Citizen Science: A Way To Become Involved

By Margriet Ruurs

Definition - noun cit·i·zen \ˈsi-tə-zən also -sən\   \ˈsī-ən(t)s\
Citizen science (also known as crowd science, civic science or volunteer monitoring) is scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur or nonprofessional scientists.

Are you a citizen interested in science? Have you always had a secret wish to be a scientist, but instead you ended up being a bookkeeper, a manager, a writer? There is still hope! You can participate in, and contribute to, science projects around the globe. Making use of the internet, scientists have come to realize the enormous wealth of manpower available to science by using volunteers. You can be an amateur bird watcher and contribute to the knowledge of the American Ornithologist Union. Or you can help track anything from bees to killer whales. You can count moths or collect microbes in your own home - all as a “citizen scientist.”

When you check the list of possibilities, it is hard not to get excited about the contribution you can make to science by doing what you already enjoy doing, simply by signing up as a volunteer and making your actions count. Thanks to mobile phones, for instance, you can help to improve accuracy of magnetic navigation systems. Sounds impressive, right? All you need to do is download the app and send in your magnetic data.

You can turn your daily stroll along the shore into scientific research by listening for orcas and submitting your findings to The Whale Museum on Washington’s San Juan Island.

Being a volunteer scientist is not restricted to your regular daily life at home either. Tens of thousands of people in The Netherlands, for instance, contribute to the preservation of wildlife or natural areas by tagging butterflies, by constructing bee-houses or by planting trees. One website offers to pay all transportation and accommodation if you want to spend four days planting sea grass in the muddy tidal flats of northern Holland or Germany. You can also spend two weeks living in a lighthouse, in complete isolation and surrounded by the sea at high tide, counting seals and taking an inventory of sea birds. You just sign up as a volunteer caretaker for the Dutch National Nature Conservancy (Staatsbosbeheer).

If you’d rather go on night patrol on a Costa Rican beach, you can do so by joining a GoAbroad.com project to protect sea turtles. The Earthwatch Institute has also realized the enormous potential of using keen citizens to contribute to scientific research. They invite you to explore Nicaragua’s geology. You’ll be setting up high-tech scientific instruments in and around the Masaya’s crater. You’ll hike through the forest to record information on pollinating insects and to collect plant, water, and soil samples. You’ll be part of a field research team which may make this a more memorable holiday then simply lying on a beach. Of course, in a case like this, you’ll pay your own travel and accommodation.

Whether you use your daily stroll or dedicate your entire holiday to science, doing something meaningful for the environment will, no doubt, be a rewarding experience if you become a citizen scientist.

For previous Sci/Why columns on citizen science projects, just type "citizen science" into the Search box on the right side of this page.

All photos by Margriet Ruurs.

Holiday Baubles, Peruvian Style

Posted by Helaine Becker

Ok, I admit it. Despite the fact that I've written a popular Christmas book (A Porcupine in a Pine Tree), December is not my favourite time of year. I hate cold weather - my fingers turn blue and my toes---let's not even mention my toes.

So I tend to head to warmer climes in December and get my Ho Ho Hos at Hot Springs and the like.

Earlier this month, I visited northern Peru. I was delighted to find the Amazonian basin decorated to the hilt for the holidays! Of course, it's always decorated to the hilt - with incredible butterflies, hummingbirds, orchids and more.

The remote Chachapoyas area is one of the most interesting and diverse ecosystems on Earth. Tropical cloud forests drape the Andes mountains, which break up the region into zillions of distinct microclimates. Hundreds of separate habitats  are home to unique species that have arisen in isolation.

Among the living ornaments we spotted on our holiday journey, these were my faves:

The rare clearwing butterfly has absolutely transparent wings. In these species, the scales that gives butterflies their colours are confined  mostly to their wing veins. The glassy wing makes the insect a spectacular sight when perched on a leaf or flower; it's virtually invisible in flight. 

And by the way, don't eat these fluttery gems. They're highly toxic. Unlike other poisonous butterflies that tank up on toxins as caterpillars, clearwings obtain their poison as adults. They drink nectar from flowers containing toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids for a powerful defense against hungry birds. 

The Spatuletail Hummingbird is one of the rarest hummingbirds in the world. It lives only in Peru, and only on the east bank of the Rio Utcubamba. According to Bird-life International, there are fewer than 1000 of these remarkable creatures left in the wild; they are on the "Red List" of endangered birds.

The Spatuletail is only one of the incredible hummingbirds and other birds we saw in Peru. If you're a birder, rush to Northern Peru ASAP to have your mind blown. If you're an orchid enthusiast too, you'll really go nuts. The eastern slopes of the Andes are home to countless species of stunning orchids including this one:

Unlike most orchids, this stunning species is terrestrial, and grows only on rock. You can't remove it from its substrate either; if you wanted to transplant it, you'd have to take the rock too! 

The final ornament in this post brings us to yet another microclimate and mini-habitat: the lowland "jungle" around the Huallaga River. Here's where you find the iconic Three-Lined Poison Dart Frog. Beautiful  but deadly so do not touch!!!!

My idea of a happy holiday is basking in the warmth and beauty of the Amazon. I've enjoyed sharing these rainforest gifts with you, and hope you all enjoy a happy holiday too, wherever you find yourself. 

Best wishes for a wonderful 2014,

Helaine

Help Save the Monarch Butterfly!

by Jan Thornhill

What’s not to like about monarchs? Their caterpillars are gorgeously striped. Their chrysalises are an otherworldly green bejeweled with glimmering gold. The adults weigh only half as much as a paperclip, yet can migrate thousands of kilometres—and if you’re lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time you can see congregations of thousands. Monarchs can also make blue jays throw up—a delightful tidbit I learned while researching my new book about migration, Is This Panama? (beautifully illustrated by Soyeon Kim!). Sadly, just as the book went to press, bad news arrived: the over-wintering monarch population in Mexico was the lowest ever recorded.

Roosting monarchs (Agunther)

Hundreds of millions of monarchs migrate each fall to warmer areas. Adults that originate in southern Canada can fly more than 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) to reach their hibernation grounds in Mexico. It’s a treacherous journey for a delicate butterfly and many die on the way, but every year millions arrive in a mountain forest near Mexico City. Because it would be too difficult to actually count such large numbers, scientists have been measuring the area of forest each year that the butterflies occupy. In 2011 monarchs covered the trees in 2.89 hectares of forest. This past winter they occupied only 1.19 hectares (5 sq. miles)—a drop of 59%!

Though adult monarchs sip nectar from a variety of flowers, their caterpillars are specialist herbivores, which means they depend on a single type of plant for food. In the monarch’s case, these plants all belong to the milkweed family.

Between hatching and forming a chrysalis, monarch caterpillars increase 3,000 times in size. These two caterpillars are in their second and third stages of growth, called instars. (Jan Thornhill)

Milkweeds have evolved elaborate defenses to prevent themselves from being eaten, including uncomfortably hairy leaves, sticky white latex that bleeds from injured tissues, and toxins called cardenolides. Because of the cardenolides, most insects, as well as vertebrates, avoid eating milkweed, but the monarch has evolved to not only tolerate the toxins, it also uses those very poisons to its own advantage by storing them in its own body, which makes even an adult butterfly just as toxic as the plant. The first time a bird, such as a blue jay, eats a monarch, it will vomit a short time later. Though this is of no benefit to the monarch that was eaten, the bird will remember its bad experience and will avoid eating black-and-orange butterflies from then on.

Meanwhile, milkweed plants are continuing to evolve in response to being eaten by caterpillars. Recent genetic research is showing that there is an evolutionary trend in milkweeds towards healing themselves faster than they can be eaten, instead of producing more toxins that might eventually deter caterpillars. 

Monarch caterpillar on milkweed flowers (Jan Thornhill)

Though milkweeds can get along perfectly well without monarchs, monarchs cannot survive without milkweeds. Unfortunately, milkweeds of all varieties are disappearing. Their grassland habitats have been steadily eroding for more than a century due to human development, and recent severe droughts in Texas and the American Southwest have also taken their toll. But another much greater threat has arrived: farmers across North America are now growing corn and soybeans that are genetically engineered to be herbicide resistant. When these “Roundup Ready” crops, developed by a company called Monsanto, are sprayed with glyphosate-based herbicide, almost any plant—other than the corn and soybeans—is killed. The plants that once grew alongside these crops include milkweed, which, until now, had always been plentiful, as well as a multitude of wildflowers that provide nectar for adult butterflies while they’re migrating. One study has shown that between 1999 and 2009 there has been a 90% loss of common milkweeds in the fields treated with these herbicides.* Soon there may be no milkweed in these croplands at all. And no monarchs.

So What Can We Do To Help?

Grow milkweed in your backyard or in your schoolyard:

http://monarchwatch.org/bring-back-the-monarchs/resources/plant-seed-suppliers

http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm

Grow a “butterfly garden” with plants that provide food for caterpillars and/or nectar for butterflies:

http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/en/info_verte/papillons/papillons.htm

 Learn more about monarchs and share what you learn: http://www.monarchwatch.org

Help monarch researchers: http://www.monarchwatch.org/class/studproj/index.htm

 

Lobby your political representatives to have products made with genetically modified (GM) crops labeled.

*Pleasants, J.M and Oberhauser, K.S.. 2012. Milkweed loss in agricultural fields due to herbicide use: Effect on the Monarch Butterfly population. Insect Conservation and Diversity (March 12, doi: 10.1111/j.1752-4598.2012.00196x)