Lessons learned from community and citizen science monitoring on the Elwha River restoration project

Community and citizen science (CCS) projects – initiatives that involve public participation in scientific research – can both sustain and expand long-term monitoring of large dam removal projects. In this article, we discuss our perspectives on CCS associated with the Elwha River dam removals. We summarize how the public has been or could be involved in monitoring and distill lessons learned for other large dam removal projects. Much of the Elwha monitoring involved technical field work requiring training and incurring potential liability risks, guiding projects towards smaller-scale public involvement. Partnering with organizations that have capacity for volunteer management expanded CCS opportunities and provided logistical support to project managers committed to public engagement. We found that many projects engaged with students and/or with paid or unpaid interns; compensating participants in various ways can help to create reciprocal relationships that support long-term monitoring. In the future, other large dam removals could consider planning ahead for community involvement in dam removal monitoring to accommodate the technical and potentially hazardous nature of the work – broadening who may be able to participate. In addition, involving community members in setting research agendas could be an important first step in engaging them in long-term monitoring, in turn facilitating multi-generational research at the timescale of landscape-level changes. Finally, explicit relationship-building with Indigenous communities can enhance the benefits of community engagement in dam removal science for all involved

Participants in Citizen Science

The most important factor that defines citizen science is that non-professional scientists contribute to scientific research. Therefore, it is important to recognise the perspectives and experiences of these participants. Projects may provide ways for participants to contribute to scientific research at different stages of the scientific process according to different levels of engagement. Understanding what motivates citizen scientists to engage in a project, and subsequently matching the project to these motivations, will help project leaders to recruit and retain participants. In addition, it is important to understand what benefits participants gain from engagement in citizen science projects. For individual projects, this will help ensure that scientists as well as participants benefit. For the wider field of citizen science, this will provide evidence of the potential impact of citizen science on participants. However, participants may also encounter challenges during their engagement with citizen science projects. Project leaders and scientists should plan in advance to address these challenges and ensure that relevant expertise is present in the project team. Keywords Citizen engagement · Participant motiScience Communication and Societ

Developing a Citizen Social Science approach to understand urban stress and promote wellbeing in urban communities

This paper sets out the future potential and challenges for developing an interdisciplinary, mixed-method Citizen Social Science approach to researching urban emotions. It focuses on urban stress, which is increasingly noted as a global mental health challenge facing both urbanised and rapidly urbanising societies. The paper reviews the existing use of mobile psychophysiological or biosensing within urban environments—as means of ‘capturing’ the urban geographies of emotions. Methodological reflections are included on primary research using biosensing in a study of workplace and commuter stress for university employees in Birmingham (UK) and Salzburg (Austria) for illustrative purposes. In comparing perspectives on the conceptualisation and measurement of urban stress from psychology, neuroscience and urban planning, the difficulties of defining scientific constructs within Citizen Science are discussed to set out the groundwork for fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. The novel methods, geo-located sensor technologies and data-driven approaches to researching urban stress now available to researchers pose a number of ethical, political and conceptual challenges around defining and measuring emotions, stress, human behaviour and urban space. They also raise issues of rigour, participation and social scientific interpretation. Introducing methods informed by more critical Citizen Social Science perspectives can temper overly individualised forms of data collection to establish more effective ways of addressing urban stress and promoting wellbeing in urban communities

Citizen science breathes new life into participatory agricultural research : A review

Participatory research can improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and scope of research processes, and foster social inclusion, empowerment and sustainability. Yet despite four decades of agricultural research institutions exploring and developing methods for participatory research, it has never become mainstream in the agricultural technology development cycle. Citizen science promises an innovative approach to participation in research, using the unique facilities of new digital technologies, but its potential in agricultural research participation has not been systematically probed. To this end, we conducted a critical literature review. We found that citizen science opens up four opportunities for creatively reshaping research: i) new possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration, ii) rethinking configurations of socio-computational systems, iii) research on democratization of science more broadly, and iv) new accountabilities. Citizen science also brings a fresh perspective on the barriers to institutionalizing participation in the agricultural sciences. Specifically, we show how citizen science can reconfigure cost-motivation-accountability combinations using digital tools, open up a larger conceptual space of experimentation, and stimulate new collaborations. With appropriate and persistent institutional support and investment, citizen science can therefore have a lasting impact on how agricultural science engages with farming communities and wider society, and more fully realize the promises of participation

Movement and habitat selection of the western spadefoot (Spea hammondii) in southern California.

Agricultural activity, urban development and habitat alteration have caused the disappearance of the western spadefoot (Spea hammondii) from 80% of its geographic range in southern California. Despite the western spadefoot's continuing decline, little research has been conducted on its natural history. The home range of adult spadefoots is unknown, and their use of upland habitat is poorly understood. Both factors are important for the long-term conservation of the species because adult spadefoots spend the majority of their lives away from breeding pools in self-excavated burrows. Between January 2012 and January 2013, we surgically implanted radio transmitters in 15 spadefoots at two locations and recorded their movements and habitat use. The mean distance moved between burrow locations was 18 m (SD ± 24.1 m, range1-204 m). The mean distance of burrows from the breeding pools was 40 m (SD ± 37.42 m, range 1-262 m). Rain was a significant predictor of spadefoot movement, with more rain predicting higher probability of movement and larger distances moved. At remote sensing scale (1 m) spadefoots selected grassland habitat for their burrow locations. At the microsite scale (< 1 m) spadefoots strongly selected duff over grass or shrub cover. Spadefoots burrowed in friable, sandy/loam soil with significantly less clay than random pseudoabsence points. This research enhances our understanding of a little-studied species and will contribute to the development of effective management plans for the western spadefoot

Indigenous nations at the confluence: water governance networks and system transformation in the Klamath Basin

Collaborative approaches to complex water quality problems can facilitate collective action across large watersheds with multiple, overlapping political jurisdictions, including Indigenous territories. Indigenous nations are increasingly engaging in collaborative water governance, in part, as a response to colonial legacies that have excluded Indigenous peoples from watershed management. This study uses social network analysis to explore emerging Klamath water governance networks. We seek to understand ongoing system transformation in contemporary water governance through tribal engagement in multi-jurisdictional water governance networks, from a system of Indigenous dispossession and exclusion (late 1800s-1980s) toward a yet unrealized system that centers Indigenous peoples. To envision the meaningful inclusion of Indigenous peoples in adaptive water governance, we first draw on criteria established by Indigenous water governance scholars. Then, we examine a snapshot of Indigenous participation in water quality governance in the Klamath Basin that focuses on the Karuk Tribe from 2018-2019. Specifically, Karuk tribal managers identified 21 different science-policy coalitions that they worked with on a range of water quality issues. We then used social network analysis methods to generate a network in which 210 different organizations were linked through co-membership in one or more coalitions. Our findings indicated that the Karuk and other Klamath Basin tribes play a central role in Klamath water quality governance and were not relegated to "stakeholder status." Using a community detection algorithm, we found that tribes were key players in the central technical working group that emerged through network connections. Applying a log-linear statistical model, we also observed a high level of mixing in the network across all types of organizations, including tribes. Finally, through a multi-membership model, we found that tribes were more strongly connected to influential network actors than NGOs, despite environmental NGOs being more numerous. These analyses demonstrate how tribal engagement can activate key mechanisms for water quality governance transformation, e.g., shifting information flows and changing system structures to more effectively center Indigenous nations. In addition to insights from social network analysis, we also highlight the limitations of technical water management in supporting the deep connections held between Indigenous peoples and their waters that are central to Indigenous water governance

Appendix D. Simple mortality calculations (m) to validate simple state-space models.

Simple mortality calculations (m) to validate simple state-space models

Appendix B. Estimating missing sizes.

Estimating missing sizes

Appendix E. Explanation of posterior tail probability and parameter estimates for all models for all species.

Explanation of posterior tail probability and parameter estimates for all models for all species

Appendix C. Additional model details.

Additional model details