Abstract
In this paper, we present our experience designing and implementing a hybrid citizen science protocol combining local data collection reported digitally with the return of physical samples by mail. Our project, Fossil Atmospheres, housed within the Paleobiology Department of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, sought to complete a broad geographic collection of <em>Ginkgo biloba</em> L. leaves to better understand climate change over time. We also wished to leverage and test the affordances of using an established online platform as a technological tool for research-quality data collection. Participants were asked to find a local ginkgo tree and, using a hybrid protocol, collect leaf samples and record site data, including photos, GPS coordinates, and tree characteristics, using the iNaturalist online platform. Participants then returned their leaf samples by mail. Fossil Atmospheres received 562 leaf samples from 352 participants. These samples, representing 36 states, met our target geographic transects and reflected the known habitat range of living ginkgo in the United States. We were able to successfully pair a large majority of received samples to their corresponding digital data records, allowing us to include 88% of the samples received within the Fossil Atmospheres data set. These results greatly exceeded our project goals. The hybrid protocol model we present, based on our experiences, indicates that using tools like iNaturalist provides multiple benefits that meet or exceed more traditional data collection models, including increases in the scale of data that can be collected, data accuracy, and data completeness, uniformity, usability, and accessibility.
Highlights
Citizen science has long played a role in advancing scientific knowledge, especially in projects that require data spanning large geographic or temporal ranges (Bonney et al 2016)
These additional efforts allowed us to successfully pair another 130 physical samples to their associated digital data, increasing the usable sample set from 367, which were perfect upon arrival, to 497 that were accepted by the project (Table 1)
Some or all of the required digital data were written on the cardboard sandwich, but more often, these samples presented without any paired tree data and we were not able to include them in the data set
Summary
Citizen science has long played a role in advancing scientific knowledge, especially in projects that require data spanning large geographic or temporal ranges (Bonney et al 2016). Technology has become a central component of citizen science (Newman et al 2012) as a tool for engagement (Aristeidou et al 2017), community building (Peterman et al 2019), and data collection (Wittmann et al 2019). The experiences gained from novel implementations of technology in citizen science are broadly applicable. Paleontology has frequently engaged people outside of academia to assist with the work of collecting and documenting fossil specimens, allowing for larger-scale excavation than would otherwise have been possible. Recent efforts to engage this amateur community with paleontology online in a way that can support research have seen success (e.g., myFOSSIL, n.d.). We build upon the existing success of these projects and report on our experience using an established online platform as a technological tool for data collection and storage together with physical sample collection
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