The history of public participation in ecological research

Abstract

History of citizen science A Miller-Rushing et al. 286www.frontiersinecology.org

Crowdsourcing, Citizen Science or Volunteered Geographic Information? The Current State of Crowdsourced Geographic Information

“…Rick Bonney of Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology first referred to citizen science in the mid-nineties [18] as an alternative term for public participation in scientific research although citizens have had a long history of involvement in science [19]. A more recent definition from the Green Paper on Citizen Science for Europe [20] reads as follows: "the general public engagement in scientific research activities when citizens actively contribute to science either with their intellectual effort or surrounding knowledge or with their tools and resources.…”

Cook Inlet beluga whale, Delphinapterus leucas, observations near Anchorage between 2008 and 2011: results from a citizen scientist project

“…Over the years, citizen science has grown to address ecological questions on scales that are either too large a scale to be addressed only by professional scientists or on smaller local scales that are too restricted for professional scientists (Miller-Rushing et al, 2012). Dickinson et al (2012) lists various uses for citizen science by professional ecologists ranging from areas of research such as landscape ecology and climate change to fi nding rare organisms, tracking movements, and detecting species declines.…”

“…"Citizen Science" has been defi ned as nonprofessional persons engaging in scientifi c investigation that may be either hypothesis-driven, monitoring to be later used to test a hypothesis, or observations on natural history (Miller-Rushing et al, 2012). FAR volunteers, some of whom assisted National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) enforcement investigations, necropsies, and salvage for educational and scientifi c purposes, welcomed the formation of the survey.…”

“…FAR volunteers, some of whom assisted National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) enforcement investigations, necropsies, and salvage for educational and scientifi c purposes, welcomed the formation of the survey. Citizen science programs such as the North American Breeding Bird Survey, North American Bird Phenology Program (part of the USA National Phenology Network), the U.S. National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer Program, and Izaak Walton League's Save Our Streams (water quality monitoring) have successfully collected data for use by professional scientists and used to shape policy and management decisions (Miller-Rushing et al, 2012). For survey volunteers, the opportunity to gather data that might contribute to policy decisions was important considering the Cook Inlet beluga was listed as "endangered" the year the survey began.…”

Citizen observations contributing to flood modelling: opportunities and challenges

“…The currently running CO projects (Ground Truth 2.0, LANDSENSE, SCENT and GROW Observatory) propose to investigate this concept further. 15 Citizen science concepts have been researched and applied in various fields such as ecology and galaxy inspection (Lintott et al, 2008;Miller-Rushing et al, 2012). Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI), as one of the most active citizen science areas, has developed over the past decade and several researchers reviewed the state of the art of citizen science in the field of geosciences (Heipke, 2010;Klonner et al, 2016).…”