Exploring event and status based phenological monitoring in citizen science projects: Lessons learned from Project BudBurst

Background/Question/Methods

Citizen science projects in ecology are in a unique position to address the needs of both the science and education communities. Such projects can provide needed data to further understanding of ecological processes at multiple spatial scales while also increasing public understanding of the importance of the ecological sciences. Balancing the needs of both communities, it is important that citizen science programs also provide different ‘entry’ points to appeal to diverse segments of society. In the case of NEON’s Project BudBurst, a national plant phenology citizen science program, two approaches were developed to address the ongoing challenge to recruitment and retention of participants. Initially, Project BudBurst was designed to be an event-based phenology program. Participants were asked to identify a plant and report on the timing of specific phenoevents throughout the year. This approach requires a certain level of participation, which while yielding useful results, is not going to appeal to the broadest audience possible. To broaden participation, in 2011, Project BudBurst added campaigns targeted at engaging individuals in making simple status-based reports of a plant they chose.

Results/Conclusions

Highly publicized targeted field campaigns were identified to take advantage of times when people notice changes to plants in their environment. Three campaigns were developed using simple, status-based protocols: Fall Into Phenology, Cherry Blossom Blitz, and Summer Solstice Snapshot. The interest and participation in these single report phenological status-based campaigns exceeded initial expectations. For example, Fall Into Phenology (www.budburst.org/fall) attracted individuals who otherwise had not considered participating in an ongoing field campaign. In the past, observations of fall phenology events submitted to Project BudBurst had been limited. In 2011, by providing the opportunity for simple, single reports, the number of observations increased significantly. With hundreds of new observers signing up during a traditionally slow time, we found increased activity on Facebook and Twitter, as well as an increase in subscriptions to our monthly newsletter.