Abstract
In this methodological project we tested the accuracy of two systems used to quantify results obtained using the Hach© nitrate strip for water quality volunteer monitoring programs. The test strip determines nitrate concentration in accordance with the Lambert-Beer law as increased nitrate concentrations result in greater color intensity on the strip’s sampling pad. In this study, first-time volunteers estimated nitrate concentrations with the test strip, either visually or using the Deltares Nitrate App, a smartphone application that uses the phone’s camera as a spectrometer. Results from two different series of tests indicate that volunteers using visual methods produce the more accurate results. Although cell phone apps might have the potential to increase data quality for colorimetric assays such as the one employed by the Hach© nitrate test strip, the current technology was not an improvement relative to visual interpolation.
Highlights
Cultural eutrophication, or the enrichment of water bodies with nitrogen and phosphorous from anthropogenic sources, is a major water quality problem worldwide (Carpenter et al 1998; Malone and Newton 2020), with eutrophic waterways increasing in frequency and severity (Malone and Newton 2020)
In one set of tests, results from volunteers who visually estimated two different nitrate concentrations were compared with the results of volunteers who used the Deltares smart phone app—a platform designed by Deltares, a surface and subsurface water research institute
The Spearman’s rank correlation was statistically significant (ρ = 0.8523, p < 0.0001* for the categories between 0–4 as well as categories 5 and 6 (ρ = 0.6431, p < 0.0001* Figure 4). The objective of this project was to assess the accuracy of citizen scientists measuring nitrate concentrations using the Hach© Nitrate test strips with and without the addition of the Deltares smartphone application
Summary
The enrichment of water bodies with nitrogen and phosphorous from anthropogenic sources, is a major water quality problem worldwide (Carpenter et al 1998; Malone and Newton 2020), with eutrophic waterways increasing in frequency and severity (Malone and Newton 2020). The recruitment of citizen scientists has been suggested as one method to supplement agency monitoring (Cohn 2008; HadjHammou et al 2017; Thornhill, Chautard and Loiselle 2018; Wyeth et al 2019); if such data are to be trusted by researchers and regulatory agencies, it is necessary that volunteers produce data that is as accurate as possible (Jollymore et al 2017). The objective of this work was to assess the accuracy of citizen scientists quantifying results from the Hach© Nitrate test strips with and without the addition of the Deltares smartphone application. In a second series of tests, volunteers quantified nitrate concentration in a number of solutions that spanned the range that the Hach© Nitrate strip can perceive (0–50 mg/L or ppm NO3-N). In both cases, the phone app did not increase the accuracy of the results
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