

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BackgroundOver the last decade, inventorying and monitoring of marine biodiversity has significantly benefited from the active engagement of volunteers. Although several Citizen Science projects concern tropical reef ecosystems worldwide, none of the existing initiatives has yet specifically focused on their Mediterranean equivalents. Mediterranean coralline reefs, known as “coralligenous”, are bioherms primarily built by calcifying rhodophytes on hard substrates under dim-light conditions; they are considered hotspots of biodiversity and are extremely popular among divers due to their complex structure, conspicuous biological wealth and high aesthetic value. Nevertheless, data on their distribution, structure and conservation status is lacking for several Mediterranean areas while they are vulnerable to an increasing number of threats.New informationIn the framework of CIGESMED SeasEra (ERAnet) project a specialized Citizen Science project was launched, aiming to engage enthusiast divers in the study and monitoring of Mediterranean coralligenous assemblages through the gathering of basic information regarding their spatial occurrence, assemblage structure and associated pressures or threats. For its active implementation, a data collection protocol and a multilingual website were developed, comprising an educational module and a data submission platform. Georeferenced data reporting focuses on: (a) basic topographic and abiotic features for the preliminary description of each site, and the creation of data series for sites receiving multiple visits; (b) presence and relative abundance of typical conspicuous species, as well as (c) existence of pressures and imminent threats, for the characterization and assessment of coralligenous assemblages. A variety of tools is provided to facilitate end users, while divers have the choice to report additional information and are encouraged to upload their photographs. The long-term goal is the development of an active community of amateur observers providing widespread and ecologically significant data on coralligenous assemblages.

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“…Arvanitidis et al. 2011); or reporting the discovery of new species as a result of citizen science (e.g. Collins et al.…”

Section: The Emergence Of Citizen Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen surveillance for environmental monitoring: combining the efforts of citizen science and crowdsourcing in a quantitative data framework

Welvaert

Caley

2016

SpringerPlus

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Citizen science and crowdsourcing have been emerging as methods to collect data for surveillance and/or monitoring activities. They could be gathered under the overarching term citizen surveillance. The discipline, however, still struggles to be widely accepted in the scientific community, mainly because these activities are not embedded in a quantitative framework. This results in an ongoing discussion on how to analyze and make useful inference from these data. When considering the data collection process, we illustrate how citizen surveillance can be classified according to the nature of the underlying observation process measured in two dimensions—the degree of observer reporting intention and the control in observer detection effort. By classifying the observation process in these dimensions we distinguish between crowdsourcing, unstructured citizen science and structured citizen science. This classification helps the determine data processing and statistical treatment of these data for making inference. Using our framework, it is apparent that published studies are overwhelmingly associated with structured citizen science, and there are well developed statistical methods for the resulting data. In contrast, methods for making useful inference from purely crowd-sourced data remain under development, with the challenges of accounting for the unknown observation process considerable. Our quantitative framework for citizen surveillance calls for an integration of citizen science and crowdsourcing and provides a way forward to solve the statistical challenges inherent to citizen-sourced data.

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Engaging the broader community in biodiversity research: the concept of the COMBER pilot project for divers in ViBRANT

Cited by 15 publications

References 23 publications

Citizen science participation in research in the environmental sciences: key factors related to projects’ success and longevity

Citizen science participation in research in the environmental sciences: key factors related to projects’ success and longevity

CIGESMED for divers: Establishing a citizen science initiative for the mapping and monitoring of coralligenous assemblages in the Mediterranean Sea

Citizen surveillance for environmental monitoring: combining the efforts of citizen science and crowdsourcing in a quantitative data framework

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