Abstract
AbstractTime and budgetary resources are often a limiting factor in the collection of large‐scale ecological data. If data collected by citizen scientists were comparable to data collected by researchers, it would allow for more efficient data collection over a broad geographic area. Here, we compare the quality of data on bat activity collected by citizens (high school students and teachers) and researchers. Both researchers and citizen scientists used the same comprehensive instructions when choosing study sites. We found no statistically significant difference in total bat activity minutes recorded by citizens and researchers. Instead, citizen scientists collected data from a wider variety of habitats than researchers. Involvement of citizens also increased the geographical coverage of data collection, resulting in the northernmost documentation of the Nathusius’s pipistrelle so far in Finland. Therefore, bat research can benefit from the use of citizen science when participants are given precise instructions and calibrated data collection equipment. Citizen science projects also have other far‐reaching benefits, increasing, for example, the scientific literacy and interest in natural sciences of citizens. Involving citizens in science projects also has the potential to enhance their willingness to conserve nature.
Highlights
The increase in human-mediated processes such as climate change and habitat loss has inflicted incredible pressure on the Earth’s biodiversity (Bellard et al 2012)
Our study addressed this issue by investigating the use of citizen science in studying bat activity in Finland with next-generation ultrasonic recorders
Researchers recorded more data, we found no significant difference between citizen scientists and researchers in recorded bat activity minutes
Summary
The increase in human-mediated processes such as climate change and habitat loss has inflicted incredible pressure on the Earth’s biodiversity (Bellard et al 2012). Worst case models predict that we are entering the sixth mass extinction through accelerated modern humaninduced species losses (Ceballos et al 2015), highlighting the need for large-scale monitoring to be initiated rapidly to gain an understanding of the impacts global change has on the biota. Despite recent advances in technology facilitating such monitoring, human resources are often a limiting factor, hindering the effective collection of large-scale spatio-temporal datasets. Some species of bats, such as Pipistrellus kuhlii, have benefited from disturbances such as climate change, with an estimated range expansion of v www.esajournals.org. Growing interests lie with acquiring reliable data for the conservation and management of bats due to their importance to biodiversity, as well as their ecological and economical importance (Boyles et al 2011, Kasso and Balakrishnan 2013)
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