Citizen science

You have been gifted a hedgehog poo.

In response to my call to Citizen Scientist, I had received 800 hedgehog fecal samples over the past seven months.

However, I was having trouble obtaining sufficient funding to conduct my research, a study to describe local biodiversity and hedgehog diets by identifying the environmental DNA in the fecal samples of this near threatened species.

I knew I couldn't let down my newfound network of hedgehog enthusiasts.

Then We've mentioned it maybe just on the fly, but monitoring is really important.

And maybe that also relates to your previous question, what can everybody do? So everybody can contribute to monitoring, to citizen science projects.

And we as scientists really appreciate all the data that are coming in and they help us to understand what is happening to the bird world.

Is there an app that you would recommend to report birds?

Your final question, so it should start with a Z.

This massive citizen science site, a website, was launched in 2009 with a project to get the public's help identifying galaxies of different shapes.

So, like, show them a picture of a galaxy and have them decide, is that spiral, is that elliptical, or is that something else? What does the name of this citizen science say?

It's funny because I think I'm mixing it up with something else.

But Zinn comes to mind.

The initial project of identifying galaxy shapes was called Galaxy Zoo.

Oh, okay.

Is it Zoo Citizen Science? Zoo.

唱歌。

。我们在第四集的时候呢，其实已经介绍过兰世博的几个地点，还有昆虫的地点嘛。所以这次呢，我想来跟大家介绍一个网站，它叫做目光之城，它的华语就叫做目光之城。为什么叫做目光之城呢？其实这个网站呢，是几个就是对兰世博很有研究的科学家，还有民间的人，他们做配合作开发这个网站。网站的目的呢，就是希望说大家要是有拍到，就是有关联到兰世博有关联的物件啊，你若是知道说这是什么物件，当然你把那个照片传到那个网站的时候，你就可以顺便写那个物件的名啊。啊，另外呢，就可以把你正在拍到的，譬如说那个GPS的记录啊，就是顺便把它放进去。啊，这有什么好处呢？就是啊，这就可以给科学家知道说，在什么时候，还是什么地方呢，就可以看到这种的物件。举一个例来讲好了，譬如说，呃，兰四十号的毛鹿芽啊，有人呢，在台北发现它，也有人在高雄、屏东也发现它，欸，还有人去外岛澎湖玩的时候也发现它啊。所以科学家呢，就可以拿这个记录来分析说，啊，原来全台湾甚至是在外岛澎湖都有毛鹿芽的足迹。所以就表示说，毛鹿芽在台湾全岛都分布，而且在澎湖群岛也是有分布的，就可以用这个来做一些科学性的分析，还有研究。啊，像这种有网站，让大家可以来把你看到的东西放进去的这种科学呢，就叫做公民科学。[音效]接下来是我们的故事时间，今天小慧灵要来讲什么故事呢？

我今天要讲的故事是Pokemon的四十八号跟四十九号的故事。有一天猫球走在街上的时候，它看到一个电灯，它就想要进化做毛鹿芽，飞去找电灯柱。啊，耶，Happy！啊这个故事，它这样是因为芽该有电灯的地方。所以呢，若是想要夜晚的时候去找芽，这样可以用一个电灯和一个球，电灯放在球的后面，啊，球要白色的喔，一定要白色的喔，一定要白色的喔。若是用白的色，光可能不会到这么过去，这样就无法到想芽还是白的光不来啊喔。所以若是要晚上要去野外找芽，就要拿一个白色的球，啊，再拿一支电灯杆放了，要让那些夜间的昆虫来停在那个电灯杆，过差不多一小时到两小时就可以去看了。这样一定会有很多芽的喔！我今天讲故事讲到这里，多谢大家。[音效]

哇，多谢小慧灵跟我们讲这么有趣的故事喔。而且这个故事里面还有晚上去观察昆虫的一些秘诀喔。啊，若是听不清楚的啊，可以再听一次喔。[音效]今天的节目就先到这里，多谢大家。再会，拜拜。

And then...

She was on iNaturalist, which this is a shameless plug for the Citizen Science app.

iNaturalist, don't use it for this, but please don't use it for crime.

But for non-criminal activity, it's a fantastic app to use in order to learn about the natural environment near you.

South Australia's toxic algal bloom has killed more than 8,000 sharks and rays, that's a big number, representing the largest known mass mortality of these animals worldwide and potentially collapsing some local populations.

and an analysis of citizen science and government records documented deaths across 31 species, including about 4,460 southern fiddler rays, 850 Port Jackson sharks, 670 cobbler wobbegongs, and 650 western shovelnose rays.

Endangered coastal stingerees and pygmy thornback skates, both restricted to South Australian waters, were among the fatalities alongside vulnerable Melbourne skates.

Smaller endemic and poorly studied species may have lost substantial proportions of their population, although bottom dwelling species dominated the toll.

I'll share some photographs here from the article.

Could be slightly triggering, but this is one of the casualties of the toxic algae bloom.

um and this clearly is a ray which is dead and washed ashore and then you can see the Port Jackson sharks here bottom dwelling sharks again the article does say that the bottom dwelling species have been affected the most so these are them and then There's also an aspect of citizen science that is mentioned in the article.

So citizen scientists and divers were instrumental or played a very key role in gathering data for the survey and the toll you know quantifying that how much impact has been done which is also very important even if it's a negative impact the quantification is important for any further studies or plans or anything like that as well right

Yeah.

So how could people get involved in helping the green crab work? You do some citizen science initiatives, right? I was wondering if you could talk a bit about that.

Yeah.

So a decade ago when I was doing all of this, just like I've been telling you, like it kind of cascades into other projects, right? So I realized that I couldn't just do straight up research or marketing or whatever.

It's a really great teaching mechanism, right? Like it was also to get a broader audience involved.

So anyone, you know, toddlers to, you know, grandmas can be out in the intertidal doing it.

And part of it was trying to figure out, you know, where are these crabs? And my citizen science projects are different than other ones.

I'm not looking for all the crabs.