A tall order or a fascinating project?
Citizen Scientist definitions:
A member of the public who participates in scientific research, working independently or with professional scientists to collect, analyze and report data.
An AI generated statement: Citizen science is a form of research that uses crowdsourced knowledge, which often involves community data-gathering for interpretation and use by researchers.
A little sidestep here: Have you often wondered what the word crowdsource really means? If you’re like me and want it spelled out, here’s a definition: “information or input into something by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the internet.” (Incidentally, “the best-known example of a crowdsourcing project in which crowd workers are not paid is the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia – a crowdsourcing platform where anyone can contribute, and everyone can edit or improve the content.” (clickworker.com)
Back to Citizen Scientist. Wikipedia says: “Citizen science is research conducted with participation from the general public, or amateur/nonprofessional researchers or participants for science, social science and many other disciplines.”
Scistarter.org says: “… curious or concerned people who collaborate with professional scientists in ways that advance scientific research on topics they care about."
Ok, you get it. Also called community scientists, Texas Master Naturalist chapter members have a number of opportunities in which to become involved as a citizen or community scientist.
Opportunities within Texas Parks and Wildlife Department include Texas Nature Trackers, Christmas Bird Count, the upcoming February 14-17, 2025, Great Backyard Bird Count – mark your calendar, various BioBlitz opportunities like the annual spring City Nature Challenge and the annual fall Texas Pollinator BioBlitz, July National Moth Week events and a number of other programs. Much of our participation is as easy as reporting data.
Texas Master Naturalist involvement in many citizen science events allows members to earn volunteer hours. If you’re in the new TMN training class, ask your mentor or leaders about local citizen science opportunities that earn volunteer hours. (See GBBC Feb 14-17 above, https://www.birdcount.org/)
One program introduced in an advanced training online session to TMN chapters and other organizations last year was with the USA National Phenology Network.
Phenology is the study of the timing of recurring biological events in plants and animals throughout the year.
It’s pretty fascinating, it’s things we’ve taken for granted since we were old enough to observe, “Oh, there goes a butterfly!” Or like when Mexican ash leaves bud out, prickly poppies bloom and scissor-tailed flycatchers return to the Valley to breed and raise their young.
Phenology is the study of the timing of the life cycle events in plants and animals: flowering, leafing, hibernation, reproduction and migration. Scientists who study phenology are interested in the timing of such events in relation to changes in season and climate, according to budburst.org/phenology.
Here’s why these taken-for-granted cycles are important: “Phenology acts as a key indicator of how organisms respond to environmental changes, particularly climate change, allowing scientists to monitor and understand the impacts of a changing climate on ecosystems and predict potential disruptions to food webs and species interaction.” https://www.usanpn.org/
Mark your calendars for this, too, and look for opportunities with USA National Phenology Network: Phenology Week 2025 March 17-21
The USA National Phenology Network is a national-scale monitoring and research initiative focused on collecting, organizing and delivering phenological data, information, and forecasts to support natural resource management and decision-making, to advance the scientific field of phenology, and to promote understanding of phenology by a wide range of audiences.
Citizen Scientist Involvement:
· Discover and Document Changes in Nature Near You
· Track changes in the timing of plant and animal seasonal activity with the Nature's Notebook program.
· Track seasonal changes
National partnerships are National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Ecological Observatory Network and Indigenous Phenology Network. Sponsors include: – USGS, USF&WS, NSF, NASA, USDA
You may sign up for free newsletters here: https://www.usanpn.org/news/newsletters
Texas is in the South Central region:
The project, Time to Restore: Connecting People, Plants, and Pollinators, “aims to deliver guidance to those working on pollinator restoration in the South Central region - New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.”
From their initial meetings, they wanted input from us on our needs related to pollinator restoration - what are the species and systems of highest concern to each area, where are the gaps in information about nectar plants, what tools and resources will help us to make informed choices about planting in the face of climate change?
You may join one of their quarterly calls or collect data on nectar plant flowering and seed timing. Contact Texas Coordinator David Gwin, dgwin@ymail.com for more information.
One outcome from the fall online meeting was to finalize a Priority Plant Species list. For Texas, the final list included input from Rio Grande Valley Texas Master Naturalists who convinced facilitators that Deep South Texas flora was unique and different from other parts of the vast and diverse state of Texas.
Their regional list of 20 is now 29 plant species with nine that can be found in the Rio Grande Valley: American basketflower, Centaurea americana; common sunflower, Helianthus annuus; cowpen daisy, Verbesina encelioides; frostweed, Verbesina virginica; prairie coneflower, Ratibida columnifera; Texas frogfruit, Phyla nodiflora; Texas lantana, Lantana urticoides; Texas thistle, Cirsium texanum; Turk’s cap, Malvaviscus arboreus.
One step is to document first sitings.
Incredibly, my first upload was early December, of Texas thistle rosettes that I nearly mowed over; I was astonished to see new plants pushing up before February. Sometime in November, way early new growth of American basketflowers were coming up, one already with a bud. Frostweed also is well underway with new growth. – all prior to our first cold spell this past week.
It’s a new year; an interesting way to track happenings is to document things you’ve been taking for granted and join a citizen science opportunity.
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