A Citizen-Army for Science: Quantifying the Contributions of Citizen Science to Our Understanding of Monarch Biology and Conservation

The first monarch citizen science program was launched by Dr. Fred Urquhart from the University of Toronto in the 1950’s. Since then, thousands of volunteers have been engaged in 17 monarch-focused and more than 14 general... [ view full abstract ]

The first monarch citizen science program was launched by Dr. Fred Urquhart from the University of Toronto in the 1950’s. Since then, thousands of volunteers have been engaged in 17 monarch-focused and more than 14 general butterfly citizen science programs that collect critical data on monarchs at both regional and continental scales. These volunteers have made fundamental contributions to our accumulating knowledge of monarch biology. In what we believe is a first for a single organism, we quantified the amount of time volunteers spend collecting data and the degree to which citizen science has contributed to monarch scholarship. In 2011, we estimate that volunteers spent almost 72,000 hours collecting data on monarch distribution, abundance, behavior, and health. Of 503 monarch-focused research publications that presented new findings from 1940-2014, 17% utilized citizen science data. For papers using field-based data and published after 2000, when several large-scale programs were well established, this value increased to 66% (when papers focused on the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in Mexico, where citizen participation is limited, are excluded). We also find that, in contrast to recent reviews, programs that are largely organized and run by citizens also contribute substantially to scholarship suggesting scientists do not need to be the primary force behind a program for it to be successful. However, there are persistent gaps in the use and coverage of monarch citizen science data, and we discuss characteristics of projects that are more likely to result in data analysis and publication. We also show that citizen science volunteers are deeply engaged in all aspects of monarch research and data use, and conservation. Finally, we argue that monarchs provide a model system for understanding the impacts of citizen science on scholarship, public engagement, and conservation.