Title

A Unique Role for Citizen Science in Ecological Restoration: A Case Study in Streams

Published In

Restoration Ecology

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Citizen science has the potential to generate valuable biologic data for use in restoration monitoring, while also providing a unique opportunity for public participation in local restoration projects. In this article, we describe and evaluate a citizen science program designed to monitor the effect of stream restoration construction disturbance on the macroinvertebrate community. We present the results of a 7-year stream restoration study conducted by citizen scientists utilizing a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design. Trait-based macroinvertebrate data showed a strong response to restoration construction disturbance and return to pre-restoration conditions within 2 years. The findings of this study suggest that citizen science can generate meaningful BACI-oriented data about ecological restoration; however, until more research is conducted, citizen data should only be used to augment professional data intended to demonstrate restoration success.

DOI

10.1111/rec.12622

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25970

Share

COinS