Report from the Tri-Agency Cosmological Simulation Task Force

The Tri-Agency Cosmological Simulations (TACS) Task Force was formed when Program Managers from the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) expressed an interest in receiving input into the cosmological simulations landscape related to the upcoming DOE/NSF Vera Rubin Observatory (Rubin), NASA/ESA's Euclid, and NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST). The Co-Chairs of TACS, Katrin Heitmann and Alina Kiessling, invited community scientists from the USA and Europe who are each subject matter experts and are also members of one or more of the surveys to contribute. The following report represents the input from TACS that was delivered to the Agencies in December 2018.Comment: 36 pages, 3 figures. Delivered to NASA, NSF, and DOE in Dec 201

Schoolchildren discover hotspots of floating plastic litter in rivers using a large-scale collaborative approach

Rivers are an important transport route of anthropogenic litter from inland sources toward the sea. A collaborative (i.e. citizen science) approach was used to evaluate the litter pollution of rivers in Germany: schoolchildren within the project “Plastic Pirates” investigated rivers across the entire country during the years 2016 and 2017 by surveying floating macrolitter at 282 sites and taking 164 meso−/microplastic samples (i.e. particles 24.99–5 mm, and 4.99–1 mm, respectively). Floating macrolitter was sighted at 54% of sampling sites and floating macrolitter quantities ranged from 0 to 8.25 items m−1 h−1 (average of 0.34 ± 0.89 litter items m−1 h−1). Floating meso−/microplastics were present at 57% of the sampling sites, and floating meso−/microplastic quantities ranged from 0 to 220 particles h−1 (average of 6.86 ± 24.11 items h−1). As only particles >1 mm were sampled and analyzed, the pollution of rivers in Germany by microplastics could be a much more prevalent problem, regardless of the size of the river. We identified six plastic pollution hotspots where 60% of all meso−/microplastics collected in the present study were found. These hotspots were located close to a plastic-producing industry site, a wastewater treatment plant, at and below weirs, or in residential areas. The composition of the particles at these hotspots indicates plastic producers and possibly the construction industry and wastewater treatment plants as point sources. An identification of litter hotspots would enable specific mitigation measures, adjusted to the respective source, and thereby could prevent the release of large quantities of small plastic particles in rivers. The adopted large-scale citizen science approach was especially suitable to detect pollution hotspots by sampling a variety of rivers, large and small, and enabled a national overview of litter pollution in German rivers

Engaging in duty of care: towards a terrorism preparedness plan

A minor digression, if you will: It has been over 30 years since I (referring to lead author) first wrote on the topic of terrorism and its potential impact on conducting business in a global context (Harvey, 1983a; 1983b; 1985; 1993). The most vivid memory I have relative to that initial foray into this new topic was making a presentation at the annual summer American Marketing Association (AMA) conference in Chicago. I got halfway through the paper and I started to hear jeering noises emanating from the audience. As I remember (it is not a pleasant memory), the audience thought that I had lost my mind and that the reviewers of the paper allowed this rubbish into the AMA meeting (the implication was that they must have been drinking at the time). This is a true account of the presentation and when I left the session, I would be dishonest if I didn’t tell you that I had made a terrible error and there would be significant ramifications to my young academic career. Yet, no country is untouched by global terrorism today, and the ramifications for global organizations are escalating year by year

Sharing communication insights of the citizen science program Plastic Pirates—best practices from 7 years of engaging schoolchildren and teachers in plastic pollution research

Engaging the general public in research processes through citizen science allows for innovative scientific studies and makes science accessible to the general public. Effective communication strategies are crucial for the success of such initiatives. The citizen science program Plastic Pirates investigated the plastic pollution of rivers and implemented a variety of communication strategies with participating schoolchildren, teachers, and youth groups (e.g., sport associations, scouts or educational vacation programs, representing approximately 6% of participating groups). These were continuously revised and adapted since its start in 2016. Without time-efficient communication and strategies to keep track of conversations, it would not have been possible to achieve the scientific and educational goals of the program, i.e., to help teachers increase the environmental awareness and scientific literacy of their schoolchildren, and to produce peer-reviewed articles based on the collected citizen science data. Communication within the Plastic Pirates program was divided into four distinct phases: 1) recruiting and motivating participants, 2) coordination and guidance of participants, 3) data reception and revision, and 4) sharing updates and results. Some of the obstacles that had to be overcome to achieve successful communication were e.g., time constraints to obtaining scientific data from the participants, the time lag between the active involvement of the participants and the actual data analysis and publication of results, and limited personnel resources available for communication efforts. Our recommendations for other citizen science practitioners include regular and transparent communication with the participants regarding their contribution, the use of adequate and various communication channels, shifting the workload from the participants to the coordinating team of a citizen science initiative, as well as offering feedback on the research findings to the citizen scientists, thereby disseminating the results of the program

Citizen Science Terminology Matters: Exploring Key Terms

Much can be at stake depending on the choice of words used to describe citizen science, because terminology impacts how knowledge is developed. Citizen science is a quickly evolving field that is mobilizing people’s involvement in information development, social action and justice, and large-scale information gathering. Currently, a wide variety of terms and expressions are being used to refer to the concept of ‘citizen science’ and its practitioners. Here, we explore these terms to help provide guidance for the future growth of this field. We do this by reviewing the theoretical, historical, geopolitical, and disciplinary context of citizen science terminology; discussing what citizen science is and reviewing related terms; and providing a collection of potential terms and definitions for ‘citizen science’ and people participating in citizen science projects. This collection of terms was generated primarily from the broad knowledge base and on-the-ground experience of the authors, by recognizing the potential issues associated with various terms. While our examples may not be systematic or exhaustive, they are intended to be suggestive and invitational of future consideration. In our collective experience with citizen science projects, no single term is appropriate for all contexts. In a given citizen science project, we suggest that terms should be chosen carefully and their usage explained; direct communication with participants about how terminology affects them and what they would prefer to be called also should occur. We further recommend that a more systematic study of terminology trends in citizen science be conducted

Communication strategies in an international school citizen science program investigating marine litter

Communication is an essential element of science, and while it is important in all scientific endeavors, it gains substantial strategic relevance in citizen science projects. For a school citizen science program to be successful, an adequate communication strategy needs to achieve a balance between learning objectives and the generation of scientific knowledge. In this community case study, we report on the communication strategies of an international network, namely, the citizen science program Científicos de la Basura (Litter Scientists), which collaborates with schoolteachers and schoolchildren to investigate anthropogenic litter on marine beaches and in rivers. The program has been active in Chile since 2007, and as of 2018, it had expanded to the 11 countries from the central and southern East Pacific. More than 40 teachers and collaborators from these countries work in this network making an effort to connect the research activities with the learning objectives of the school curriculum. The communication between the coordination team and the teachers includes three main elements (1 - design and planning; 2 - training and research; 3 - evaluation and sharing), with the following activities: (1a) regular internal communication within the coordination team to design, motivate and supervise adequate research projects, (1b) communication with teachers to design appropriate learning materials (co-creation) and get their feedback on the planned research activities, (2a) sharing the final research plan and transfer methodological skills through regular training of the teachers, (2b) responding to methodological questions by the teachers about the sampling, and coordinate data collection and validation, (3a) guiding teachers and schoolchildren in the evaluation and interpretation of their research results, and (3b) encouraging teachers and schoolchildren to communicate their scientific findings to the wider community. Intense internal communication and regular exchange with teachers guarantees successful learning and rigorous scientific information. The main challenges for the program are team capacity, socio-economic stability, internet access, and teachers’ workloads. Recommendations to achieve successful communication and good science are efficient team communication skills, customized contacts, collaborative work, guidance of field work, feedback from participants, and promoting the sense of community

Effects of crab (Carcinus maenas) digestive products on periwinkle (Littorina littorea) behaviour.

One possible interaction between organisms is direct predation, where a predator consumes prey and thereby decreases its density which may influence more organisms in that trophic food chain (e.g. the prey's food source). Another interaction is based on most prey's capability to detect predators and adapt to that threat in behaviourial, morphological or life history traits. These adaptions can be quite costly and it is expected that there is a trade off between predator avoidance and the costs to do so. In aquatic environments this way of interaction is often communicated via chemical “risk cues“, which can either originate from the predator alone (kairomones) or from startled (disturbance cues), injured (alarm cues) or consumed and digested prey (dietary cues). These cues are used by potential prey to assess the risk of predation and adapt accordingly. This study focuses on the effects of alarm and dietary cues on the egg-production and the mating and feeding behaviour of the common periwinkle (Littorina littorea) by using either crushed (injured) snails – the stomach juice from the shore crab (Carcinus maenas) with and without the addition of a snails body – or the faeces of shore crabs feeding on periwinkles. The research took place on Helgoland, from March to May (2011) as a manipulative lab experiment with factorial design. It was found that injured conspecifics reduced the mating behaviour of L. littorea probably because of the higher mortality risk associated with forming mating pairs. The faeces of crabs had no effect on periwinkles but that may be due to the point of time the investigation took place: egg production and mating frequency were decreasing. Stomach juice with in vitro digested snails showed differing results, reducing the egg numbers in one experiment but not in the other. This may be because of methodical reasons: in the experiment showing an effect the devices applying the stomach juice were changed more often and the room temperature was higher which could mean that the enzymes in the stomach juice were working more efficiently on the added snail tissue. Therefore a possible effect of stomach juice with digested snail is favored. There was no evidence found that pure stomach juice influences the snails while crabs feedings on conspecifics clearly had an effect on the numbers of eggs laid and the mating behaviour, as former studies hypothesised. There was no evidence in any experiment where the amount of food consumption differed from a control treatment, probably because L. littorea does not prefer Fucus. The results suggest that the trait-mediated indirect interaction between the predator C. maenas and its prey L. littorea is not communicated via predator's kairomones but more likely via risk cues originating from the periwinkle (alarm or dietary cues)

Linear and circular economy figure

Two figures representing a linear and circular economy approach with a plastic bottle as an example but is applicable to any recycable waste product and especially single-use plastic packaging. In the linear economy model the product is manufactured using principally new resources, largely petroleum based. Most of the product’s value is lost during its life cycle because of leakage along the entire value chain (red arrows), including pellet loss, littering, combined sewage overflow, loss during transport and improper storage of waste, and poorly designed products that are easily lost to the environment and difficult to recover (microbeads, small wrappers, torn corners of packaging). This leads to a contamination of the environment, affecting wildlife and human well-being. A small proportion is recycled (green arrow) for remanufacture, with the remainder utilized for energy recovery. In the circular economy model a high percentage of recycled content is used as feedstock for new products, and the remainder from sustainable sources (potentially biopolymers). Poor practices (red arrows) throughout the life cycle are mitigated, for example, by proper legislative policy, public awareness that leads to proper consumer waste handling, and incentivized recovery systems (e.g., returnable bottles). Recovery is further improved by regulating end-of-life design in products and packaging. This leads to reduced leakage of plastic to the environment from all sectors of society, and significant improvements are social justice concerns for communities that manage waste. The small amount of residual plastic is then disposed of responsibly. Figure and figure captions originally published in: Eriksen M, Thiel M, Prindiville M, Kiessling T 2018. Microplastic: what are the solutions? in Freshwater Microplastics - Emerging Environmental Contaminants (Eds Wagner M, Lambert S), The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry 58. Springer. Licence: Creative Commons 4.0 BY. Feel free to reuse, to change, and to adapt - just refer to the above-mentioned publication. The .svg file allows you to change parts of the figures easily with Inkscape (a free vector graphic program)