Earthwatch Institute (Europe), Mayfield House, Summertown, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2017 Dec 6;12(12):e0188507. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0188507. eCollection 2017.
While the role of citizen science in engaging the public and providing large-scale datasets has been demonstrated, the nature of and potential for this science to supplement environmental monitoring efforts by government agencies has not yet been fully explored. To this end, the present study investigates the complementarity of a citizen science programme to agency monitoring of water quality. The Environment Agency (EA) is the governmental public body responsible for, among other duties, managing and monitoring water quality and water resources in England. FreshWater Watch (FWW) is a global citizen science project that supports community monitoring of freshwater quality. FWW and EA data were assessed for their spatio-temporal complementarity by comparing the geographical and seasonal coverage of nitrate (N-NO3) sampling across the River Thames catchment by the respective campaigns between spring 2013 and winter 2015. The analysis reveals that FWW citizen science-collected data complements EA data by filling in both gaps in the spatial and temporal coverage as well as gaps in waterbody type and size. In addition, partial spatio-temporal overlap in sampling efforts by the two actors is discovered, but EA sampling is found to be more consistent than FWW sampling. Statistical analyses indicate that regardless of broader geographical overlap in sampling effort, FWW sampling sites are associated with a lower stream order and water bodies of smaller surface areas than EA sampling sites. FWW also samples more still-water body sites than the EA. As a possible result of such differences in sampling tendencies, nitrate concentrations, a measure of water quality, are lower for FWW sites than EA sites. These findings strongly indicate that citizen science has clear potential to complement agency monitoring efforts by generating information on freshwater ecosystems that would otherwise be under reported.
虽然公民科学在吸引公众和提供大规模数据集方面的作用已经得到了证明，但这种科学补充政府机构环境监测工作的性质和潜力尚未得到充分探索。为此，本研究调查了公民科学计划对政府机构水质监测的补充作用。环境署（EA）是负责管理和监测英格兰水质和水资源等职责的政府公共机构。淡水观察（FWW）是一个支持社区淡水质量监测的全球公民科学项目。FWW 和 EA 数据通过比较各自在 2013 年春季至 2015 年冬季期间在泰晤士河流域的硝酸盐（N-NO3）采样的地理和季节性覆盖范围，评估了它们在时空上的互补性。分析表明，FWW 公民科学收集的数据通过填补空间和时间覆盖范围以及水体类型和大小的空白来补充 EA 数据。此外，还发现了两个行为者采样工作的部分时空重叠，但 EA 采样比 FWW 采样更一致。统计分析表明，无论采样工作的地理范围更广，FWW 采样点都与较低的河流等级和较小的表面积水体有关，而 EA 采样点则与较低的河流等级和较小的表面积水体有关。FWW 还比 EA 采样更多的静水点。由于采样倾向的这种差异，硝酸盐浓度（衡量水质的一个指标）对于 FWW 站点来说比 EA 站点低。这些发现强烈表明，公民科学具有补充机构监测工作的明确潜力，可以生成有关淡水生态系统的信息，否则这些信息报告不足。
