Abstract

Over the last decade, significant advances in citizen science have occurred, allowing projects to extend in scope from the ocean floor to the Milky Way and cover almost everything in between. These projects have provided cost-effective means to collect extensive data sets covering vast spatio-temporal scales that can be used in scientific research, to develop conservation policy and to promote environmental awareness. This review explores the current status of marine citizen science by examining 120 marine citizen science projects. Trends in geographic locations, focal taxa, participant demographics, tasks undertaken and data directionality (i.e. storage and publication) are highlighted, and the challenges and benefits of citizen science to marine research and conservation are reviewed. Marine citizen science projects act primarily at national levels (53.3%) and mainly focus on coastal ocean environments (49.2%) with chordates as the most popular focus taxa (40%). Some form of methodological training for participants is provided by 64.2% of projects, and the most popular tasks undertaken are field surveys (35.8%) and reporting of opportunistic sightings (34.2%). Data quality and participant motivation are among the most common challenges facing projects, but identified strengths include enhanced marine policy, increased scientific knowledge and environmental stewardship. In conclusion, marine citizen science lies at a crossroads of unresolved challenges, demonstrated successes and unrealized potential. However, should the challenges be addressed, the unique capacity of citizen science to broaden the scope of investigations may be the key to the future of marine research and conservation in times of global change and financial hardship.

Highlights

  • 1.1.1 The History of Citizen ScienceCitizen science, often described as amateur participation in scientific research and monitoring, has emerged as a powerful tool and popular activity in recent decades (Cohn 2008; Kullenberg and Kasperowski 2016; Burgess et al 2017)

  • This review builds on research by Thiel et al (2014) that demonstrated trends across marine citizen science published in peer-reviewed journal articles, in order to highlight the diversity of current marine citizen science projects

  • 1.3.4.4.1 Species Distribution The long-term observational data sets generated by citizen science projects, which often extend beyond timescales of standard research programs, are of exceptional value in addressing questions regarding the spatio-t­emporal distribution of marine organisms (Ponti et al 2011b; Mieszkowska et al 2014)

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Summary

Liconti School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Wales, UK

Keywords Volunteer · Public participation · Community-based monitoring · Environmental policy · Ecological surveying

The History of Citizen Science
Citizen Science as a Tool in Research and Conservation
Science for the Future
Project Selection
Spatial Coverage
Environmental Coverage
Participant Recruitment
Participant Training
Tasks Undertaken
Data Quality
Data Publication
Policy Development
Data Storage
Challenges
Participant Motivation
Data Concerns
Strengths
The Many Eyes Hypothesis
Findings
Marine Stewardship
Full Text
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