J Arizona Nevada Acad Sci 34(2), 89-93 (2002)
Daphnia lumholtzi is an invasive zooplankton that was introduced into the U.S. in 1990. It damages ecosystems by outcompeting native zooplankton. In turn, this can deprive smaller fish of food, because many cannot ingest D. lumholtzi due to its spiny skeleton.
Dean R. Dobberfuhl of St. Johns River Water Management District and James J. Elser of Arizona State University examined the effect of D. lumholtzi on production rates of D. pulex (a native zooplankton). The experiment showed that isolated D. lumholtzi and D. pulex had higher production rates than when the two species were combined. However, the D. pulex production rate was significantly higher. Overall zooplankton production in the mixed environment was less than 50% of the D. pulex production when isolated. This suggests that the introduction of D. lumholtzi can have detrimental effects to both native zooplankton and planktivorous fish.
In the article “Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks”, Delaney et al used participants from New Jersey to Maine to monitor two types of invasive crab species. Volunteers recorded the population of Carcinus maenas and Hemigrpsus sanguineus along with several native species at a multitude of different test sites between the two states. They also recorded length and gender of each subject. The use of citizen Science in this study is excellent. The article shows how citizen science causes a deep reduction in costs because the scientists can use local volunteers instead of travelling to all these locations to record data. Especially in these tough economic times, the government has limited funds to invest in aquatic invasive research. If studies can be done to record these species at minimal costs, more funds can be allotted to the removal or control of them. In my opinion, researches should have minimal dependence on government funding, and by reducing costs; government will have less of a financial obligation. Secondly, this example showed how citizen science allowed local communities to get involved in studying aquatic invasive species. The article showed how school children were effective in figuring out certain qualities of the crabs. Here children are given a free opportunity to get outside the classroom and use science in a constructive way. In essence, citizen science not only helps the advancement of the study but also allows children to be exposed to material outside the classroom.
Like the previous example, a study done William Darwall and Nicholas Dulvy showed how citizen science could be used in reef studies. The scientists showed that divers who were only trained for two weeks (one dive a day) could effectively document fish data. This data includes fish diversity, population and length. They could record this information at a comparable level of accuracy to that of experts in the field. Like the previous example, using citizen science to document reef habitats could greatly reduce costs. If a researcher wanted information from certain reefs, he could use average people to conduct the study rather than hiring expensive experts. This example shows that researchers can save money and involve the public by using citizen science.
Dulvy & Darwall An evaluation of the suitability of non-specialist volunteer research for coral reef fish surveys. 1996 Biological conservation.
Delaney, Sperling, adams, leung “Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks. 2008 Biological invasions
Citizen science seems like a very useful tool to help with data collection in scientific studies and experiments. I would like to use this method to help collect the data for my study on the effect of biocontrol beetles used on purple loosestrife. The volunteers would aid the information collection because my study will be collected over a fifty meter radius from the spot where the beetle colony is released, an area of approximately 7850 m2. This would make data collection for the scientists tough because it would be tough to thoroughly cover that much area in a timely and efficient manner, so the help of volunteers would help speed up the process.
Citizen science in general obviously has its drawbacks, but in my case, these actually won’t be an issue. For example, the data that is gathered by the volunteers is not always accurate, and needs verification, but in this case, since the volunteers would simply be searching for damage to leaf structures, it would be quite obvious if there was damage to the swamp loosestrife or not, so there wouldn’t have to be too much worrying about data and its accuracy. Also, though another drawback could be communication among volunteers, it would easy to communicate with cell phone and walkie talkies in the field, and emails to arrange times for the volunteers to come in.
The coasts of North America are constantly bombarded with marine invasive species. The lack of adequate monitoring today, which arises due to resource limitations (funding and personnel), decreases the chances for early detection, a time when eradication is still an option. A potential solution to updating incomplete databases on invasive species is volunteer-based monitoring, or citizen science. Citizen science has been shown to be useful in producing a wealth of information but its validity in the scientific community is questioned.
Delaney et al. inquired into the validity of citizen science through a study involving approximately 1000 volunteers of ranged ages and situated on the coast’s intertidal zones from New Jersey to Maine. The volunteers, after given the necessary information and tools to identify invasive (Carcinus maenas and Hemigrapsus sanguineus) and native crabs, their gender, and their dimensions, were assigned areas to monitor and assessed based on their data collecting accuracy. The study found that though accuracy is correlated with education, even young volunteers are capable of producing data with a high degree of accuracy; seventh graders can identify species with over 95% accuracy. The study also pointed out potential difficulties based on what was was observed during the study. Patience faltered for some citizen scientists’ because some of the tasks were found to be difficult or tedious. Also, merging different databases to create a centralized standard may be difficult. Lastly, sustaining a large scale monitoring network requires funding for training and coordination.
While the results of this study are promising for citizen science, I believe that the hurdles mentioned in the discussion are much more important than the authors make them out to be. Volunteers want to know that what they are doing is correctly done and worthwhile, hence the patience problems, so coordination monitoring networks need to be well thought out and include crystallized standards.
Delaney, D.G., Sperling, C.D., Adams, C.S., Leung, B. 2008. Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks. Biological Invasions 10:117-128.
Comprehensive databases of large geographical areas are essential for assessments, testing scientific hypotheses, and validating predictive models. Currently, most databases are incomplete and not up-to-date. Increased monitoring has the potential to increase the chance for the early detection of aquatic invaders and offers a good chance for eradication. Intense monitoring rarely occurs because because of the lack of funding and human resources. Volunteer-based monitoring could possibly solve this problem. Citizen science can help to contribute to collection of data used to amass large databases on aquatic invaders. A great example of this is the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Counts, which has been collecting data on the distribution, range expansions, and other patterns of North American birds. This program demonstrates the capabilities of citizen science initiatives. The scientific community is reluctant to accept citizen science because the validity of of using it in research has not been assessed. Acceptance by the scientific community would increase biological understanding, help with the lack of human resources, and the lack of funding for research.
The purpose of the study done by D.G. Delaney et al(2008) was to “assess the abilities of citizen scientists to complete data about the status and composition of the coastal biota(D.G. Delaney et al 2008).” The variables predicted to have an affect on accuracy were age, education, group size, and size of the crab. Their hypothesis was that citizen science can be accurate if certain eligibility requirements are met by the citizen scientist. The citizen scientist collected data on Carcinus maenas and Hemigrapsus sanguineus. Areas were marked off for the citizen scientist to collect crabs and data on the crabs. The volunteers recorded the species, gender, and carapace width for each crab. The crabs were collected in buckets according to species and gender. The participants were given magnifying glasses, buckets, rulers, and guides to increase accuracy in identification. The study found that education was a significant factor in the accuracy of a volunteer but crab size and volunteer group size were not significant.
For my literature review topic, I chose to study the effectiveness of UV radiation treatment in comparison to other ballast water treatment methods. In the experiment, the crew of the ship could act as citizen scientists. Before the ballast water is even discharged, some of the ship’s crewmen could test the water before and after the UV treatment has been applied. This would cut the time it would take for scientists to perform the tests at a port, and it would even open up new opportunities in the study, such as allowing the use of UV treatment in combination with the process of ballast exchange. It would be impractical to carry a scientist on board every ship, so there would be no way to test the water gathered from a foreign port before it was released and replaced by sea water.
As for the other methods of treatment, such as biocides, the amateur scientists can record the effect that the chemicals have on the body of water they are applied to. Tests can be taken to determine the chemical content of the water, which would be an important factor in the experiment. Also, citizen scientists could collect the fish before and after the chemical treatment of a certain section of water. The health, size, lifespan and many other factors may be altered by the biocides, so these studies will be conducted to see if the alterations exist, and if they do, to what extent will they affect the native species.
Michael Di Nunzio
11/10/2010
In “Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks”, Delaney et al. attempt to assess the capacity for citizen science to produce accurate data. The authors first express the pressing concerns posed by invasive marine species and their rapid proliferation. Monitoring the movements of these organisms is key to ecological preservation efforts, yet maintaining a sufficiently robust database of species location and prevalence is extremely costly and time-consuming. To reduce the excessive need for funding and personnel, Delaney et al. propose that citizen science data meeting quality control criteria be used to expand the knowledge database. Ideally this will increase both public knowledge and the amount of information available to researchers.
In their study, Delaney et al. opted to focus on Carcinus maenas and Hemigrapsus sanguineus, invasive crabs known for their ability to spread quickly. Several quadrats were randomly established during low tide and the crabs being considered were carefully collected. After this 190 groups of individuals varying in age and education level were asked to determine the species, gender, and carapace width of crabs in their particular sample. Statistical analysis was subsequently applied to the results and correlations between the characteristics of an individual and his or her accuracy were drawn. A positive correlation was found between education and ability to distinguish crab species, and the same was observed for age. Determination of crab gender proved more difficult across all groups, but no effect was observed as a result of group size or crab size on ability to distinguish species or gender. Data from individuals meeting requirements corresponding to 95% accuracy were then used to depict the distributions and relative densities of the invaders over the sampling range.
Delaney et al. endorse the use of citizen science, yet stress the need for a universal means of compiling data if this technique is to be viable. They suggest that this be accomplished through the use of some kind of easily accessible computer database, preferably linked with some kind of mapping program. On a final note the authors state a need for additional research that uses different sampling methods and sampling intensity to determine optimal resource allocation and probability of false-negatives.
In Delaney et. al (2008), the authors presented an initiative to expand the responsibilities of data collection and species conservation into the hands of everyday citizens. This project consisted of 1000 volunteers that assessed the populations of invasive and native crabs in seven eastern coastal states of the US. Volunteers were asked to record the species and gender of the crabs. It was found that third and seventh grade students had significant ability to identify the species of a crab, but further education was often necessary for a volunteer to successfully identify its gender.
The problem with citizen science is that many scientists won’t accept it as a useful practice since all data collected must be validated. Currently, there is no system to effectively do so. This experiment essentially fixed this issue by allowing users to submit info to a database and establish eligibility criteria for citizen scientists. However, a few issues arise as funding is limited for monitoring of the data and universal training and cooperation.
In my opinion, citizen science, although flawed, could be useful for implementation in the data collection on invasive species. By enlisting the help of hundreds, even thousands of somewhat educated people, most of the inaccuracies of the data are accounted for ( as evident by the 95% accuracy of identifying gender by university educated people (Delaney et. al 2008)). However, further research should be conducted on whether or not this amount of motivated citizen scientists would be willing to conduct the same surveys on other lesser-known invasive species.
Delaney, D.G., Sperling, C.D., Adams, C.S., Leung,B. “Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks” Biological Invasions (2008) 10: 117-28
Citizen Science is an ever-growing tool in the field of invasive species. Delaney et al. (2008) used help from citizen scientists to identify two species of crabs along the Atlantic coast of the US. the team of 1,00 volunteers ranged from ages three to seventy-three separated into groups. The education of the scientists involved ranged from Pre-kindergarten to a few with Ph.D.’s. They received an hour long training session on crabs , a book on exotic species, and tools all designed to increase the accuracy of the groups that ranged in size from one to ten people.
They collected data from over 50 sites from New Jersey to Maine. After collecting all of their data from the citizen scientists and checking the accuracy of the volunteers, Delaney et al.(2008) used their results to assess the accuracy of the citizen scientists. What they found was that education level had a clear affect on the accuracy of data. Seventh grade students’ data was higher than that of third grade students, while those who had two years of college education had as good or better results than anyone else. It would seem from Delaney et al.(2008) that citizen science, though it may be shunned in the science world as a whole, can be a useful and effective tool to acquire data.
Delaney, D.G., Sperling, C.D., Adams, C.S., Leung, B. 2008. Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks. Biological Invasions 10:117-128
Delaney et al. (2008) studied the effectiveness of compiling data on the presence of invasive Carcinus maenas and Hemigrapsus sanguineus crabs from common citizen observations on a massive scale. About 1,000 volunteers identified crab species and gender at 52 sites across 725 kilometers of seven coastal sates from New Jersey to Maine. They found that younger students in grade three and seven could differentiate crab species on 80% and 95% accuracy and above. Those seventh grade students could determine crab gender at above 80% accuracy, while two-year college students could it determine at above 95% accuracy. Thus, education played a major role in predicting the volunteers’ ability to correctly identify crab gender and species. Delaney et al. (2008) also explained other factors that could affect this identification on a large scale including the patience of volunteers, how fast the data can be relayed to scientists, and the issue of mass organization with limited funding.
I agree with a suggestion that Delaney et al. (2008) made of applying online mapping technology such as Google Earth to citizen science with invasive species. This will enable faster relaying of data to scientists, and help speed up the process of analyzing fast growing populations of invasive species. The use of citizen science helps scientists who do not have the resources, including time, to go out in an area perhaps spanning 725 kilometers and take measurements themselves. Of course, there is a trade off between speed and accuracy of results, the accuracy can be assessed with methods similar to those used by Delaney et al. (2008) It is important to note that this should only apply to the study of macroscopic invasive species. Study of microscopic species by common citizens would require more training, resources, and would also increase the margin of error. Therefore, allowing citizens to help map out macroscopic invasive species on a large scale would be beneficial to the scientific community.
Delaney, D.G., Sperling, C.D., Adams, C.S., Leung, B. 2008. Marine invasive species: validation of citizen science and implications for national monitoring networks. Biological Invasions 10:117-128.