Zooplankton Sampling by Citizen Scientists: Merging Human and Digital Capabilities to Better Understand Aquatic Systems

Zooplankton community structure is an important biological indicator of physical and chemical processes in aquatic and marine systems, but monitoring can be both costly and time-consuming. Citizen participation in this... [ view full abstract ]

Zooplankton community structure is an important biological indicator of physical and chemical processes in aquatic and marine systems, but monitoring can be both costly and time-consuming. Citizen participation in this research could help mitigate these challenges. A recent model for citizen participation in zooplankton research involves citizens identifying and quantifying individual plankters online from images captured by in situ cameras deployed on oceanographic cruises. Here we describe a different approach for inclusion of citizen scientists in plankton research. Rather than identifying and quantifying individuals, citizens would collect zooplankton at local established sites and send in their collections for quantification and identification using the ZooScan, a new optical tool that can process zooplankton samples much faster than traditional microscopy. These data provided by ZooScan can then be analyzed and synthesized by citizen groups. We will discuss an ongoing collaboration with the University of Delaware Citizen Monitoring Network employing this model to study a region faced with water quality issues and a changing climate.