Earthwatch Europe, Mayfield House, 256 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7DE, UK.
University of Siena, INSTM, 53400, Siena, Italy.
Environ Monit Assess. 2024 Jan 31;196(2):220. doi: 10.1007/s10661-024-12389-5.
In situ monitoring is fundamental to manage eutrophication in rivers and streams. However, in recent decades, the frequency and spatial coverage of regulatory monitoring have often been reduced due to funding and infrastructure limitations. This reduction has made it impossible to provide adequate coverage for most water bodies. In this study, trained citizen scientists filled spatial and temporal gaps in agency monitoring across a major catchment in rural England. By integrating data from citizen scientists, regulatory agencies, and the local water company, it was possible to demonstrate the opportunities for hypothesis-based citizen scientist monitoring to identify continuous and event-driven sources of phosphate pollution. Local citizen scientists effectively covered important spatial gaps, investigating river conditions both upstream and downstream of suspected pollution point sources, improving the identification of their temporal dynamics. When combined with long-term monitoring data from regulatory agencies, it became possible to identify areas within the catchment that exhibited increased phosphate concentrations during periods of low river discharge (summer). Inter-annual trends and anomaly detection suggested that continuous pollution sources dominated over event-driven sources in many sub-basins, allowing for the prioritisation of mitigation actions. This study highlights the opportunity for citizen scientists to fill gaps in regulatory monitoring efforts and contribute to the improved management of eutrophication in rural catchments.
原位监测对于管理河流和溪流中的富营养化至关重要。然而，由于资金和基础设施的限制，近几十年来，监管监测的频率和空间覆盖范围经常减少。这种减少使得大多数水体无法得到充分覆盖。在这项研究中，经过培训的公民科学家填补了英国农村一个主要流域内机构监测的时空空白。通过整合来自公民科学家、监管机构和当地自来水公司的数据，有可能展示基于假设的公民科学家监测在识别磷酸盐污染的连续和事件驱动源方面的机会。当地的公民科学家有效地覆盖了重要的空间空白，调查了疑似污染点源上下游的河流状况，提高了对其时间动态的识别能力。当与监管机构的长期监测数据相结合时，就有可能确定在河流流量较低的时期（夏季）流域内出现磷酸盐浓度升高的区域。年际趋势和异常检测表明，在许多子流域中，连续污染源占主导地位，超过了事件驱动源，从而可以优先采取缓解措施。本研究强调了公民科学家在填补监管监测工作中的空白并为农村流域富营养化的改善管理做出贡献的机会。
