Citizen science at the NHM

Dr John Tweddle & Lucy Robinson

Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity

Long-history of voluntary involvement, esp. UK

And currently a real convergence of scientific, policy and public interests – raised profile

• Scientific level - many critical questions require large observational datasets, growing trust in data

• Human level – we’re very good at observing nature, are interested and willing to get involved

• Policy level – explicit recognition of the need to involve citizens in monitoring and protection

• Technology is opening up new opportunities

Natural history and citizen science = a perfect match

Exciting and dynamic field!

Focus on increasing our shared understanding of the UK’s biodiversity & environment

Citizen science at the NHM, London

>10 years expt.

Techniques

Motivations

Expectations

Research

Society

Practitioners

Contributory, adults: Bluebells

• Are flowering times responding to climate change?

• Is native bluebell under threat from non-native taxa?

• What is the nature of the threat?

• How do we manage the situation?

[Dr Fred Rumsey, Dr Mark Spencer]

Contributory, schools: Tree School

• Partnership with Cothill Education Trust

• Introduction to science & scientists

• Immersive experience, molecular research

[Dr Della Hopkins, Dr James Tosh, Dr Fred Rumsey]

Co-created: the Riverflies Project

• 2 million fishermen in UK

• 80,000 fly fishermen – who care about ‘their’ rivers

• Learning new skills in a familiar setting

• On-going monitoring by this volunteer network

• Providing data on river ecology and water quality

[Dr Steve Brooks, Bridget Peacock, Dr Gill Stevens]

Co-created: the UK Species Inventory

• Partnership with voluntary recording sector – taxonomic expertise, practitioners

• Two-way knowledge sharing and UK biodiversity research...citizen science?

[Chris Raper, Dr John Tweddle, Charles Hussey]

Crowd-sourcing environmental understanding

OPAL www.opalexplorenature.org

• UK’s most ambitious programme to date

• 2007-2013, £14M UK Lottery funded, 15 partners

• What is the state of England’s environment?

• 6 contributory surveys, BioBlitzes etc

• Reconnecting participants with nature

• Multiple entry routes

• >500,000 participants, >1 million observations

• Many participants are ‘new to science’

Investigating data quality

• Experience level, age, group size effects, variation between taxa...

• Validation and verification methods

• Impacts of different data capture methods

Method Correct ID Incorrect ID

Web upload 77 % 23 %

Direct from App 43 % 57 %

[Dr Poppy Lakeman-Fraser, Lucy Robinson]

Understanding citizen science & environmental monitoring

NERC-CEH, NHM for UK-EOF partnership

- Academic report

- Practitioners guide

Systematic review

Detailed case studies

Interviews with end users

Motivations of volunteers

Available technologies

Experience-based guide

[Dr Helen Roy, Dr Michael Pocock, Dr John Tweddle, Lucy Robinson and many others – thank you to all that contributed!]

One size does not fit all! There are clear roles for different approaches, participants want to interact in different ways and require different forms of support and reward...data & audience

Contributory projects

• Capture imagination of a broad audience or appeal to an existing membership

• Have a clear goal & methodology

• Require large, dispersed datasets

• Regular phenomena or watching brief

• Require large analyses suited to humans

Co-created projects:

• Benefit from establishment of a community/volunteer-led approach

• All parties have a stake/adapt

• Require deep, on-going commitment

• Are targeted at a specific, locally relevant problem or question

Challenges / opportunities

• Working smartly

• Maximising science benefits

• Sharing ideas: what does & doesn’t work

• Joint targeting of key challenges

• Presenting a consistent message

• Not reinventing the wheel

• Practitioner network(s)

• Making the most of new technologies

• Avoiding participant fatigue

UK-EOF report: Understanding citizen

science & environmental monitoring

www.ukeof.org.uk

Thank youj.tweddle@nhm.ac.uk

l.robinson@nhm.ac.uk