Hot, flat and crowd-sourced: Citizen-scientist collaborations to tackle global change

Background/Question/Methods

Earth is changing in unprecedented ways in response to human population growth and activity, e.g., global warming, changes in chemical composition of the atmosphere and waters, biological invasions, extinctions. But commensurate with these changes, which portend an oncoming perfect storm, the internet and associated forms of technology have facilitated a meteoric rise in access to, and the sharing of, information. From this, “crowd-sourcing” and “citizen science” have arisen from a concatenation of needs: those of small groups of people (e.g., scientists) to accomplish tasks at broad spatial or temporal scales, and a much larger group of self-selected contributors or collaborators interested in performing tasks, solving complex problems and contributing with relevant and fresh ideas. Within the fields of science and natural resource conservation, unprecedented public access to technology and information (e.g., though on-line herbariums and species identification tools, mobile applications for image capture, data entry, and community discussions), has enabled people without scientific training to make significant contributions to scientific knowledge, thereby “flattening” science. This fact, combined with an increasing awareness by scientists that their numbers are far too few to adequately answer continental and global-scale questions in a rapidly changing world, has led to the development of “citizen science.”

Results/Conclusions

Today, in fields as varied as ecology, ornithology, astronomy, and public health, scientists are collaborating with the public to collect and organize otherwise inaccessible information and data, while advancing scientific knowledge that can help us adapt to a hotter, flatter, and more crowded Earth (apologies to Thomas Friedman). Perhaps more important, the inclusion of the broader public in the process of science can improve science literacy, and for applications related to climate change, help improve climate literacy and move people beyond the “gloom and doom of climate change” by engaging them in the process of discovery, analysis and application. One such project that teams citizens with scientists is the USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN; www.usanpn.org). The Network integrates science and education by encouraging people to make phenology observations that connect them with nature and involve them in the scientific process, and at the same time capture data that scientists are eager to use. Thus, by engaging a willing public in a meaningful scientific activity in collaboration with expert scientists, the Network capitalizes on a flattening of science though the use of new technology and memes while providing quality information critical to sustainability in our changing world.